Egyptian Marxian economist of "accumulation on a world scale", centre and periphery, and delinking
Born in Cairo and raised in Port Said, Amin studied political science, statistics and economics in Paris and joined the French Communist Party there, later distancing himself from Soviet Marxism and associating for a time with Maoist circles. After his 1957 thesis on the origins of underdevelopment he worked for the Egyptian government's Institution for Economic Management and as an adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Mali, directed the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) in Dakar from 1970 to 1980 and then the Third World Forum. Considered a pioneer of dependency and world-systems theory, he introduced the term Eurocentrism in 1988. He died of lung cancer in Paris in 2018.
Activities and affiliations
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1957–1960
Egypt state institutionsResearch officer, Institution for Economic Management
Economy, finance and planning -
1957–2018
Scholarship and theory
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1970–1980
United NationsDirector of the UN African Institute (IDEP), Dakar
Economy, finance and planning -
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1957Thesis on the origins of underdevelopment
- 1960–1963Adviser to the Ministry of Planning, Mali
- 1970–1980Director of IDEP
- 1980Director of the Third World Forum