Development criticisms and alternatives Flashcards
Do alternatives to development mean alternatives to markets?
Not always, but sometimes
In what common ways is development criticised?
Alienated
Market-led
Detached from local agency
Self-interests of donors
What was problematic about Truman’s 1949 inauguration (pt 4) speech?
It reproduced a discourse of lack, primitiveness and need
Why is the focus on colonialist narratives in post development not enough?
It is too general, overlooking more fundamental political and economic aspects of development today
What things does post development study?
- Reproduction of colonialist narratives (albeit quite simplistic, when did colonialism start/end?)
- Paternalistic attitudes from the west
- SAPs not separate, but a continuation on Bretton Woods
- SAPs were a disaster, but west thought they knew best
What does the problematization of poverty entail?
- Used a lot by Escobar 1994
- About making poverty sound like something to be solved
- Overlooks true circumstances and oversimplifies social relations
What is a good example of the problematisation of poverty?
Ferguson 2004 study of Lesotho
Who said “you have to be dumb or rich to think development is good”?
Esteva 1987
Is development always bad?
- Not always
- Some forms are good (just not market capitalism)
- Marxist criticisms are often ambivalent towards postcolonial cultures
- Vaccines, medicines etc can be great
Should not romanticise pre-capitalist life
Who brought into question, implicitly, the nation state as an object of analysis for critical development scholars?
Demaria and Kothari 2017 (on post development)
Is helping poor people always bad?
- Can imply it is their fault
- Overlooks structural causes
- Altruism and pity aspects
Escobar 2011
What is the primary limitation of Escobar (2011) Foucauldian discourse analysis?
It overlooks the reasons why (economic/geopolitical etc) he third world were portrayed as underdeveloped
What is a good quote from the Communist Manifesto describing how capitalism has gone out of control?
“Modern Bourgeois society… is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the underworld he has called up by his spells”
What is important to remember about ideology?
It is not reflexive of reality (Clearly 2018)
What does post-development seek to do?
To stop development from being the ontological focus of life
Demaria and Kothari 2017
