Samir Amin
(Cairo, 1931-2018) Egyptian economist and one of the best known thinkers of his generation. His studies were led by the French educational system in Egypt. He studied in Licée Français du Caire, and continuing his high studies at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (he received his certificate in 1952) and later at the Institut National de la Statistique et de Études des économiques, were in 1957 received his PhD in Political Economy. During his career he specialized in Third World issues and cultural critique of the social sciences as well as the theory of development. Between 1957 and 1960 Samir Amin worked in the planning agency of Egypt, until the Nasser regime’s persecution of communists forced him to leave. In the next three years he was attached to the Ministry of Planning of the newly independent Mali. In 1966 he became full professor in France, after that he chose to teach in Paris-Vincennes and Dakar, where he spent over 40 years of his life. In 1970 he became director of the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, position that he helds for 10 years. Currently, and since 1980, Samir Amin direct the African Office of the Third World Forum, a junction of academics from Africa, Asia and South America, in Dakar, Senegal. He is also the President of the World Forum for Alternatives. He devoted a major part of his work to study the relationships between developed and underdeveloped.
