ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Sarec’s research for development discourses evolved during the 1980s. There were some controversies at Sarec earlier, among other things the decision to believe in a certain development paradigm–dependency theory. This created some gloom amongst economists. In 1980, there was a proposition put forth by the so-called Brandt report to transfer massive amounts of funds to create a better balance between “North” and “South”. Aid in the 1980s, however, was profoundly affected by the global debt crisis and the spread of neoliberal ideology. Emancipatory ambitions and the priorities of the low-income countries shrank in importance across the board. Research politics in Sweden during the late 1970s and early 1980s focused on breaking the “sector principle”; democratization and steering of research towards usefulness changed somewhat, in favor of more autonomous decision making for the universities.
