Post-Development as a theoretical position.
Some reflections
International Workshop ‚Alternatives to Development?‘
Kassel, Oct 1, 2014
Aram Ziai, University of Kassel
OVERVIEW
• Post-Development
• Alternatives to what?
• Theoretical debate
• Conclusion
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POST-DEVELOPMENT
• ‘The age of development … is coming
to an end. The time is ripe to write its
obituary.’ (Sachs 1992: 1)
• ‘’From the unburied corpse of
development, every kind of pest has
start to spread.’ (Esteva 1992: 6)
 PD had come to lay to rest the
concept of ‘development’
• WHY?
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POST-DEVELOPMENT
Era of ‘development’ is ending because
-
Industrialized countries can no longer be seen as examples at the top of the
evolutionary scale for ecological reasons
-
‘Development’ came into being as an ideological promise in the Cold War and has
become redundant after the downfall of the Soviet bloc
-
Promise of ‘development’ is not credible anymore in the light of the growing gap
between rich and poor
-
Its program of Westernizing the world seems less and less desirable to people in the
global South
=> Post-Development era: ‘alternatives to development’ in movements and communities
in the South
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POST-DEVELOPMENT
Characteristics of PD-concepts
according to Escobar:
-
Alternatives to development,
rejection of the entire paradigm
-
Local culture and knowledge,
defense of cultural difference
-
Critical stance towards science
-
Defense and promotion of pluralistic
grassroots movements
-
Critique of economic growth, homo
economicus and economics
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as Western ideology
‘[D]evelopment ... was an ideology that was born and refined in the North, mainly to meet
the needs of the dominant powers in search of a more ‘appropriate’ tool for their
economic and geopolitical expansion. ... the ideology helped a dying and obsolete
colonialism to transform itself into an aggressive - even sometimes an attractive instrument able to recapture new ground.’ (Rahnema 1997b: 379)
=> ‘Development’ as Western deceiving promise of affluence to decolonizing states in
order to maintain neo-colonial economic relations and contain communism
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as failed project
‘The three ‘development decades’ were a huge, irresponsible experiment that, in the
experience of a world-majority, failed miserably. … Development promises enrichment,
and for the overwhelming majority has always meant the progressive modernization of
their poverty: growing dependence on guidance and management’ (Esteva 1985: 78f,
see also 1991: 76).
=> ‘Development’ as the failed attempt to universalize the Western model of society and
transform Third World societies in this image through exporting capital and knowledge
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as hierarchic and Eurocentric construct
‘As a discourse, development is (…) articulated around an artificial construct
(underdevelopment) and upon a certain materiality (the conditions baptized as
underdevelopment)... the exercise of power over the Third World [is] made possible by
this discursive homogenization (which entails the erasure of the complexity and
diversity..., so that a squatter in Mexico City, a Nepalese peasant, and a Tuareg Nomad
become equivalent to each other as poor and underdeveloped.’ (Escobar 1995: 53)
=> ‘Development’ as the categorization of societies according to universal and
measurable indicators of European origin neglecting different values on what a good life
looks like
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as a depoliticizing construct
‘By uncompromisingly reducing poverty to a technical problem, and by promising
technical solutions to the sufferings of the powerless and oppressed people, the
hegemonic problematic of „development“ is the principal means through which the
question of poverty is de-politicized in the world today.’ (Ferguson 1994: 255)
=> ‘Development’ as a frame for perceiving and explaining inequality without references
to political and economic conflicts and relations of power, limiting the solution to
technocratic projects and programmes
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as economization and dis-valuing
‘... the social construction of development was married to a political design: excising from
society and culture an autonomous sphere, the economic sphere, and installing it at the
centre of politics and ethics. … Economization and colonization were synonymous. … As
a conceptual construction, economics strives to subordinate to its rule and to subsume
under its logic every other form of social interaction in every society it invades. …
Establishing economic value requires the disvaluing of all other forms of social
existence.’ (Esteva 1992: 19f)
=> ‘Development’ as capitalist rationality of homo oeconomicus, dis-valuing noncommodified practices and knowledge and assuming infinite needs
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
- ‘Development’ as legitimation of domination and violence
‘In the name of science and development one can today demand enormous sacrifices
from, and inflict immense sufferings on, the ordinary citizen.’ ‘Societies could impose
today virtually any suffering on any number of their people in the name of development,
exactly as in earlier times, under the guidance of experts in the matter of the soul,
witches were killed so that their souls could be saved.’ ‘The idea of development has as
its underside the memories of the violence and exploitation that went with the early
phases of development in the West, and the idea includes the message that the
underdeveloped world should make similar blood sacrifices to develop.’ ( Nandy 1988: 1,
1992: 139, 1995: 13)
=> ‘Development’ as legitimation for interventions into the lives of others defined as
backward in the name of the greater common good
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ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
So what are we referring to exactly? How would a world beyond ‘development’ look like?
-
No ideological promises of affluence
-
No ineffective development aid
-
No capitalism
-
No Eurocentric scale of superior and inferior societies
-
No depoliticization of inequality
-
No interventions against the will of the people
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THEORETICAL DEBATE
Step 1: Identifying PD
How do we define ‘Post-Development Concepts and Practices’?
Suggestion: alternative (non-Western) (or rather: counter-hegemonic) models of:
-
Politics (beyond nation-states, liberal democracy, competing parties, elected
representatives, free mandate)
-
Economy (beyond capitalism, growth, wage labour, commodification of nature,
industrialized production for the market, philosophy of homo oeconomicus)
-
Knowledge (beyond universal positivist science, separation of subject and object, of
fact and value, of human beings and nature, lack of spirituality)
-
Improving livelihoods (beyond dev aid, dev projects, expert knowledge, trusteeship)
=> In which respects can concepts and practices in fact be seen as PD?
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THEORETICAL DEBATE
Step 2: Analysing PD, a) neo-populist vs. skeptical PD (anti-dev/post-dev)
Neo-populist PD
Skeptical PD
Complete rejection of modernity and dev aid
Some elements are useful, hybridization
Romanticisation of cultural traditions and
local communities
Critical towards cultural traditions (gender
issues!)
Cultures as static entities (relativism!),
promoting return
Cultures as dynamic, promoting hybridization
Promoting subsistence agriculture and
rejection of Western culture
Avoidance of blueprints, pluriverse
=> Right to cultural difference and autonomy
against western universalism and the
development project
=> Right to cultural difference and autonomy
against western universalism and any other
form of trusteeship and domination
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THEORETICAL DEBATE
Step 2: Analysing PD, b) engaging the criticisms
-
Are PD practices actually preferred to the others, or are they the only ones available
(PD as second-best solution, Western model still as goal) (Storey)? Is adherence to
PD thus rather a pragmatic rather than an ideological question?
-
Are PD concepts used as an elite ideology highlighting cultural conflicts and
sidelining political and economic conflicts (Nanda)?
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THEORETICAL DEBATE
Step 2: Analysing PD, c) using PD criticism on PD
Do PD concepts and practices exhibit the characteristics criticized in ‘development’?
-
Does PD function as an ideology of ruling elites?
-
Does PD deliver on its promises?
-
Is PD based on a universal scale homogenizing differences?
-
Does PD depoliticize relations of inequality?
-
Does PD dis-value other practices and knowledge?
-
Does PD legitimize authoritarian interventions?
If the criticisms point to a progressive direction, these questions can serve to examine
the circumstances under which PD alternatives are in fact empowering.
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CONCLUSION
Research questions:
-
in what respect can the alternatives to ‘development’ in Bolivia, South Africa, Iran
and Ghana (and Germany) be seen as PD concepts and practices?
-
under which circumstances does Post-Development become a progressive or an
reactionary force?
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