On the reinvention of development theory

Post-development formulates fundamental criticism: development - as a practice, political project, but also as a vision - has fundamentally failed. Post-development advocates criticize that "development" inevitably goes hand in hand with dependencies, exploitation and inequality. These conditions are reproduced again and again in theory and practice through promises of progress and growth that proclaim Western models of life and economy as the universal standard.

"By critiquing Eurocentrism, power relations, and more specifically through their focus on non-Western models of politics, economics, and coexistence, post-development approaches can make a fundamental contribution to decolonizing development theory. For the most part, the latter continues to assume a normatively positive connotation of "development" and equates a "good society" with the "Western," says Prof Aram Ziai. "However, previous research on post-development is almost exclusively empirical." As part of the project, he hopes to contribute to a reinvention of development theory through a systematic theoretical formulation of post-development approaches. 

Global crises make it increasingly obvious that the Western promise of development does not apply to all, but only to a small portion of the world's population. By "Western" is meant here above all the industrialized, modern, capitalist mass consumer society, whose imperial way of life, based on exploitation and appropriation of raw materials and labor, can no longer be sustainable for anyone in the long term.

"Alternatives to development do not have to be reimagined," says Julia Schöneberg, a research associate with the project. "There are numerous practiced non-Western concepts of a 'good life.'"  Taking this as a starting point, the project systematically explores a pluriverse of alternatives - ways of life and worldviews that break away from the familiar universalist pattern of "becoming more developed" - and examines how power- and growth-critical "alternatives to development" that focus on a solidarity-based way of life and common good can be theorized without losing sight of legitimate demands for greater material justice.

Questions about the project:

Dr. Julia Schöneberg, julia.schoeneberg[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Prof. Dr. Aram Ziai, ziai@uni-kassel.de