Development dictionary: a guide to knowledge as power

THE LAST FORTY YEARS can be called the age of development. In its name, the South has struggled to catch up with the North. experts descended on villages near and far, and millions of people were turned into wage earners and consumers.
But 'development' has been much more than a socio-economic endeavour. It is a perception which models reality, a myth which comforts societies and a fantasy which unleashes passion. This book explores 'development' as a particular worldview.
In this pioneering collection, some of the world's most eminent critics of development review the key concepts of the development discourse in the post-war era. Each essay examines one concept from a historical and anthropological point of view and highlights its particular blas. Exposing their historical obsolescence and intellectual sterility, the authors call for a bidding farewell to the whole Eurocentric development idea. This is urgently needed, they argue, in order to liberate people's minds- in both North and South-for bold responses to the environmental and ethical challenges now confronting humanity.
These essays are an invitation to experts, grassroots movements and students of development to recognise the tainted glasses they put on whenever they participate in the development discourse. Each essay is followed by an annotated bibliography to encourage further studies in the cultural history of the development idea.