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Abstract
Few books in the history of development studies have had an impact like The Development Dictionary – A Guide to Knowledge as Power, which was edited by Wolfgang Sachs and published by Zed Books in 1992, and which was crucial in establishing what has become known as the Post-Development (PD) school. This special issue is devoted to the legacy of this book and thus to discussing PD.
... The time is ripe to write it obituary" (Sachs 1997: p. 1). The Development Dictionary was the first definitive contribution of the post-development tradition, a body of work that distinguished itself from previous critiques within development studies in that it did not aspire simply to make development more effective, but advocated instead for an outright rejection of the entire project and paradigm, calling instead for 'alternatives to development' (Ziai 2017(Ziai : p. 2437). The 'canon' of post-development was consolidated through three further works: Encountering Development (Escobar 1995), The History of Development (Rist 2003), and The Post-Development Reader (Rahnema and Bawtree 1997). ...
... The 'canon' of post-development was consolidated through three further works: Encountering Development (Escobar 1995), The History of Development (Rist 2003), and The Post-Development Reader (Rahnema and Bawtree 1997). The post-development project's central animus was to "slay the development monster"-to break the consensus about development as necessary, self-evident, positive and unquestionable, and clear the ground for alternatives (Ziai 2017(Ziai : p. 2550). Development was rejected as "the slogan used by capital to facilitate the implementation of a neocolonial enterprise" (Esteva and Escobar 2019: p. 35). ...
... Aside from its predictive failure, post-development invited various other notable critiques (see Ziai 2017). These include its unconditional rejection of modernity and 'development' (Corbridge 1998), the romanticisation of alternatives to development and fetishisation of 'noble savages' (Kiely 1999), its inherent cultural relativism (Knippenberg and Schuurman 1994), its implicit paternalism (ibid), its inability to articulate concrete, practicable alternatives to development (Pieterse 1998), and its methodological deficits through its own lapse into binaries and essentialisms through its monolithic representation of development (ibid). ...
What might it mean to approach development from an epistemic and programmatic lens aimed at the displacement of the very conditions that necessitate and sustain the international development-industrial complex? This paper explores the productive possibilities inaugurated by taking an expressly abolitionist approach to development. In doing so, I build on but also extend beyond calls to decolonise development in acknowledgement of development’s inextricable imbrication with racial capitalism and neo-colonialism. I identify non-reformist reform, disepistemologies, practices of refusal and radical complicity, and the notion of the undercommons as particularly useful abolition tools with which to approach the project of dismantling development. The paper does not constitute a comprehensive or even concrete set of prescriptions in relation to abolishing development—instead, it seeds various intellectual and political possibilities by bringing together two rich traditions of critique and resisting, inviting those of us within the development-industrial complex to collectively imagine and enact an abolitionist approach to development.
... While it originates from the Global South, I use this lens to offer alternative perspectives on development in the Global North to discuss and elaborate on what acceptance can mean. As I come to show in this chapter, early post-development scholars began to critique the traditional economic growth-development paradigm for its detrimental effects on people's livelihoods, such as perpetuating hunger (Sachs, 2010(Sachs, [1992; Rahnema & Bawtree, 1997;Escobar, 1995), but recent scholars have shifted their focus to how actors collectively create a common livelihood with a plural use of resources (Kothari et al., 2019;Ziai, 2017; and thus create acceptance. A postdevelopment lens reimagines the inclusion of different knowledge, cultures and practices-a so-called plurality. ...
... The ideas of post-development have faced swift criticism, which postdevelopment scholars have actively sought to address (e.g., Thornton, 2023;Escobar, 2019;Ziai, 2017Ziai, , 2007 Another critique of post-development theory is that authors often promote the pursuit of a good life through local participation. ...
... Nevertheless, in response to some of these critiques, postdevelopment scholars have argued that moving away from development is not simply about opposing betterment per se but moving away from a monocultural mindset-such as hierarchical classifications, scalar framing and growth dynamics-and towards a vision of plural living that fosters responsibility, particularly towards the environment (Gibson-Graham, 2010;Ziai, 2017). Plurality is "…a world where many worlds fit [emphasis in original]" (Escobar, 2019: xvi). ...
Few other tourism activities attract large crowds to specific areas over a short period of time like events. Yet, despite their environmental impacts, actors—from residents to organisers—seem to accept them. Understanding the socio-cultural mechanisms behind this acceptance can further explain how tourism continues to impact nature without curtailing development in the Anthropocene. The aim of this dissertation is to enhance understanding of the acceptance of environmental impacts from tourism activities. This is achieved by shifting the scale from environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, to physical impacts on nature, such as the wear and tear on land and trails during nature-based events. The empirical data and qualitative fieldwork were conducted in rural areas of Jämtland, Sweden, integrating interviews, observations and document analysis, and involving four key actors across a compilation of four articles: local government authorities responsible for issuing permits, local residents who use nature in the vicinity of the events, event organisers and participants in trail running and mountain biking events. The empirical data is analysed through a post-development theory lens to challenge established knowledge and development frameworks in tourism and to illustrate how a dynamic use of resources can foster acceptance.
The results identified five socio-cultural mechanisms that shape acceptance. First, a mechanism of scale illustrates how actors relate environmental impact to both local and global contexts. Relating the impacts in terms of scale reshapes the actors’ acceptance by comparing the physical impacts on nature to broader global environmental impacts. Second, a mechanism of growth shows how actors view the expansion of events as separate from their environmental impact. Acceptance arises because actors do not fully reflect on the cumulative effects of impacts. When actors place themselves outside of the immediate event, the total amount of impacts becomes more obvious. Third, a mechanism of ownership reveals three types of ownership that influence acceptance: ownership linked to social responsibility, national pride and economic interests. Fourth, a mechanism of responsibility shows how actors shift responsibility for mitigating environmental impacts onto others. When actors distance themselves from the immediate space or become part of a broader chain of responsibility, the physical impacts on nature become accepted. Finally, a mechanism of limits shows that acceptance is tied to shifting boundaries of what is considered acceptable as the event becomes integrated into a wider plurality of activities. The main argument of this dissertation is that the acceptance of physical impacts on nature from events depends on actors’ willingness to adapt to other actors. When events are closely connected to various tourism and other actors in the area, this plurality creates acceptance even if tourism activities affect the actors’ everyday lives.
... Such alternatives seek to overcome structural inequalities by transforming the underlying causes and questioning the development discourse's core assumptions and systems upon which it is built. They also centre local stakeholders as the drivers of destination development and non-Western alternatives (Telfer, 2015;Ziai, 2017). Alternative ethics are promoted, such as "diversity, solidarity, commons, oneness with nature, interconnectedness, simplicity, inclusiveness, equity, non-hierarchy, pluriversality and peace" (Demaria et al., 2023, p. 66). ...
... The concept of "undeveloping the North" critiques the interlinked processes of global capitalism, the broader development discourse that seeks to dominate Global South societies and imperial approaches in the metropolis globally, not just the so-called Global South. In other words, post-development theory is also relevant to capitalist societies in the so-called Global North, as evidenced by the degrowth movement (Demaria & Kothari, 2022;Ziai, 2017). ...
... Post-development scholar Dirlik (1999Dirlik ( , 2011 claims Western/Eurocentrism tends to erase place. Post-development displaces Western/European centrality by privileging Indigenous and non-Western and other marginalised ways of knowing, being and doing (Ziai, 2017). ...
... The ecological sciences have played an unquestionable role in the early shaping and use of sustainability, principally referring to "the ability of a given ecosystem to maintain its essential functions and processes over time" (Cielemęcka and Daigle, 2019). Through different pathways, the concept increasingly entered mainstream public discourse in the 1980s in a form that removed its primary ecological focus, in favor of its use in relation to various economic and social concerns, or a generalized use in the sense of durability (Engebretsen et al., 2016;Meadows, Meadows, Randers, and Behrens, 1972;Purvis, Mao, and Robinson, 2019;Ziai, 2017). ...
... Because persistently dominant notions of development are grounded in Western or global northern notions of social, cultural, and, importantly, economic development, sustainable development has also been critiqued for several decades now (Demaria, Kothari, Salleh, and Escobar, 2023). One of the fundamental points of this critique is that economic growth and development, and the capitalist systems they are part of, are inextricably tied to the colonialist erosion of arguably lesser developed societies and ecosystems for the generation of economic surplus (Banerjee, 2003;Connelly, 2007;Esteva and Escobar, 2017;Telleria and Garcia-Arias, 2022;Ziai, 2017). Taken seriously, this critique implies that sustainable development contradicts the ecological origin of sustainability with its focus on ecosystem durability and additionally contradicts its own social aspirations by perpetuating and exacerbating structural and global inequalities. ...
... Longstanding development critique has, in many ways, been a successor or sibling of the critique of colonialism, with significant influences from previously colonized parts of the world like Africa, Asia and Latin America. Consequently, "alternative concepts of what a good society looks like and alternative practices of [social] organising" (Ziai, 2017) often draw on critical, de-, and postcolonial theories to emphasize the need for decolonizing sustainability and sustainable development, and drawing on traditional and indigenous knowledges to illustrate alternatives (Campos Navarrete and Zohar, 2021; Gram-Hanssen, Schafenacker, and Bentz, 2022; Vásquez-Fernández and Ahenakew Pii Tai Poo Taa, 2020). ...
Background:
Sustainability has become a ubiquitous imperative across all sectors of society, including healthcare. Building on the broader discourse on sustainable development, sustainability is used in relation to social, ecological, and economic concerns with varying degrees of emphasis and often related to a sense of durability.
Objective:
To provide a detailed analysis of the concept of sustainability in current physical therapy literature and advance its deliberate future implementation.
Methods:
Setting out from a critical exposition of prevalent models of sustainability, we conducted a critical discourse analysis to (1) examine the implementation of the concept of sustainability in physical therapy academic literature and (2) critically evaluate its hitherto use in light of the broader discourse surrounding sustainability.
Results:
Our analysis identified a focus on the cost-effectiveness of healthcare interventions, and the use of so-called "weak" and "strong sustainability" models in the physical therapy literature. Other models and the broader critical discourse surrounding sustainability are only gradually finding their way into physical therapy literature.
Conclusion:
Physical therapy lacks comprehensive exploration of both general and profession-specific understandings of sustainability. Nuanced engagement with sustainability and its alternatives is necessary to ensure its meaningful implementation in physical therapy research, education, and practice.
... Modernleşme fikri çerçevesinde oluşan kalkınma iktisadı, bireyi toplumsal ilişkilerden yalıtarak hukuk, para, devlet gibi gelişmiş piyasa araçlarıyla varlığını gerçekleştiren bireylere dönüştürmüştür . Buradan hareketle, kalkınma söylemi olumlu sosyal değişimi yalnızca bilgi, teknoloji ve sermaye varlığı ile ilgili teknik bir mesele olarak görmektedir (Ziai, 2017). Bu bağlamda özellikle ilerleme, kişi başına gayrisafi yurt içi hasıla (GSYİH) gibi iktisadi değişkenler açısından tanımlanmış ve ilerlemeyi sağlayan toplumsal dinamikler göz ardı edilmiştir. ...
... Herhangi bir tarihsel zamanda, insanlığın farklı boyutlar, kültürel biçimler ve maddi gelişme düzeylerine sahip çeşitli toplumlardan oluşmasına rağmen Batı ülkelerinin deneyimleri üzerinden öngörülen yol, Güney ülkelerinin farklılıklarını "değer" olarak değerlendirmek yerine, yok edilmesi gereken bir "anomali" olarak görmektedir. Diğer bir deyişle: Öteki (Güney) farklı olarak değil, Ben'in (Kuzey) eksik bir versiyonu olarak ele alınmaktadır (Ziai, 2017). ...
... İstanbul: Bağlam Yayıncılık. Ziai, A. (2017). Post-development 25 years after the development dictionary. ...
Kökenleri Tanzimat’a kadar uzansa da Türkiye’nin son 100 yılda yaşadığı kalkınma sorunları “tarih tekerrür eder.” sözünü kanıtlarcasına sürekli tekrar etmiştir. Bu bağlamda gerek Türkiye’nin son 100 yılda yaşadığı sorunları çözümlemek gerekse sonraki 100 yıllar için bir perspektif ortaya koyabilmek, Cumhuriyet düşünürlerinin kalkınma perspektiflerini tartışmakla mümkün olabilecektir. Bu çalışma, kalkınma literatüründe evrensellik iddiasını taşıyan ana akım yaklaşıma odaklanmak yerine Cumhuriyet dönemi Türk düşünürlerinin Türkiye’nin kalkınmasına dair düşüncelerini irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu çerçevede iktisadi kalkınma çerçevesinde ulusal alan yazın taraması yapılarak kalkınma sürecini sosyolojik, kültürel ve ekonomik açıdan ele alan düşünürlerin görüşleri incelenmiştir. Literatürde Cumhuriyet düşünürlerinin kalkınma görüşlerini inceleyen kapsamlı çalışmaların azlığı nedeniyle kalkınma sorununa Avrupa-merkezci bakış açısından sıyrılarak ulusal sosyo-ekonomik ve politik koşul ve dinamiklerin içinde yetişmiş ve tarihsel süreç içerisinde deneyimlemiş yerel düşünürlerin bakış açısına dayalı olarak anlama ve açıklama çabası taşımaktadır. Bu yönüyle çalışmanın literatürdeki önemli bir boşluğu dolduracağı düşünülmektedir. Sonuç olarak, Türkiye’nin kalkınma sorunlarının kendi özgünlüklerini dikkate alan politikalarla çözülebileceği yaklaşımının Cumhuriyet dönemi düşünürleri tarafından benimsendiği anlaşılmıştır.
... They argued that such an approach forced the capitalist logic of privileging activities that earn money through the market, thereby marginalising all other forms of social existence including traditionally sustainable lifestyles and forms of production. They argued that the attitudes, policies, and activities that result from this ideology help to maintain colonialist, imperialist, and racist power relations in the global economy [44][45][46]. Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [46]. ...
... They argued that the attitudes, policies, and activities that result from this ideology help to maintain colonialist, imperialist, and racist power relations in the global economy [44][45][46]. Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [46]. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the key theorists of post-development thinking, Wolfgang Sachs, described the SDGs as self-delusional and showing an inability to imagine prosperity without economic growth [46]. ...
... Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [46]. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the key theorists of post-development thinking, Wolfgang Sachs, described the SDGs as self-delusional and showing an inability to imagine prosperity without economic growth [46]. ...
This transdisciplinary review of research about international cooperation on social and environmental change builds the case for replacing Sustainable Development as the dominant framework for an era of increasing crises and disasters. The review is the output of an intentional exploration of recent studies in multiple subject areas, based on the authors’ decades of work in related fields since the Rio Earth Summit 30 years ago. It documents the failure to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, scholarship critiquing the conceptual framework behind those ‘Global Goals’, and the economic ideology they arose from, is used to explain that failure. Although the pandemic set back the SDGs, it further revealed the inappropriate strategy behind those goals. This suggests the Global Goals constitute an ‘own-goal’ scored against people and nature. Alternative frameworks for organising action on social and environmental issues are briefly reviewed. It is argued that a future framework must relate to a new eco-social contract between citizen and state and engage existing capabilities that are relevant to an increasingly disrupted world. The case is made for an upgraded form of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as an overarching framework. The proposed upgrades include detaching from economic ideologies and recognising that a wider metadisaster from climate chaos may reduce the future availability of external support. Therefore, self-reliant resilience and locally led adaptation are important to the future of DRM. Options for professionals continuing to use the term sustainability, such as this journal, are discussed.
... This is a significant drawback to developing land-use planning that take account of pluralism. Beyond a critical post-development posture toward those development practices and discourses (Ziai, 2017) and the pitfalls of romanticizing grassroots dynamics (Ziai, 2017), we believe that there are other paths to take. In practice, this implies overcoming issues of the participation that is needed to legitimize the "modalities, agency, and procedures" of development (Ziai, 2017(Ziai, :2552 and foster positive social change which includes pluralism without depoliticizing society. ...
... This is a significant drawback to developing land-use planning that take account of pluralism. Beyond a critical post-development posture toward those development practices and discourses (Ziai, 2017) and the pitfalls of romanticizing grassroots dynamics (Ziai, 2017), we believe that there are other paths to take. In practice, this implies overcoming issues of the participation that is needed to legitimize the "modalities, agency, and procedures" of development (Ziai, 2017(Ziai, :2552 and foster positive social change which includes pluralism without depoliticizing society. ...
... Beyond a critical post-development posture toward those development practices and discourses (Ziai, 2017) and the pitfalls of romanticizing grassroots dynamics (Ziai, 2017), we believe that there are other paths to take. In practice, this implies overcoming issues of the participation that is needed to legitimize the "modalities, agency, and procedures" of development (Ziai, 2017(Ziai, :2552 and foster positive social change which includes pluralism without depoliticizing society. ...
The Senegalese delta, like many other agricultural territories in the Global South, is experiencing changes in agricultural trajectory. These changes are related to the promotion of competitive and performance-based forms of agriculture. In a context of tense relations between farmers and herders, the quest for equitable access to land, which is a guarantee of peace, stability, and balanced economic and social development, is being called into question by the arrival of capital investors and new actors that are highly supported by the State. This situation raises questions about two important issues: (i) the challenge of the sustainable management of natural resources, especially land; and (ii) the socio-political stakes related to the fact that land is a sensitive resource, both politically and socially. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that dominant discourses are being built around representation of unused and available lands. The aim of this article is to address this controversy by questioning land-use planning processes and tools and underlining the reality depicted. We demonstrate that discourses around land availability are built upon sectoral visions that tend to overshadow the realities of land use. Indeed, livestock farming and particularly its mobile form (i.e., pastoralism) is rendered invisible by not being considered in the majority of land-use and agricultural policies. Through a participatory survey of campsites, we show that gathering basic information on livestock farming should not to be reduced to technical issues. Beyond that, we acknowledge that these land-use issues are rooted in sector-based and neoliberal visions of development. We conclude by discussing the importance of effective decentralization in financial and technical means and the development of systemic proficiency that goes beyond normative sectoral views to acknowledge and act on territorial development.
... They argued that such an approach forced a capitalist logic of privileging activities that earn money through the market, thereby marginalising all other forms of social existence including traditionally sustainable lifestyles and forms of production. They argued that the attitudes, policies and activities that result from this ideology help to maintain colonialist, imperialist and racist power relations in the global economy [41][42][43]. Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [43]. ...
... They argued that the attitudes, policies and activities that result from this ideology help to maintain colonialist, imperialist and racist power relations in the global economy [41][42][43]. Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [43]. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the key theorists of post-development thinking, Wolfgang Sachs, described the SDGs as self-delusional, showing an inability to imagine prosperity without economic growth [43]. ...
... Consequently, these power relations, which include various functions of banking, investment, marketing, advertising, and media, as well as international economic rules (or the absence of them), have helped to spread and maintain the imperial ideology of development in non-Western countries around the world [43]. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the key theorists of post-development thinking, Wolfgang Sachs, described the SDGs as self-delusional, showing an inability to imagine prosperity without economic growth [43]. ...
This transdisciplinary review of research about international cooperation on social and environmental change builds the case for replacing Sustainable Development as the dominant framework for an era of increasing crises and disasters. The review is the output of an intentional exploration of recent studies in multiple subject areas, based on the authors’ decades of work in related fields since the Rio Earth Summit 30 years ago (rather than a keyword search of databases). It summarizes the research which documents failure to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, the extensive scholarship critiquing the conceptual framework behind those ‘Global Goals’, and the economic ideology they arose from and support, is used to explain that failure. Although the pandemic set back the SDGs, it further revealed the inappropriate strategy behind those goals. This suggests the Global Goals constitute an ‘own-goal’ scored against people and nature. From this conclusion, alternative frameworks for organizing action on social and environmental issues become more important and are therefore briefly reviewed. It is argued that such a future framework must relate a new eco-social contract between citizen and state, and engage existing organizations and capabilities that are relevant to an increasingly disrupted world. Therefore, the case is made for considering an upgraded form of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as an overarching framework. The proposed upgrades include detaching from economic ideologies, and recognizing that a wider metadisaster from climate chaos may reduce the future availability of external support. Therefore, self-reliant resilience and locally-led adaptation are identified as important to the future of DRM. Some options for professionals continuing to use the term sustainability, such as this journal, are discussed.
... Narayanaswamy asks what is the 'Development' that we seek to decolonize? (2024, p. 227). Seen through a decolonizing lens, 'Development' connotes a project of universalizing the way of life of developed countries, it centers on an economic rationality based on accumulation and marketization, it serves to legitimate interventions into the lives of people defined as less developed, and is grounded in hegemonic models of politics (nation-state and liberal democracy), economy (neoliberal globalized capitalism) and knowledge (Western science) (Narayanaswamy, 2024;Ziai, 2017). Development agendas rooted in economic growth paradigms rely on colonizing and exploiting nature and labor (Federici, 2012;Hickel, 2021;Malm & Warlenius, 2019). ...
... This article reflected on the coloniality of development from the prism of gender expertise. When mainstream development legitimizes interventions into the lives of people defined as less developed, as defined by organizations and the people within them who claim expert knowledge (Ziai, 2017), a feminist, anti-colonial ethical practice requires the questioning and disruption of the coloniality of gender expertise within the professionalized spaces of environment and development. From this exploration, we conclude that gender expertise needs to be decolonized, experiencing a transformation of purpose and a re-imagination through critical self-reflexivity. ...
As international environmental research for development organizations and their funders continue to build a requirement to 'mainstream' gender equality into their programming, disquiet surrounding gender expertise has emerged among those who bring reflections from feminist political ecology into professional development contexts. The perspective offered here builds from our earlier exploration alongside 'gender experts' of the uneasy navigation of epistemic and practical dilemmas necessary in environmental research-for-environment and development (R4ED) settings in the Global South. We consider the deeper trouble that comes from the embedding (and shaping) of gender expertise within the colonial project of development. Earlier postcolonial feminisms have demonstrated the difficulty in dislodging a hegemonic gaze on the "Third World woman", that has aligned a particular kind of feminism with international development's "civilizing mission." We suggest that gender expertise in professional environment and development contexts may be subsumed in the neutrality and universality of Eurocentric scientific knowledge, which has the effect of marginalizing non-Western perspectives and indigenous ways of knowing. Thus, the 'technocratization' of gender expertise for managerial purposes depoliticizes and blunts the potential for achieving the goals of social justice. We show how these issues take particular form in technical settings, where knowledge hierarchies, funding models and everyday exchanges may be shaped by coloniality. We argue that this amplifies the coloniality of gender, narrowing transformative agendas to those based around individualized entrepreneurial freedom, crowding out the generative and care-full possibilities offered from a plurality of contextualized and situated ecological feminisms. We conclude by considering "openings" in gender transformative thinking and action ('praxis') as waymarks for those navigating the complex ethics and politics inherent in professional feminist political ecology, built around the enduring salience of 'gender expertise.'
... Finally, in its focus in this study, the theory further helps us understand that development is a technocratic practice that pursues the agenda of modernity (promoting capitalism, private ownership of key resources, individualist priorities, etc.) (Escobar, 2011;Willis, 2020). Development does this, implying that there is a universal standard of living, leading, etc., and thus societies and economies should function in that same way (Rostow & Rostow, 1990;Ziai, 2017). Postdevelopment theory, here, helps us observe that the idea of development is inherently not neutral, it promotes ideas that may not be beneficial to non-Western societies, where everything is judged by Western societies, even in instances where the West's views are destructive (Oyewumi, 2004). ...
... Councillors' view of their superiority over traditional leaders may be linked to the epistemic view that modernity is better than tradition, where tradition is viewed as irrelevant and backward, while modernity is relevant and forwardlooking (Horowitz, 2005;Ziai, 2017). Historicising why councillors may hold this view, Mathonsi & Sithole (2017) argue that this behaviour emanates from councillors' ill-understanding of the role traditional leaders played in the fight for the end of apartheid in South Africa. ...
Much of Africa's encounter with Euro-American modernity has dictated that Africans should abandon their ways of life and adopt those of modernity. This has permeated the entire life of Africans, including how they should govern themselves in the post-colonial era. In rural areas, such as in parts of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province in South Africa, local governance has been complex, as both traditional (represented by izinduna-headmen and amakhosi-chiefs) and modern governance systems (ward councilors) continue to co-exist. Such a nexus has had implications for the delivery of services in Emaqeleni, a rural area in one of KZN's most historically important towns, Eshowe. Through multiple key informant interviews, this qualitative study explores the insights of traditional and modern leaders to understand the relationships, roles, and experiences they have had working together. These first-hand accounts are important for our understanding of the goings-on in the internal affairs of local governance. Furthermore, community members were also interviewed to understand their experiences of how this nexus has affected their lives. The study took interest both in how residents understand the presence of traditional and modern leadership, along with how this affected the residents' lives. Guided by the postdevelopment theory, the study found that there is confusion over the responsibilities and roles of modern leaders and traditional leaders. This confusion leads to citizens (for modern leaders-who are also subject to traditional leaders) being confused about who is responsible for delivering the services needed by the communities. Confusion exists amongst citizens and leaders as well. This mystification of roles and responsibilities seems to imply that no one and everyone is in power, thus residents are sometimes dissatisfied with the leadership nexus, and with no specific person/institution to hold accountable when needing assistance with some services, there is no one to hold accountable and no one to send requests for assistance to. This empirical study affords us insights and reflections that were unavailable at the democratizing moment and further helps us reflect on the realities of what South Africa's rural areas may need to develop meaningfully, with key considerations from local government officials, traditional leaders, and community members who live through these dynamics, a feature often missing from studies on this subject. Thus, the case of Emaqeleni helps us reflect on how the residents of rural areas may desire to be governed, drawing from empirical findings, and studying how power relations shape rural areas.
... In comparison with preceding theories that sought to improve development processes and outcomes or reorient their priorities, with post-development the very notion of development came under scrutiny (Ziai, 2017). Post-developmentalists have suggested that the process of 'development,' as experienced in Southern countries, is based on Eurocentric assumptions (Escobar, 1995;Kothari, 2019;McGregor, 2009). ...
... Yet, debates have continued over how to make participation inclusive and meaningful (Willis, 2021). Post-development has faced criticism for romanticizing grassroots communities while overgeneralizing about development approaches, which have become increasingly varied and dynamic (Corbridge, 1998;Ziai, 2017). ...
Energy systems of production and consumption in least-developed countries are poorly understood, and policy formulation frequently occurs in absence of empirical data. Consequently, research in development studies often fails to account for the centrality of energy access to processes of development in poorer countries of the global south. For many of these countries, limited energy use creates barriers to economic growth and development. Addressing these barriers forms the basis for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. While SDG 7 foregrounds energy access and use within wider development goals, justice issues are not explicitly included (Munro et al., 2017).
In this chapter, we aim to broaden understandings of energy justice by opening a dialogue with development thinking as it has emerged, evolved and changed since the post-World War
II era. We suggest this entails scrutinizing energy justice principles from multiple, situated perspectives, adjusted to the conditions that shape policy action in contexts in the global south that have been recipients of development interventions. It also involves moving beyond the economic and technological perspectives on energy that have permeated energy debates and towards greater recognition of people centred views of energy, and the politics and power relations embedded within changing energy systems.
Using multi-sited, illustrative examples of recent energy-related developments from Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa and Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa, we approach the links
between energy justice and development from within four prominent theories of development: (1) modernization theory, (2) dependency and world systems theory, (3) neoliberalism and
(4) post-development and community-led approaches that have shaped energy systems in multiple, enduring ways. The chapter draws on qualitative research conducted by both authors
during the past five years while incorporating reviews of secondary literature, archival records, official reports and other materials available online. Adopting a materialist view, we suggest
that how development has been defined, who has defined it and at what scale development has been examined will shape policy approaches and practices to achieve development (and
energy) goals (Willis, 2021). Accordingly, development theories are not blueprints to be acted on and achieved in an apolitical manner; rather, they are underpinned by particular geo-historical and social processes that shape social and policy innovations in arenas such as water, food, waste and energy. The application of particular theories also affects differentiated power relations and outcomes, revealing different “winners and losers” (Robbins, 2012, 11).
... There are calls for a more inclusive engagement with indigenous, communally grounded expertise, such as traditional medicine or agricultural knowledge, and a recognition of pre-colonial scholarly institutions, such as Islamic education in West Africa or Ethiopian monastic schools (de Souza Santos 2015; Abidogun and Falola 2020; Woldegiorgis 2021). Attention is also directed to indigenous notions of development and well-being, including the Latin American concept of 'Buen Vivir,' the Southern African 'Ubuntu,' and the Indian notion of 'Swaraj' (Ziai 2017;Demaria and Kothari 2020;Schoeneberg 2021). ...
Focusing on the project of decolonizing Development Studies, this thought piece reflects on tensions between Decolonial Studies and the critical political-economy of Development, known as Critical Development Studies. It highlights the divergent approaches to addressing epistemic inequalities between these two streams of Development thinking, demonstrating that Critical Development Studies has a longer history of valorising development knowledge from the Global South, and a focus on the need to address structural as well as epistemic inequalities. The analysis challenges the palliative cultural focus of Decolonial Studies and exposes its vulnerability to neoliberal capture at the epistemic and the political levels in ways that risk perpetuating colonial subordination. With examples from the African context, this thought piece argues that Critical Development Studies advances a more transformative approach to decolonizing Development Studies through its emphasis on the role of epistemic recognition as part of the wider objective of material redistribution.
... Development Assistance is now usually conceived to advance United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations 2022). The concept 'development' remains contested by important critiques including 'post-development' theories that challenge fixation on economic growth (Sachs 1992;Ziai 2017), hence this article uses 'development' to refer to practices so labelled by actors without implying acceptance of 'development' as a concept or related mainstream theories. What is termed international 'development' in relation to LGBT+ inclusion is an emerging practice amongst certain states; it is a growing issue in LGBT+ movement contestations with governments, but there is a lack of empirically informed studies of such contestations. ...
This article analyses the international queer politics of development by examining UK aid addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans, plus (LGBT+) inclusion in the context of COVID-19 and right-wing government—using this case to propose a multi-dimensional critical framework for understanding when states fund LGBT+ development. The UK’s first LGBT+ themed international development project was Strong in Diversity—Bold on Inclusion, from 2019, planned to work in five African cities. Partner organisations included HIVOS, Coalition of African Lesbians, AMSHeR, Kaleidoscope Trust, Article 19, Synergia, Workplace Pride and three universities. Drawing on the author’s participation, the article analyses changing government policy regarding the project. In the context of Brexit and COVID-19, the ‘co-creation’ phase ended without phase 2 funding. Suggesting a gap between perspectives emphasising homonationalism (or homocapitalism) and inconsistent transnational resourcing for LGBT+ development, the article advocates a multi-dimensional critical framework engaging risk, governmentality, crisis and authoritarian populism.
... Jakimow 2022; Tawake et al. 2021;Taylor and Middleby 2023). Others suggest that the sector is irredeemably and structurally unable to accommodate such shifts in power, and therefore should be decentred in the search for post-development alternatives (see Ziai 2017). Either way, the push for locally led development, for decolonisation and anti-racist international cooperation is not going away. ...
... Critiques of 'development' (see for example Escobar, 1995;Esteva, 2010;Kothari et al., 2019;Kothari, 2005;Ziai, 2017) draw our attention to this dominant assertion that there is something natural about a movement from a state of backward, under-developed rural subsistence (read: Global South) to diversified and self-regulating, developed marketbased knowledge economies (read: Global North). It has led some post/ decolonial scholars to suggest that perhaps we might do away with the language and associated scholarly investment in 'development' altogether (Schöneberg, 2019;Ziai, 2016). ...
Development’ is at a crossroads, as ‘decolonising’ is the buzzword with which a growing coterie of stakeholders are attempting to grapple, including in Higher Education (HE). In this Epilogue I will briefly consider some of the epistemological challenges of how we ‘know’ development in HE, using these critiques to highlight the ontological tensions of ‘development’ in its discourse and practice. Do we as ‘development’ researchers need to reflect on our role in the persistent ahistoricity, and the resultant artificial North-South binaries, of our discipline? Are ‘development’ researchers part of the problem?
... Desde esa socionatura hegemónica se permiten catalogar las alternativas al desarrollo como quimeras culturalistas, irracionales o propias del "buen salvaje" (Ziai, 2017), a pesar de que la articulación de las propuestas del Post-Desarrollo nacen dentro de las coordenadas de la cosmovisión moderna, como críticas a sus efectos globales y locales como lo son la desigualdad, el neocolonialismo y la degradación ecológica. Con base a lo ya expuesto, tales propuestas aparecen desincronizadas respecto a la temporalidad del régimen de socionatura moderna, asumiendo otros fines y medios, otros marcos donde la acción asume su sentido. ...
Una vez declarada pandemia en 2020, la crisis del COVID-19 nos ha hecho percibir que nuestro mundo se ha ralentizado, incluso paralizado. Esto no sólo en el ámbito microsocial, en la experiencia cotidiana, sino también se ha evidenciado en las trayectorias de desarrollo, tanto en el Sur como en el Norte Globales, haciendo patentes desigualdades consideradas superadas en el empleo, la educación, de género, en el acceso a los servicios de salud, e incluso en la solidaridad, dada la inequidad en la distribución global de insumos médico-sanitarios y de las vacunas. Junto a ello, siguen pendientes las preocupaciones sobre la degradación ecológica, el calentamiento global y la sostenibilidad de los actuales sistemas productivos. Así, la crisis del COVID-19 ha obligado la revisión de nuestra comprensión del mundo globalizado en un antes de la pandemia frente al presente marcado por la pandemia, la nueva normalidad y de los diferentes entramados e interacciones que le constituyen; a la par de abrir oportunidades para su transformación en el futuro. En este contexto esta comunicación propone revisar nuestra concepción de desarrollo como cambio social planificado desde las coordenadas que permitirían la percepción de tal cambio, el tiempo, y cómo la aprehensión de este fenómeno impone márgenes racionales, algunos imperceptibles, a las propuestas posibles de transformación:
si debemos repensar el desarrollo, la cooperación al desarrollo, la sostenibilidad, la desigualdad, la transformación social en el contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19, ¿lo hacemos dentro de la uni-linealidad temporal moderna occidental?, ¿o existe oportunidad para que otras formas de percibir el fenómeno tiempo, otras temporalidades, puedan marcar también su compás en la búsqueda de propuestas y soluciones, locales y globales, a los desafíos que enfrentamos?.
... This is a cross-cutting assumption within the development regime in its different facets; in the gender and development discourse, for example, African women are presented as in need of empowerment from harmful traditions and from traditional Black African men (Boateng 2016;Lorist 2020). Within the development paradigm, different types of knowledge are produced and consequently hierarchized, based on assumed cultures and values, with supposedly universally-applicable expert knowledge being favoured over the presumably local and scientifically-lagging knowledge (Ziai 2017). ...
Development discourses have been widely criticized for creating hierarchical dichotomies, such as “developed” (the global North) and “developing” (the global majority), with the former being the ideal standard to which the rest must catch up. The development paradigm has infiltrated academic spaces globally, including international research collaborations, creating various categories such as (non)scientific (local) expertise. We see such hierarchies as mechanisms of legitimation to maintain the ongoing subjugation of African scholars based on the historical and contemporary asymmetries in global knowledge production. Informed by the experiences of five female African doctoral researchers in the Netherlands, this paper problematizes and disrupts the concepts of “Expert” and “local expert”. We question the relevance of these concepts in a context where global knowledge production continues to feed from coloniality and also question the old power relations that continue to enable knowledge inequalities between the global North and global South.
... Truman's vision for development was not, then, some unilateral masterstroke suddenly creating a new way of organizing the world; it was a concession to the relentless advocacy by officials from Latin America and the rest of the emerging Global South for institutions that might address the massive imbalance of economic power in the world-and a small concession at that, promising no new financial resources, only technical assistance. While the poorer countries had been promoting development as a "vision of global social equality" (Ziai 2017(Ziai :2549, that vision had been continuously rejected, deflected, co-opted, and/or transformed by officials in the Global North over the preceding two decades. ...
Drawing on the methodological insights of Global Historical Sociology, this article argues for a relational reconceptualization of the origins of the international development project as rooted in demands emanating from the poorer countries themselves, particularly in Latin America. First, this article traces how sociologists and development scholars have conventionally understood the origins of the international development project, arguing that post-development scholarship has left a lasting imprint even among those scholars who might reject some of its underlying premises. It then returns to the historical record to reconstruct a new empirical history of the origins of the international development project by examining, especially, the relations between Latin American actors and those from the Global North. This reconstruction, mobilizing little-studied archival records from Latin America and reading them in relation to and against the conventional sources from the United States and Europe, reveals that the key institutions that emerged at mid-century to govern the development project were, in fact, the product of sustained demands from below—the product of an ongoing relation between North and South. The article concludes by considering what this historical reconstruction means for the ways that sociologists understand, write about, and teach the international development project, arguing that this relational understanding of its origins is necessary for any project to “decolonize development.”
... 2 I am little unhappy with Mignolo's Gnoseological analysis of Artistotle if we read the original book (see David Ross, 1956, Aristotle: the Nicomachean ethics. We need to take a breath to re-think and make some alternatives (Ziai, 2017(Ziai, , p. 2548, and third space (Metz, 2011(Metz, , 2018Ngubane & Makua, 2021), and hence, proposing Ubuntu is not new at all, Alenda-Demoutiez said, "Ubuntu is an important illustration of this thought. The So, what is the rest, then? ...
This chapter is about our faith—the Methodology—we believe that, almost like a religion, research is not more important than its adopted worldview or lifeworld. The whole book is surrounded and covered by the ontological position in this chapter. Here we have four headings—delineate the four philosophical streams—guide the entire study. The second heading limns the study’s context and then lays the instruments out of this Methodology following a methodological limitation reflection. Our first stream is for ourselves. We have been repairing the ‘self’ as a researcher. Then we followed the Critical stance of knowledge, traced back from Al-Farabi (872–950) and Saadia Gaon (882–942). Our Third source of understanding generated came from the post-structuralist movement. Our final justifications come with two stands. One is the Indigenous Gnoseology, the root of knowledge practice, and the Decolonial Knowledge in social science and Tenets of Methodology. The order of philosophical trends is paced in terms of origin, not the influentially, yet, as a whole, enriched our ‘being’—the methodological acumen.
... When considering the integration of conservation and development, the ideas, concepts, and theories of sustainable development and post-development propose pluralistic pathways for societies beyond a single focus on economic growth (Acosta and Brand 2017;Kothari et al. 2018;Sachs 2008;Shah 2008;Ziai 2017 process, and often can be seen as contradictory, as they involve many tradeoffs that are context-based and need to be considered at multiple scales and dimensions (Adams et al. 2004;Brown 2002;Martin et al. 2011;Mulder and Coppolillo 2005;Romero et al. 2012). There is an increasing recognition among researchers and practitioners that there is no "silver bullet" to address the complexity of conservation and development and the associated trade-offs and synergies, and that progress is often incremental (Romero et al. 2012). ...
NGO is a wide-ranging category encompassing several types of organizations from civil society. They reflect the diversity of interests present in society and are based on good intentions of promoting positive social change. The socio-environmental NGOs working in the Amazon have been the target of misperception, intentional defamatory campaigns, or just a lack of knowledge about who they are and what they do. Therefore, this research shed some light on the socioenvironmental NGOs working in the Amazon, looking behind the curtains of the NGOs' work. It employed a multi-method qualitative analysis, weaving together “NGOgraphy,” narrative, and participatory action research. The results are based on in-depth interviews, participatory observations, social network analysis, and an online survey. The study shows that the action behind the scenes (being and acting as NGOs) is key to what happens on the main stage (NGOs’ intervention). The research revealed (i) the sources of identities and framing practices of socioenvironmental NGOs; (ii) the forms of funding and fundraising available to NGOs and their effects on how NGOs’ function; (iii) the forms of collaborative partnerships and networks that NGOs develop; and (iv) the means that NGOs have to reflect and learn about their practices and context of intervention. 18
Additionally, it addressed interconnections between the four main themes as dynamics of conservation and development and organizational structure in which NGOs operate. Overall, NGOs are constantly dealing with limitations of project-based action and seeking autonomy in their fundraising; Collaboration is an inherent practice, but NGOs face challenges for crossing organizational culture boundaries to engage with others; Social and organizational learning is intrinsic but not well institutionalized, systematized, and shared. However, NGOs have developed strategies to mitigate and adapt to structural limitations and take advantage of the resources and opportunities available, such as diversification of funders and approaches, engaging in collaborative networks managed by boundary-spanners, and developing and participating in intra and inter-organizational spaces of dialogue and exchange of experiences. These results demonstrate the resilience of NGOs. They have consolidated themselves as a key stakeholder in the socio-environmental movement in the Amazon and persisted even in the face of multiple adversities.
... These theories do not comprehensively explain how community-level initiatives contribute to CW directly and through the CD process. An investigation was inevitable in the backdrop of modern alternative, sustainable and post-development discourses, as these approaches also target local development and well-being (Ziai, 2017). ...
Purpose
This study aims to understand the linkage among sustainability initiatives (SIs), community development (CD) and community well-being (CW) in tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory sequential methodology consists of expert interviews, a questionnaire survey and the model verified with analysis of moment structures 22.
Findings
This study shows that the direct relationship between community-level SIs and CD and CW is significant and positive. The direct relationship between CD and CW is significant and positive. CD partially mediates the relationship between community-level SIs and CW in Indigenous tourism business operations.
Research limitations/implications
This study assumes significance in developing Indigenous tourism destinations and calls for an integrated development strategy at the community level to enhance CW. This study provides a path for examining the contribution of grassroots-level sustainable business initiatives, their development and the community’s well-being. This study was confined to protected area-based destinations and focused on CD and well-being as a result of local-level SIs.
Practical implications
This study extends the scope for further research in measuring other perceived linkages of SIs with Indigenous community’s quality of life.
Social implications
This study provides a path for examining the contribution of grassroots-level sustainable business initiatives and their development contributions and the ‘community’s well-being.
Originality/value
This exploratory research examining the relationship among community-level SIs, CD and CW hitherto unexplored in tourism among grassroot-level communities.
... Critical approaches to development have long questioned the neo-liberal and modernist agenda, inviting us to confront our assumptions about how we do development, for example, from feminist and decolonial perspectives. Post-development critiques the entire purpose, on the grounds that it is a Western and modernist agenda privileging capital accumulation that reinforces the inherent inequality that fuels capitalism (Ziai, 2017). Recognising the issues embodied in the term, in this report I am making the assumption that 'development' recognises that there is the potential for holistic improvements in wellbeing, but that the nature of those improvements should be defined by the intended 'objects', rather than directed by the subjects. ...
Co-production of knowledge is a promising approach to promote more just and sustainable development outcomes. However, co-production covers many approaches, with a cleavage between those focusing on outcomes and the production of actionable knowledge; and those focusing on process and inclusion of multiple voices. There is not always dedicated commitment to identify and confront the embodied power relations nor the hegemonic knowledge systems among the participants in the process. Yet, the politics of configuring knowledge cannot be ignored. I argue that learning from the experiences and pitfalls of participatory development is essential if co-production is to meet its transformative potential.
... When I researched the history of 'development' in México, I came upon post-development scholars who characterized the 'development project' as imperialist and an active continuation of the colonial project into the post-colonial era [52]. They identified the process of labeling a country as 'underdeveloped' as a process of "naturalising the norms and historical processes of the European Self" [53] (p. 2551). ...
In the field of education for sustainability, there is a call to consider diverse livelihoods and world views beyond dominant anthropocentric, scientific, and ‘Western’ ways of understanding and living. For scholars and educators trained in ‘Western’ culture, this is complicated by how this dominant culture is infused in all our ways of thinking and being. This paper explores the authors’ journey to unsettle their ‘Western’ thinking through analysis of reflexive field notes taken during field research. Data is shared from the author’s doctoral study of Campesino-a-Campesino (CaC) as an anti-racist pedagogy. The paper tells a story of the unsettling of the author’s assumptions about research, race, development, and education prompted by field experiences and guided by critical educational ethnography. An interdisciplinary approach to analysis is used including scholars in critical race theory, TribalCrit, Indigenous education, decolonization theory, and post-development theory. Conclusions illuminate researcher reflexivity, understanding critical context, learning the history of research, and shifting which scholars are considered in the analysis as crucial in the process of decolonizing the study of anti-racist pedagogies for sustainability.
... Although PD theory has been crucial in studying development as a discourse, it has also been under criticism for the past two decades (Nederveen Pieterse 2000;Rapley 2004;Ziai 2017). One of these criticisms points to the question of the relevance of PD theory: can we still speak of a development discourse today, and if so, how has it changed? ...
Over the past few decades, the development discourse has been subject to various criticisms. Instead of rejecting these criticisms, however, the discourse absorbed at least parts of them. This led to discursive incoherencies. These appear as new concepts that seem incompatible with the initial development discourse and the power relations on which it relies. The notion of partnership, which refers to mutual trust and respect, is one of the discourse’s most prominent incoherent features. In the everyday cooperation between Jordanian women’s organisations and their North-based donors, however, partnership is an ideal, rather than an actual practice, and is frequently arbitrarily misinterpreted and misused by the donors. Through a case study grounded in a two-month participant observation of one Jordanian women’s organisation and a series of qualitative interviews with their staff members and donor representatives conducted in Jordan in 2017 and 2018, the paper explores how the organisation and their staff members intentionally resist their donors’ behaviour by performing acts of rightful resistance.
This article reframes the conventional discourse on China’s political and economic identity by examining contrasting perspectives on its status as either a capitalist or socialist. Through a critical juxtaposition between capitalist conceptualizations of the Chinese political economy and the parallel perspective of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we explore the meaningful sense in which China can be said to exhibit traits of both capitalism and socialism. The structure-centric perspective emphasizes China’s capitalist features, highlighting market mechanisms as the primary resource-allocation method. In contrast, the agency-centric perspective held by Chinese Marxists justifies capitalist elements within China’s socialist framework, positioning SWCC as a transitional phase toward communism. We challenge the inherent limitations of adopting exclusively structure- or agency-centric approaches, advocating for a more nuanced interpretation that transcends deterministic or voluntaristic pitfalls. Our argument posits that the oversimplified dichotomy overlooks the intricate dynamics emerging from the dialectical interplay between China’s integration into the global capitalist system and, in parallel, the purportedly socialist policy initiatives of the communist party-state. A dialectical perspective, illustrated by the application of a strategic-relational approach to China, invites scholars to engage theoretically with the hybrid elements characterizing China’s unique political-economic developmental trajectory, urging a more nuanced understanding of how China’s socialist legacy and capitalist reforms influence its developmental trajectory.
This paper critically addresses the pervasive neglect of indigenous approaches to social transformation within the field of international development cooperation. It shows how commonly used evaluation frameworks—shaped by Western assumptions about evidence, measurement, and progress—tend to exclude non-Western knowledge systems. Focusing on African Initiated Churches (AICs) as exemplars of development actors with transformational approaches that incorporate the spiritual, this study explores the possible reforms required in mainstream evaluation practices to recognise and include development alternatives. An analysis of AIC evaluation practices reveals the potential for decolonised frameworks rooted in African and Indigenous epistemologies, including relational, communal, and spiritual ways of generating evidence. This paper argues that fostering mutual learning and dialogue in the field of development evaluation is fundamental to driving more inclusive and sustainable social change.
Der demokratische Konföderalismus strebt im Nahen und Mittleren Osten eine neue Gesellschaftsordnung jenseits des kapitalistischen Nationalstaatensystems an. Basisdemokratie, Geschlechterbefreiung und eine ökologisch-gemeinwohlorientierte Wirtschaft sollen an die Stelle hierarchischer, patriarchalischer und profitorientierter Strukturen treten. Doch woher kommt dieses Gesellschaftsmodell, was sind seine theoretischen Grundlagen und wie lässt es sich in einer kriegsgeschüttelten Region umsetzen? Müslüm Örtülü erörtert, ob der demokratische Konföderalismus tatsächlich eine Alternative zum »westlichen Entwicklungsweg« bietet - und ob in diesem Zuge auch eine Wiederaneignung von Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissen gelingen kann.
This paper engages theoretical principles from critical human geography, media and communication studies, and development literature to present a research trajectory that unpacks the influence of digital platforms in representing and mediating distant suffering. Critiques of aid and development communication have long focused on concerns around the representation of the Global South as an ‘Othered’ space; powerful and deeply problematic geographical imaginaries become embedded within contemporary dominant discourses of aid and development. As significant sources of aid and development imaginaries, how civil society has mediated distant suffering has been subject to much critique. However, the rapid transition towards engagement with digital platforms necessitates an extension of critical considerations about representation and mediation. For example: what impact do digital platforms, their knowledge politics and representational capabilities have on imaginaries of distant suffering? Digital platforms (such as websites and other social media platforms) are situated within and constituted by (and through) a ‘digital knowledge politics’. These platforms and their mediations still exist within broader social practices and processes, and therefore remain entrenched within the power relations between Global North and Global South. This poses significant questions regarding the role digital platforms (and their representational capabilities) play in producing and mediating representations of distant strangers and their places. Moreover, further gaps within existing research emerge regarding how digital platforms can inform how (and indeed if) the public respond to such discourses. Through identifying key interdisciplinary intersections between critical human geographies and media and communication studies, this paper considers research trajectories that extend critical examinations of the role that digital platforms play in producing and representing aid and development imaginaries.
Malawi has faced slow progress in social and economic development for the past five decades. In 2021, the country developed a national development vision to promote wealth creation and self-reliance. This study attempts to unpack the assumptions about the social democratic developmental state as a philosophical underpinning of the Malawi Vision 2063. The study analysed the Malawi Vision 2063 document using concepts from Critical Social Theory. The findings showed that the assumptions on developmental state concentrated on the role of the state, leadership, public sector involvement, and partnership discourses. The assumptions about social democratic developmental state emerged from the strategic level of government and the elite. The espoused views on the developmental state were linked with the promotion of capital and the market. Some of the statements in the thematic areas of Malawi Vision 2063 had no robust local philosophy that was well known to guide the thinking and actions of policy actors and beneficiaries (e.g. politicians, individuals, government officials and communities) in development processes and programmes. The study highlights some of the areas that require attention for the Malawi Vision 2063 to achieve successful outcomes.
Volunteer tourism is sometimes discussed as contributing to development goals in economically impoverished countries. Others argue that it contributes little if anything at all to material development, and others again claim that this is simply not its aim. Putting aside its contribution (or lack thereof), there is little doubt that volunteer tourism influences how development issues are constructed and mediated to the general public, framing the ways in which people’s desires to make a difference are realised. It is a ‘public face of development’ in this sense. This paper looks at volunteer tourism not as a form of development assistance per se, but instead examines how development claims associated with it intersect with important strands of development thinking. It reviews some important themes in development thinking in order to argue that it is changes in how development is conceived of that have made possible the unlikely association between a form of leisure and the erstwhile political and macro-economic aim of development. Further, it suggests that research in this area could usefully focus less on the actions of volunteer tourism providers and their clientele, and more on the underpinning ‘development’ assumptions reflected and reified through these actions.
After this 2020 Pandemic, we should think, re-think, and re-organize our role and local, regional, and Global policies to determine whether we are enough to protect ourselves or not. This is possible to take this under institutional format with legal protection if we address human suffering with passion (Wilkinson & Kleinman in A passion for society: How we think about human suffering, University of California Press, 2016), with active participation for welfare (Chowdhury et al. in Quantitative data in ethnography with Asian reflections (010921-103057) in encyclopedia of data science and machine learning, IGI Global, 2022a; Chowdhury et al in Reciprocity and its practice in social research, IGI Global, 2022b; Chowdhury et al. in Practices, challenges, and prospects of digital ethnography as a multidisciplinary method, IGI Global, 2022c), and reciprocal action guided by Indigenous Gnoseology, for genuine development, re-right and re-write the loss (Smith in Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples, Zed Books Ltd, 2021). Yet, gnoseology is not epistemology (Eikeland in From epistemology to gnoseology–understanding the knowledge claims, 2007; Mignolo in Local histories/global designs, Princeton University Press, 2012; Sanguineti in Logic and gnoseology, Pontifical Urban University, 1988) but rather the philosophy of Knowledge. This chapter is an overview of what Covid-19 (C-19) did with us, the significant policy gaps, and the role of intellectual communities and academia. Finally, it proposes that Ubuntu can be moral philosophical guidelines for now and in future and for Commoning the policy.
No creed has called for education for peace. Instead of revealing the world of injustices, such an assertion emerged since the 1970s by Paulo Freire, Frantz Fanon from French, Syed Hussein Alatas from Malaysia, Vine Deloria from the American Indians. Later, Gayatri Spivak, Walter Mignolo, Eve Tuck, and Yung have pointed out the system's problem. This chapter demonstrates an unorthodox, non-linear discussion with UNESCO's (in effect, the SDG 4) educational program references. The inspiration came from different masterpieces—Spivak's Righting Wrong, Vine Deloria's Indigenous Metaphysics, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Mask, Darryl Macer's Bioethics for Love. In terms of gnoseology, the authors followed Sadia Gaon's phrase—a polymath said in 872 AD: ‘observe the unobserved' in the new normalcy—a part of practical philosophy—and the analytical or conceptual domain. This chapter contains three parts: first the motivation, then the analytical framework, and finally, established argument. The authors conclude that the education system shapes mental faults that shape our activation.
The academic study of media development as a field of practice and international cooperation has received quite some impetus in the last couple of years. Theory-building in this research field, however, seems to be stagnating. The explanatory power of established theories such as modernization, dependency or participation appears limited in the light of recent empirical findings that point to increasing ‘bureaucratization’ and ‘proceduralization’ in the media development sector. Against this background, this article sets out to find an analytical model that adequately grasps the logics guiding the work of media development’s various actors – from donors to intermediary organizations to local NGOs. Theoretical input from organizational institutionalism seems to offer a promising perspective for characterizing the institutional logics that shape (yet do not determine) media development practice. On this basis, the article proposes an analytical framework that allows to categorize media development actors’ beliefs and practices between the poles of social transformation logics and managerial logics.
Pivot is a series of virtual conferences organized by the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group (PluriSIG) of the Design Research Society (DRS). The PluriSIG and the Public Visualization Lab of OCAD University invited designers, scholars, artists, and changemakers for two days of intercultural conversations about decoloniality and societal transformation. Pivot 2021 aimed to identify tools and practices of dismantling and reassembling that could favor ways of reshaping human presence on Earth and concrete cases of alternative
future-making from all around the world.
Few scholars have examined the intersections between communication for development and public relations, creating a gap in the development communication scholarship and practice. Because public relations efforts are often used to achieve managerial tasks in development, rather than to serve marginalized groups, the value of public relations in development contexts is undertheorized. This essay uses the lens of power to bring the two fields of development communication and public relations together. With a detailed examination of the fields of Communication for Development and Public Relations, this essay aims to advance the understanding of communication in international development and propose collaborative approaches by establishing linkages between public relations and development communication.
The manner in which people have been talking and writing about 'development' and the rules according to which they have done so have evolved over time. Development Discourse and Global History uses the archaeological and genealogical methods of Michel Foucault to trace the origins of development discourse back to late colonialism and notes the significant discontinuities that led to the establishment of a new discourse and its accompanying industry. This book goes on to describe the contestations, appropriations and transformations of the concept. It shows how some of the trends in development discourse since the crisis of the 1980s - the emphasis on participation and ownership, sustainable development and free markets - are incompatible with the original rules and thus lead to serious contradictions. The Eurocentric, authoritarian and depoliticizing elements in development discourse are uncovered, whilst still recognizing its progressive appropriations. The author concludes by analysing the old and new features of development discourse which can be found in the debate on Sustainable Development Goals and discussing the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies. This book is aimed at researchers and students in development studies, global history and discourse analysis as well as an interdisciplinary audience from international relations, political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, language and literary studies.
The doctrine of development, as it appears in this book, embodies the intent to develop. It is the question 'What is development?' that makes the existence of intentions to develop obvious. This is so if only because responses to the question of development usually present an image of something created anew, or improved, or renewed, or of the unfolding of potential which has the capacity to exist but which presently does not do so. Yet, to intend to develop does not necessarily mean that development will result from any particular action undertaken in the name of development. However, the existence of an intent to develop does mean that it is believed that it is possible to act in the name of development and that it is believed that development will follow from actions deemed desirable to realise an intention of development. An intention to develop becomes a doctrine of development when it is attached, or when it is pleaded that it be attached, to the agency of the state to become an expression of state policy.
Eduardo Gudynas looks at the main trends of the discourse around Buen Vivir in South America. He looks at the rich and multiple discourses around Buen Vivir, as a political platform for different visions of alternatives to development. The paradox that development can be declared defunct and yet in the next step promoted as the only way forward is deeply embedded in modern culture. Therefore, any alternative to development must open paths to move beyond the modern Western culture. Buen Vivir, he argues gives that opportunity.
Along with 'anti-development' and 'beyond development', post-development is a radical reaction to the dilemmas of development. Post-development focuses on the underlying premises and motives of development; what sets it apart from other critical approaches is that it rejects development. The question is whether this is a tenable and fruitful position. Taken up first in this article are major overt positions of post-development-the problematisation of poverty, the portrayal of development as Westernisation, and the critique of modernism and science. The argument then turns to discourse analysis of development; it is argued that, in post-development, discourse analysis from a methodology turns into an ideology. Next the difference between alternative development and 'alternatives to development' is examined. The reasons why this difference is made out to be so large are, in my interpretation, anti-managerialism and dichotomic thinking. The article closes with a discussion of the politics of post-development and a critical assessment.
The alternative approaches to development considered are alternative development, emerging from 'another development' in the 1970s, and the more recent position of 'post development', or alternatives to development. Alternative development has been concerned with redefining the goals of development and with introducing alternative practices of development - participatory and people- centred. Post-development is interpreted as a neotraditionalist reaction against modernity. More enablig as a perspective, it is argued, is reflexive development, in which critique of science is viewed as part of development politics.
Written by one of the leading authorities in the field, the Second Edition of this successful book: Situates students in the expanding field of development theory; Provides an unrivalled guide to the strengths and weaknesses of competing theoretical approaches; Explains key concepts; Examines the shifts in theory; Offers an agenda for the future In this book, the author brings a huge range of experience and knowledge about the relationship between the economically advanced and the emerging, developing nations.
This paper seeks to examine how the recent critiques of modern science as Eurocentric, patriarchal and neo-colonial knowledge are actually informing the agenda of new social movements in non-Western, postcolonial societies. Using the farmers' movements in India as an example, this paper explores how the discourses of 'difference' and 'local knowledges' can come to serve as a mobilizing ideology of the traditional rural elite. The paper argues that the radical critiques of science need to be rethought in order to protect the relative autonomy of scientific knowledge, which can be hydridized with local knowledges to improve the latter's ability to meet the unmet needs of Third World people in a sustainable manner.
How did the industrialized nations of North America and Europe come to be seen as the appropriate models for post-World War II societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? How did the postwar discourse on development actually create the so-called Third World? And what will happen when development ideology collapses? To answer these questions, Arturo Escobar shows how development policies became mechanisms of control that were just as pervasive and effective as their colonial counterparts. The development apparatus generated categories powerful enough to shape the thinking even of its occasional critics while poverty and hunger became widespread. "Development" was not even partially "deconstructed" until the 1980s, when new tools for analyzing the representation of social reality were applied to specific "Third World" cases. Here Escobar deploys these new techniques in a provocative analysis of development discourse and practice in general, concluding with a discussion of alternative visions for a postdevelopment era. Escobar emphasizes the role of economists in development discourse--his case study of Colombia demonstrates that the economization of food resulted in ambitious plans, and more hunger. To depict the production of knowledge and power in other development fields, the author shows how peasants, women, and nature became objects of knowledge and targets of power under the "gaze of experts." In a substantial new introduction, Escobar reviews debates on globalization and postdevelopment since the book's original publication in 1995 and argues that the concept of postdevelopment needs to be redefined to meet today's significantly new conditions. He then calls for the development of a field of "pluriversal studies," which he illustrates with examples from recent Latin American movements. © 1995 by Princeton University Press. 1995 by Princeton University Press.
While the Post-Development school in development theory tried to bury the concept of ‘development’, this attempt turned out to be unsuccessful. A closer investigation reveals that different post-development texts reproduce the polysemy of ‘development’ in their criticism of it, attacking different phenomena subsumed under this heading. Development theory, on the other hand, was also premature in declaring post-development obsolete fifteen years ago. By examining the works of two prominent authors, this contribution shows that the critics of post-development have adopted central arguments of that approach. It concludes by identifying some points of convergence between post-development and its (progressive) critics in development theory.
The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith. By Gilbert Rist. London: Zed Books, 1997. Pp.vi + 276. £42.50/25. ISBN 1 85649 491 8 and 492 6Grassroots Post‐Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures. By Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash. London: Zed Books, 1998. Pp.223. £45/22.50. ISBN 1 85649 545 0 and 546 9The Post‐Development Reader. Edited by Majid Rahnema with Victoria Bawtree. London: Zed Books, 1997. £45.00/25. ISBN 1 85649 473 X and 474International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge. Edited by Frederick Cooper and Randall Packard. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. Pp.xii + 361. £40/20. ISBN 0 520 20956 7
This paper reviews writings about postdevelopment. It argues that critical scrutiny of the contemporary reconfiguring of postcolonial sovereignties provides a productive route to rethink the geographies of development and postdevelopment. The relationship of development narratives to reconfigurations of imperialism and postcolonialism produces a complex geography of development and postdevelopment that defies neat summary, but which demands more sustained attention to the interactions of enclosure, boundaries and subjectivities.
Andy Storey looks at post-development theory's challenge to dominant development paradigms. He offers a critique of the post-development critique and suggests that some of the insights of post-development theory can be of considerable value to those concerned with struggles for social change.Development (2000) 43, 4046. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1110194
Arturo Escobar reviews the critiques around postmodernist critiques of development. He looks at the reading strategies employed and argues for a cultural politics of difference.Development (2000) 43, 1114. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1110188
The most ostensibly radical response to the crisis in development theory has been to reject outright the idea of development. Theories of post‐development argue that all ideas of development imply the exercise of power over subject peoples in the so‐called Third World. Some writers argue that the idea of development therefore constitutes a new form of colonialism. This article questions such views, by suggesting that not all theories of development can be tarred with the same brush. Post‐development theory is guilty of homogenising the idea of development, thereby conflating all theories of development with the outmoded (and long discredited) theory of modernisation. Moreover, post‐development theory is reluctant to suggest concrete political alternatives, arguing the post‐structuralist position that to do so implies ‘capture’ by the development discourse. But this view similarly homogenises the development discourse, and leads to an alternative politics that uncritically celebrates resistance without analysing its differing political implications. When more concrete alternatives are suggested (as for example by ecofeminism), the result is an uncritical, romantic celebration of the local which can have reactionary political implications. Finally, an alternative, dialectical approach is suggested, which seeks to combine deconstruction with reconstruction, and which stresses the contradictory unity of development.
The post‐development critique of development discourse has by now been widely discussed and criticised. Post‐development texts have been interpreted as a cynical legitimation of neoliberalism or a futile romanticisation of premodern times; more sympathetic critics have at least acknowledged its potential to criticise the shortcomings of development theory and policy. There is, however, widespread agreement on the assumptions that post‐development can be seen as a Foucaultian critique of development and that it forms a sort of theoretical school. This article is concerned with challenging these assumptions by showing that 1) post‐development only employs (if at all) a rather impoverished version of Foucault's discourse analysis; 2) there are in fact two variants to be found under the heading post‐development—a sceptical and a neo‐populist one—and most of the criticisms are only valid for the latter. Whereas neo‐populist post‐development has reactionary political consequences, sceptical post‐development uses elements of postmodern and post‐Marxist theory and can best be described as a manifesto of radical democracy in the field of development studies. For scholars interested in emancipation, the point is to identify the crucial differences between post‐development sliding into (sometimes reactionary) neo‐populism and post‐development converging with theories of radical democracy.
When post-development first emerged as an outraged collection of critiques in the early 1990s theorists called for fundamental changes or the abandonment of development, declaring it had failed in its own limited terms and had instead lead to the destruction of people, places and spaces. Post-development drew from post-structural ideas to destabilise the taken-for-granted truths, knowledges and languages of development to highlight the faulted cultural assumptions and violences inherent within development industries. Not surprisingly post-development attracted a good deal of critique which has tempered its ferocity and contributed to a more constructive approach, albeit in its infancy, intent on exploring the practical applications of this body of theory. This article overviews the travails of post-development from its early angry incarnations to its current experimental and optimistic mood. I argue that although post-development insights are infusing broader development approaches its future as a coherent body of work will be determined by its ability to re-imagine agency and place and create new networks and spaces of opportunity for people and communities. For this to occur post-development research must be couched in the languages of hope and possibility.
The relationship between mainstream development policy (and perhaps also development studies) and postcolonial theorists has often been characterized as a dialogue of the deaf. Rather like in the old ‘debates’ between adherents of modernization and neo-Marxist theories, the protagonists are often thought to be talking at or past one another, rather than with each other. This paper reassesses some firmly held views on both sides of the schism. On the one hand, many official development agencies appear to promote business as usual (often quite literally, as a recent War on Want report attests in the case of the UK's DFID using its aid budget to promote profitable opportunities for British corporations). On the other hand, some postcolonial purists rely on surprisingly modernist, totalizing discursive techniques while claiming post-structural credentials, or baulk at the prospects of practical engagement. Discrepancies between theory, discourse, policy and practice are not the preserve of one side. However, the middle ground is firmer and better trodden than most believe. Considerable progress has been made and the paper assesses examples of productive engagement and concludes with suggestions for carrying forward the challenges.
Incl. bibliography, index
It is suggested that the use or modification of readily available simulations should be examined as viable alternatives to developing or purchasing software. The author examines the pros and cons of the various alternatives to software development. The development of an in-house air-to-air analysis capability is used as an example. The decision as to whether to build or acquire, and factors for choosing a simulation are presented to show some of the salient points and subtleties involved. This procedure can be divided into roughly five steps: (1) develop top-level simulation specifications; (2) define options/constraints; (3) develop the selection factors and process; (4) survey available software; and (5) perform the selection process
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