Encountering Development
by Arturo Escobar
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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. show more 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 1980's, 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 post development 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 post development since the book's original publication in 1995 and argues that the concept of post development 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. show lessTags
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This book is for anyone interest in rethinking established views on 'development', and, even more so, by anyone who has not yet questioned them. The book has a message for all of us who want to take seriously not only the problems inherent in economistic development but also the imperial intervention of the West in cultures of rich traditions.
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Author Information
23+ Works 390 Members
Arturo Escobar is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of several books, including Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds and Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes, both also published by Duke University Tress.
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- Genres
- Economics, Anthropology, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 338.9 — Society, Government, and Culture Economics Production Economic Development And Growth
- LCC
- HD75 .E73 — Social sciences Industries. Land use. Labor Industries. Land use. Labor Economic growth, development, planning
- BISAC
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- Members
- 177
- Popularity
- 184,312
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.11)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
