The Post-Development Reader

With the collapse of colonialism, the millions who had joined the struggle accepted their leaders' new call for 'development'. Little today remains of that enthusiasm. The question they now ask is: can anything be done to stop the process and regenerate the forces needed to bring about change more in accordance with their own aspirations? This reader brings together an exceptionally gifted group of thinkers and activists - from South and North - who have long pondered these questions. Diverse in background and experience, they are all committed to seeing through the rhetoric of development, free from the distorting lenses of ideology and habit. They are also interested in looking at 'the other side of the story', particularly from the perspective of the 'losers'. It is these orientations which make this reader such an original compilation. The contributors illuminate the wisdom of vernacular society which modern development thinking and practice has done so much to denigrate and destroy. They deliver devastating critiques of the dominant development paradigm, and most importantly, they present some of the experiences and ideals out of which ordinary people are now trying to construct their own more humane alternatives to development, which, in turn, may provide useful signposts for those concerned with the post-development era that is now at hand. With the collapse of colonialism, the millions who had joined the struggle accepted their leaders' new call for 'development'. Little today remains of that enthusiasm. The question they now ask can anything be done to stop the process and regenerate the forces needed to bring about change more in accordance with their own aspirations? This reader brings together an exceptionally gifted group of thinkers and activists - from South and North - who have long pondered these questions. Diverse in background and experience, they are all committed, however, to seeing through the rhetoric of development, free from the distorting lenses of ideology and habit. They are also interested in looking at 'the other side of the story', particularly from the perspective of the 'losers'. It is these orientations which make this reader such an original compilation. The contributors illuminate the wisdom of vernacular society which modern development thinking and practice has done so much to denigrate and destroy. They deliver devastating critiques of the dominant development paradigm and what it has done to the peoples of the world and their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living. Most importantly, in terms of the future, they present some of the experiences and ideals out of which ordinary people are now trying to construct their own more humane and culturally and ecologically respectful alternatives to development, which, in turn, may provide useful signposts for those concerned with the post-development era that is now at hand.

Most scholars and practitioners are now agreed that the world is on the threshold of a completely new era in the history of development. This Reader brings together in a powerfully diverse, but ultimately coherent, statement some of the very best thinking on the subject by scholars and activists from both North and South. They provide a devastating critique of what the mainstream paradigm has in practice done to the peoples of the world and to their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living. They also present some of the essential ideas out of which the victims of development are now constructing new, humane, culturally and ecologically respectful modes of development.

Most scholars and development experts agree that the world is at the dawn of a new era in the history of development. This reader brings together critical analyses of the subject by noted scholars and activists of the North and South. They provide a devastating critique of the mainstream paradigm and what it has done to the peoples of the world and to their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living. They also present new culturally humane and ecologically respectful modes of development from developing countries. This reader brings together thinking on development by scholars, practitioners and activists from both North and South. They provide a critique of what the mainstream paradigm has in practice done to the peoples of the world and to their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living. This reader brings together ideas on development from scholars, practitioners and activists, to provide a critique of what the mainstream paradigm has in practice done to the peoples of the world and to their diverse ways of living Stephen Mcbride And John Shields. Includes Bibliographical References.