Arresting Development: The Power of Knowledge for Social Change

ISBN-13: 9780415381536 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 208 str.

Craig A. Johnson

Opis

Over the last two decades, a tension between the grand theories of development and a "postmodern" rejection of universal values, such as freedom and progress, has come to dominate the field of development studies. Subject to criticism is the notion that development efforts are part of a wider and primarily "Western" agenda whose discursive practices and interventions subject poor and politically marginal groups and nations to the interests, needs and ideologies of large development bureaucracies, such as the IMF, the United Nations and the World Bank. The notion that development normalises and excludes is a powerful one, and one that captured the imagination of post-development theorists such as Arturo Escobar and James Ferguson. However, the idea that development is inherently biased against the poor is itself an objectification, and a simplification. Taken to the extreme, it fosters a nihilism that questions not only the dominant discourses and practices of the IMF, the World Bank, etc., but also calls into question any effort to improve the human condition.

Tracing the historical and intellectual origins of post-development, this book explores the impact of post-development theorizing on the study and practice of international development. A central theme concerns the challenge of comparing across "cultures" of theory, methodology and practice to achieve mutual or universal understandings about values, identity and development. By examining the evolution of Marxist, neo-classical and participatory research traditions, Johnson identifies the ways in which post-development may help to address three areas that have long plagued the study and practice of development: (1) the tension between the postmodern critique of universal truths and values and the universalizing norms that underlie the development project; (2) the status of development – as a field and as a project – within the social sciences; and (3) the future direction and relevance of development research. Arresting Development will be of interest to scholars, students and professionals interested in the challenge of constructing "knowledge for development."

This book will be useful for students and researchers of Development, Social and Political Studies.

Spis treści

1. Deconstructing ‘Knowledge for Development’  2. The ‘Poverty of History’ in Neo-classical Discourse: Positivism, New Institutionalism and ‘the Tragedy of the Commons’  3. Exporting the Model: Marxism, Postmodernism and Development  4. Development as Discourse: Contesting the Politics of ‘Post-Development’  5. Development as Freedom of Choice: From Measurement to Empowerment to Rational Choice  6. Advancing Knowledge for Social Change

O autorze

Craig Johnson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph in Canada. He has published widely in the field of governance, decentralization and sustainable development, focusing mainly on Asia. His most recent publication (co-edited) is Policy Windows and Livelihood Futures: Prospects for Poverty Reduction in Rural India (Oxford University Press, 2006).