Handbook

What does 'development' mean as a body of ideas that structures systems of power, flows of resources, and social transformations across the globe? What does it mean in practice to intervene - often across diverse cultural contexts - with programmes designed according to these ideas of development? This unit addresses such questions by deconstructing the conceptual and practical pillars of development, and by interrogating similar concepts such as economic growth, progress, and modernisation. In addition to briefly reviewing some early theorisations of development and their links to colonialism and ideas of modernisation, the unit exposes the power-laden and unequal nature of contemporary development as an institutionalised set of practices that rose to prominence after World War II. Using case studies to paint a picture of geographically uneven development today, the unit explores whether development theories correlate with development-in-practice. It also explores the ways in which diverse social groups and social movements resist Western notions of progress, attempting to reclaim development to forge more autonomous pathways to well-being. These alternative pathways raise questions about the normative side of development, and about whether the contemporary development institution should be deconstructed in practice.