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1/20

Development Reconsidered; New Directions in Development Thinking

Author(s): David SimonSource: Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 79, No. 4, CurrentDevelopment Thinking (1997), pp. 183-201Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and GeographyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490357 .

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2/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW

DIRECTIONS

IN

DEVELOPMENT

THINKING1

by

David Simon

Simon,

D.,

1997:

Development

reconsidered;

new directions

in

development

thinking.

Geogr.

Ann.,

79

B

(4):

183-201.

ABSTRACT. This

paper

offers broad and critical

perspectives

on

current

development

thinking.

A

brief

summary

of

different

meanings

of

development

and

a

thumbnail sketch of broad trends

over the

past twenty

to

thirty years

in

relation to

major develop-

ment indicators is

followed

by

a

discussion

of

reasons

for

the

emergence

of fundamental

critiques

of conventional

develop-

ment and developmentalism from perspectives known variously

as

post-structuralist, post-development

and

anti-development.

Connections are made

between

these and the

literatures

on

post-

modernism,

postcolonialism

and

post-traditionalism. Finally,

the

implications

of

these

rapid paradigm

shifts and

changing

realities

for future

research,

teaching

and action

across

the

South/North

di-

vide are considered.

Key

Words:

development

theory,

development

studies,

post-de-

velopmentalism,

postmodernism,

development

in

practice

Introduction

The

purpose

of this

paper

s

to

survey

currentde-

batesand rendsndevelopmenthinkingand obe

provocative

of

debate.

It

offers

my

own

insights

into some

of the

dramatic

paradigm

hifts of the

last two

decades,

andreflects n

partmy

recent

re-

thinking

of

the

potential

elevance o the

South

or

Third

World

of

concepts

of

postmodernism

nd

postcolonialism

see

Simon,

1997a).

In

one

sense,

at

least,

we

currently

ive

andwork

in an

age

where

anythinggoes:

the certainties

nd

universalizingmodernizing

thoswhichhave

char-

acterized mainstream

development

thought

and

policy,

and

which

persisted hroughout

he

Cold

War,havegivenwaytoaflowering f diverse,even

contradictory

heories

and modes

of

analysis.

While

by

no means

equal

or

perceived

as

of

equiv-

alent

theoretical

and

practical

value,

virtually

all

are

at

least tolerated

n that

hey

have been

able to

find

a

particular

iche.

This

apparently ostmodern

era s

commonly

characterized

s

transcending

he

so-called

'impasse'

n

development heory

which

was

identified

y

DavidBooth

(1985)

andothers n

the mid-1980s.

The

impasse

s

said to have arisen

as

a

resultof

widespread

isillusionmentwithcon-

ventional

development

and

development

ailure;

the

crisis

andeventual

clipse

of

the

various

trands

of

socialism

as

alternative

aths;

he

growing

eco-

nomic

diversity

of countries within the Third

World;

ncreasing

oncern

with the need

for

envi-

ronmental

ustainability;

he

increasing

assertive-

ness of voices

'from

below';

and

the

rise of the

postmodern

challenge

to

universalizing

heories

andconventional racticesof developmentSchu-

urman,

1993b).

Hopefully,

his

special

issue will

offer

insights

not

only

into

recent

theoretical

developments

nd

reconceptualizations

f

development

nd

he envi-

ronment

but,

equally

importantly,

rovide

an

op-

portunity

to

examine their

implications

for the

practice

of

development

n

different

ontexts.

The

importance

f this

is

twofold.

First,

here

undoubt-

edly

remains

significant

scope

for

improving

he

nature of

interventionsmade

by

Northernand

Southern

development

workersand

agencies,

both

official

and

non-governmental.This means en-

hancing

the

effectiveness-in terms of

specific

goals

and

objectives

as well as the

implementation

and

monitoring---of

oth direct nterventions nd

indirect

assistance

hrough

he

provision

of

funds,

for

example.

t

also means

challenging

he conven-

tional

practices

and

beliefs

which

serve to

perpet-

uate

inequality

and

the lack of effective

(em)pow-

er(ment)

n the name

of humanitarian ssistance

and

political feel-good

factors.

In

this

respect,

I

stress

the

scope

for

improvement

mong

Southern

as well as

Northern

nstitutions

and

workers,

be-

cause there s

a

widespread

nd

franklyunhelpful

implication

n the

literature

hat

most if not all

of

the

problems

can

be

blamed

on

misguided

North-

ern

theoriesand

policies.

While

the

simplistic

and

deterministic

onstructions

f

the

dependencistas

have

ong

been

discredited,

his intellectual

egacy

remains

quite angible

n

post-

or

anti-development

and

even some strands

f

postmodern

nd

postco-

lonial

writings.

It

has,

of

course,

also

been

rein-

forced

by

the

stronglynegative

social

impact

of

structural

djustment

nd

economic

recoverypro-

grammes

and the associated

aid conditionalities

Geografiska

Annaler

-

79

B

(1997)

-

4

183

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3/20

DAVID

SIMON

(e.g.

Cornia

et

al.,

1992; Woodward,

1992;

Simon

et

al.,

1995).

The

second

important

reason for

rethinking

de-

velopment

(in)

practice

is that

important

strands of

mainstream

post-structuralist,

postmodern

and

postcolonial

work would have us

disengage

from

practising

development

at

all.

Not

only

is 'the de-

velopment project'

deemed to have

failed but the

thrust of

'anti-development'

writings

asserts that

it

has undermined local

vitality

and social cohesion.

On the other

hand,

if

the

implication

of

the

more

extreme

postmodern

challenge

to

the

very

basis

of

collective

rationality

and identifiable social interest

is

accepted,

then even the

possibility

of state or

NGO interventions

in

pursuit

of

'development'

must be

illusory

and

reactionary.

The

emphasis

of

much

postmodern

literature

on

playful,

leisured,

heterodoxical

self-indulgence

also has little to of-

fer

those

who can still

only aspire

to

safe

drinking-

water,

a

roof

which

does

not leak and the

like.

How

convenient,

then,

to abandon

concern,

resource

al-

location

and

action

in

the

name of

fraternal

ethical

concerns

If

this

would

actually help

the

approxi-

mately

1.2

billion

people

living

in

absolute

poverty

to

improve

their

position,

this

might

be

defensible,

but

I

know of no evidence to

support

such an as-

sertion.

This

brand of

postmodernism

certainly

would

place

no more faith

in

trade

than in aid

as a

vehicle for

poverty

alleviation.2

So,

unless

we are

to leave these

people

and societies to their own de-

vices,

to

abrogate any responsibility

for both dis-

tant and often not-so-distant

others,

we need

to

re-

main

concerned

with

development

in

practice

as

much as with

development

in

theory.

Meanings

of

Development

It is

not

my

intention here to address

or

even com-

pare

the numerous and

very

different definitions or

conceptions

of

'development'

in the manner of

a

textbook.

These are

too

well known. For

present

purposes,

it is sufficient to remind ourselves that-

at least

for

even

vaguely

reflective and reflexive

theoreticians

and

practitioners-definitions

are

contextual

and

contingent upon

the

ideological,

epistemological

or

methodological

orientation of

their

purveyors. Many

of

these

are

evident

from

the

labels associated with the

multiplicity

of

approach-

es

to

development

proffered

over

the

last

fifty-odd

years by

those

concerned,

for

example,

with

're-

construction

and

development',

'economic devel-

opment',

'modemrnization',

'redistribution with

growth',

'dependent development', 'interdepend-

ent

development', 'meeting

basic

needs',

'top-

down

development', 'bottom-up

development',

'Another

Development',

'autochtonous

develop-

ment',

'autarchic

development', 'agropolitan

de-

velopment',

'empowerment',

and,

most

recently,

'post-development', 'anti-development'

and even

'post-modern

development'.

It is

therefore evident

that,

notwithstanding

what

some

postmodern

critics

and advocates of main-

stream

development

alike would

have us believe

(albeit

for

contrasting

reasons),

there has never

been

consensus

or

unanimity

about

the

meaning

or

content

of

'development'.

On the

contrary,

debate,

dissension,

contestation

and

negotiation

have been

ever-present,

both on the

ground

in

particular

lo-

calities and

among

the

numerous official

and unof-

ficial

agencies engaged

in

development

work.

In an

interesting

if inaccessible

archaeology

of

'develop-

ment',

Cowen and Shenton

(1996)

trace the

lineage

back

to

Malthus, Comte,

ecclesiastical

writings by

J.H. Newman

and

others

in the

early

decades of the

nineteenth

century,

when it

was

imbued with

spir-

itual

meanings

and interwoven with

ideas

of

'progress',

intent to

develop

and

stewardship.

However,

their frustration

at

what

they

see as the

incorrect

contemporary

usages

reflects

an unwill-

ingness

or

inability

to

accept

that

meanings

and us-

ages change

and/or

are

reconstituted over

time and

in

different contexts.

By

contrast,

for

example,

Leys

(1996)

is

quite explicit

about the differences

in

meanings adopted

since the Second World

War,

while

Escobar

(1995)

elaborates

the use and abuse

of

development

as

a

vehicle for

postwar

Western

economic

and

geopolitical

imperialism

(see

also

Watts

1995).

Of

course,

none of the

foregoing

gainsays

the

fact

that

one

paradigm,

that of

modernization

and

its

contemporary

incarnation

as

neoliberalism,

has

enjoyed long-standing

dominance on account of

the

power

of its institutional advocates and the

dis-

crediting

of interventionist

strategies

during

the

late 1960s and 1970s. If modernization/neoliberal-

ism

has been and remains the

orthodox,

there has

certainly

not

been

a

shortage

of heterodoxes.

We

have not had to wait for

the

postmodern

and

post-

colonial

challenges

for

this. After

all,

an

apprecia-

tion

of,

and

challenge

to,

existing

institutional

structures,

power

relations and

legitimizing prop-

aganda

(or

discourses,

as these are now

generally

described

post-Foucault)

have

long

been central

concerns

of the

approaches generally

known col-

lectively

as

political

economy.

Lehmann

(1997)

echoes this

point

with reference

particularly

to de-

184

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79

B

(1997)

?

4




4/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW

DIRECTIONS IN

DEVELOPMENT THINKING

pendency

theory'.

To

a

significant

xtent,

anti-de-

velopment,

postmodern

and

some

postcolonial

writers

have-to

modify

the

parabledeployed

by

Terry

McGee

(1997)

in

a recent ectureon

a similar

theme-set

up

a

straw

elephant

n

seeking

to

por-

tray

the

postwar

engagements

with

poverty

n the

Southas a

single

or

singular development

roject'

in order

o

be able

to

knock t down

more

easily

What hese

recent

heoretical

turns',

particular-

ly

with their

emphasis

on

deconstruction,

have

helpfully

highlighted

and remindedus

of is the

need

for

greater

elf-consciousness,

eflexivity

and

encouragement

of difference

and

heterogeneity

(Slater,

1997).

The

inherent

and

applied

value

of

indigenous

traditions,

histories

and

'knowledg-

es'-especially

those lost or

marginalized uring

the colonial

and

modern(ist)developmentaliste-riods

(the

latteroften

chronologicallypostcoloni-

al)-have

been

brought

entre

stage

as

a

counter-

point

to the often

arrogant

Westernization

which

deprecated

r

ignored

hem

as

ignorant,

primitive

or

simply

rrelevant.

Nevertheless,

t is also

impor-

tant

o

point

out

that,

especially

n

those

social sci-

ences with

strong

raditions f

fieldwork,

ncluding

social

anthropology

nd

geography,

here

have al-

ways

been sensitive

researchers

articulating

he

view

from

below,

with

the loss of

indigenous

ife-

styles

and

cultural

diversity.

Admittedly,

his was

sometimes

sentimental,

sometimes

Eurocentric

andoften

preservationist

n the senseof

seeking

o

create

iving

museums

as if

behind

glass.3

However,

t canbe no

accident hat t is

precisely

within hese

very

academic

disciplines

hat he rise

of

postmodernism

as

been most

hotly

debated nd

its

relevance

o

the

three-quarters

f the world's

population iving

in absoluteand relative

poverty

in

countries

of the

South most

frequently

esisted

and denied.

Most

postmodernists

nd

postcoloni-

alists have

great

difficulty

n

embracing

he con-

crete

development spirations

f the

poor

in

prac-

tice,

despite

heir

heoretical

ophistication.

artof

thistrend s a

growing

retreato the

cosy

Northern

pavement

caf6-a

favouredhaunt

of

those with

panoptic

vision(s) -from

the

rigours

and

chal-

lenges

of field research

n the

South,

by hiding

be-

hind the

conveniently

hyped

'crisis of

representa-

tion'

of who

has a/the

right

o

speak

or writeon

be-

half of ThirdWorld others'.This issue will

be

re-

turned

o

below

and is

also addressed n

a

slightly

different

way by

Mike

Parnwell

1997).

All that wish

to

addhere s

that,

or

me,

human

development

s the

process

of

enhancing

ndividual

and collective

quality

of

life in a manner hat sat-

isfies

basic needs

(as

a

minimum),

s

environmen-

tally,

socially

and

economically

ustainable

nd s

empowering

nthe sense

that he

people

concerned

have

a substantial

egree

of

control

because

otal

control

may

be

unrealistic)

over

the

process

through

ccessto the means

of

accumulating

ocial

power.

Given ts

important

ualitative

nd

subjec-

tive

content,

his

broad

definition

naturally

defies

easy

quantification

r cardinal

measurement.

t

also

drawson

major

contributions

o the field

over

the ast

wenty-five ears

or so

by

authors s

diverse

as

Dudley

Seers,

Paul

Streeten,

Muhbub

ul

Haq,

John Friedmann

and Michael

Redclift,

perhaps

slightly

ingedby

Wolfgang

Sachsand

GustavoEs-

teva.

Trends in basic needs and qualityof life

In

assessing

he

shortcomings

r failures

of devel-

opment

nitiatives,

postmodernists

nd some

post-

colonialcritics

downplay

or

ignore

he

compelling

evidence rom

around he

globe

that he

dominant

aspirations

f

poor people

and their

governments

remain

concerned

albeit

for

structurally

ifferent

reasons)

with

meeting

basic

needs,

enhancing

heir

living

standards nd

emulating

dvanced

ndustrial

countries

n

some variant f classic

modernization

strategies.

Similarly,

the

very tangible

achievementsof

many 'development'

programmes-albeit

to dif-

fering

extentsandat

different ates n

rural

and

ur-

ban

areasand n almostall

countries f

the

South-

in terms

of wider access

to

potable

water and in-

creasing literacy

rates,

average

nutritional evels

and life

expectancy,

or

example,

are

often over-

looked or

ignored.

A

glance

at

any

recent ssue of

the

Human

Development

Report

(UNDP,

annual)

or even the

World

Development Report

(World

Bank,

annual),

onfirms he

general

rend

over

the

last

twenty

to

thirtyyears

in

states

of

virtually

all

ideological

orientations.The

principal xceptionsare those

countries-many

of them

previously

seeking

o

implement

ome

form

of radical

ocial-

ist

programme-where widespread

or

long

civil

warshave

destroyed

hysical

andsocial

nfrastruc-

ture

and

disrupted

ocial

programmes.

hese

con-

flictswereoften

spawned

or

fanned

by

superpower

rivalry

during

he Cold

War;

xamples

ncludeAn-

gola,

Mozambique

nd

Sudan,

El

Salvador,

Grena-

da and

Nicaragua,

nd

Afghanistan

nd

Cambodia.

A morerecentand

worrying

rend

owards

alling

school enrolments

especially

at

secondary

evel),

literacy

evels and access

to

health care facilities

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79 B

(1997)

-

4

185




5/20

DAVID SIMON

has

emerged

since the

early

1980s

in

countries

where

previously high

proportions

of state

expend-

iture on

education,

health and other

social services

have

been

severely

cut and

user

charges

introduced

in terms

of structural

adjustment

and

economic

re-

covery

programmes.

Two of the most clear-cut ex-

amples

are

Tanzania

and

Zimbabwe,

as even the

World

Bank now

readily

acknowledges

in

its

advo-

cacy

of

greater

attention

to the social

dimensions

of

adjustment

(e.g.

Cornia

et

al.,

1992;

Woodward,

1992;

Simon et

al.,

1995;

Husain

and

Faruqee,

1996; UNDP,

annual).

Overall,

the available

evidence

suggests

that,

de-

spite

debates about how best

to

implement

devel-

opment,

success

has

at best

been

uneven,

both

within

and

between countries. While

average

in-

comes

and the

quality

of

life

for a

substantial

pro-

portion

of

people

have been

rising

over the last two

or three

decades

in much

of South-east

Asia

and

parts

of Latin

America,

for

example,

the

reverse is

true in

most of

Africa,

parts

of South

Asia,

the Car-

ibbean,

and

latterly

also Central and

Eastern Eu-

rope.

Within

many

countries,

as well as between

countries in

particular regions,

disparities

have

been

widening

rather han

narrowing,

with

little

ev-

idence

that this trend will

shortly

be reversed

in

line

with

predictions

of conventional

modernization

(e.g.

Africa

Confidential,

1997).

This

is

one

pow-

erful

reason for the

growth

of so-called

anti-devel-

opment perspectives.

Development

discredited

4

Notwithstanding

the above

point,

the

way

in which

often diverse

programmes,

agendas

and even

prin-

ciples

espoused

by very

different

donor and

recip-

ient

governments,

non-governmental

organiza-

tions and

internationalfinancial

institutions

are

dis-

missed

by post-

or

anti-developmental

critics

using

the

fashionable

phrase,

'the

development

project'

(e.g.

Pieterse,

1991;

Esteva, 1992; Sachs,

1992;

Routledge,

1995), is

unhelpful,

as thereneitherwas

nor is

such a

monolithic

or

singular

construction,

even

during

the

heyday

of

modernization in the

1960s

and

early

1970s. Arturo Escobar

(1995)

ex-

emplifies

this trend in

a more sustained

manner

than

most,

by

globalizing

the

argument

from his

penetrating

and

in-depth

analysis

of

US

'develop-

ment'

interventions

in

parts

of Latin

America,

es-

pecially

through

USAID. Given his

post-

or

anti-

development

stance,

this rather

un-postmodern

universalizing represents

a

shortcoming

which

sig-

nificantly

reduces the

power

of his

critique.5

By

no means all authorshave succumbed

to

this

temptation

to universalize:

for

example,

several

of

the contributors to Crush

(1995),

especially

Porter

(1995),

Mitchell

(1995)

and

Tapscott

(1995),

pro-

vide

nuanced

analyses

of individual

countries,

agencies

or

projects

and

highlight

the

interplay

be-

tween metatheories

and broad

ideologies,

particu-

lar

discourses and

concrete contextual

applica-

tions.

However,

many poststructuralist

critics

of

conventional

development(alism),

e.g.

contribu-

tors to Sachs

(1992),

still need

to take far

greater

account

of the differences

in

objectives,

policy

and

practice among

the various

official bilateral

and

multilateral

donors

(cf.

for

example,

the

Nordic

countries

and the

USA;

or UNICEF

and the

World

Bank),

which

were

arguably

far

more

substantive

during

the 1970s

and 1980s than

in

today's

neocon-

servative,

market-oriented

climate).

In

addition,

many very

diverse

Northern and Southern

non-

governmental

organizations

(NGOs)

have

adopted

very

different

objectives

and

methods from

official

donors over the last

twenty years

or

so,

generally

working

with

community-based organizations

(CBOs)

and

so-called social

movements,

and

which

have

made

considerable

contributions to

both

community empowerment

and material

im-

provement

in

quality

of life.

Indeed,

such

organizations

and

movements

do

figure

centrally

in the

alternative

discourses

advo-

cated

by

Escobar and

others; however,

the

great

di-

versity

in

every respect

of

such

collectivities and

the

now-voluminous literature

on

NGOs warn

against

idealizing

them

uncritically

as

embodying

the

latest

'magic

bullet' of

development

(Walker,

1988;

Schuurman and Van

Naerssen, 1989;

Ekins,

1992;

Schuurman,

1993a;

Edwards and

Hulme,

1995;

Hudock,

1995).

Somewhat

bizarrely,

given

his

trenchant and detailed

critique

of

official dis-

courses and

development

policies

and

pro-

grammes,

Escobar

(1995)

adopts

a

sharply

con-

trasting

and

ingenuous

idealization

of

NGOs and

'new' social movements as authentic and

legiti-

mate

without

any

attempt

at evaluation or

decon-

struction. David

Lehmann

(1997)

has

recently

un-

derlined this

latter

point

most

forcefully

within

a

wider

critique

of Escobar's

book.

The

contrast

be-

tween

Escobar's

treatment

and

Schuurman's

equally

theoretically

informed

discussion

of

NGOs

is

sharp.

Conversely, developmentalists

all

too often

still

ignore

or

fail

adequately

to

internalize the reasons

for

widespread

'development

failure',

especially

in

poor

countries and

among

often

large

subordinate,

186

Geografiska

Annaler

-

79

B

(1997)

.

4




6/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW

DIRECTIONS

IN

DEVELOPMENT THINKING

unpowerful

groups,

and therefore

the

potential

val-

ue of

postmodern,

postcolonial

and related

visual-

izations. It is indeed

ironic that the

absolute

or

rel-

ative failure of

many developmentalist

states and

state-led

development strategies

is

central to neo-

liberal and

post-

or

anti-development

approaches

alike.

Hence,

the

rolling

back of the

(generally

de-

velopmentalist)

state,

one of the

central tenets of

current

neoliberal

development

orthodoxy,

is

in-

creasing

the

political

and

symbolic spaces

for,

and

hastening

the evolution

of,

diverse NGO and CBO

initiatives

in

many

countries,6

which some

writers

see as

constitutive

of

postmodernity

(Bell,

1992;

Escobar,

1995).

Simply

to dismiss

postmodernism

and related

paradigms

as irrelevant or

esoteric

without

any attempt

at

serious

evaluation of or en-

gagement

with them is both

methodologically

and

practically unhelpful

(see below).

The

rapidly expanding

literatures

on

globaliza-

tion and 'flexible'

post-Fordist production

in the

world

economy

have been

quite

successful,

albeit

unevenly,

in

examining

the interconnectedness

of

the

divergent

economic fortunes

of different

coun-

tries and

regions

across the

globe

(see

recent

re-

views

by

Barff,

1995;

Thrift,

1995; Whatmore,

1995).

However,

these latter

perspectives

are still

dominated

unequivocally by

Northern-centric

world views. Little consideration

is

given

to

possi-

ble

alternative

perspectives focusing

on local world

views and

development strategies

or

ideologies

which

rely

rather less

on

external

determinants

(e.g.

Adedeji,

1993;

Himmelstrand et

al.,

1994).

Many

of the contributors

to these

two books

share

Afro-centric world

views,

and are critical

of

the

inequities

of

the

existing

world

order and the

colonial

or neocolonial relations which

have

given

rise to the current

crisis of

sustainability.

Yet their

perspectives

would

not be considered

as

'postco-

lonial'

by

adherents

of that

paradigm.

Indeed,

the

diffuse

literature

on

postcolonialism

connects re-

markably

little with

conventional

developmental

agendas

or-far more

surprisingly-with

post-

modernism,

despite

the

former's

valuable

focus

on

restructuring

nequitable

colonial

inheritances,

and

the cultural

politics

of

identity, especially

recover-

ing

the 'lost' identities

of

groups

subordinated

and

marginalized

by

colonial

practices,

official histo-

ries and Northern

feminist and

environmentalist

discourses.

This

fragmentation

of

discourse,

or

perhaps

more

accurately

the

politics

of discourse

and

labelling,

will be

returned

to below.

In view of their

very

different

points

of

departure

and

agendas,

it is somewhat ironic that

the two

dominant

occidental

development paradigms

of re-

cent

decades,

namely

modernization

and

political

economy/structuralism,

have

generally

shared the

characteristics of

being

rather

narrow,

often

econ-

omistic, top-down

and

overtly modernizing

in

ap-

plication. They

also share the characteristic of be-

ing overarching

metatheories,

firmly

rooted in the

discourses

of

intellectual

modernism,

and there-

fore

seeking

to

provide singular,

universal

expla-

nations for

poverty

and

underdevelopment

and

pre-

scriptions

for

overcoming

them.7

However,

it

is

worth

reminding

ourselves that

modern

develop-

ment is not a

totally

uniform or smooth

process,

and that

modernization

need not lead to

global

ho-

mogeneity, especially

if

undertaken

with

a

degree

of

politico-economic

and

cultural

autonomy,

as the

Japanese experience

illustrates

so

powerfully.

The

objectives

of conventional

developmental-

ism with

respect

to the South are

generally

articu-

lated at three

principal

levels,

although

the

partic-

ular

discourses,

agendas

and

processes

of

develop-

ment

may

differ

considerably

both within and

be-

tween them:

-

by

the

populations

of

poorer

countries,

ex-

pressed,

for

example,

in

voting patterns.

This

can be

illustrated

by

Peru's

President

Fujimori

winning widespread

popular support

in

that

country's

1992

general

and

presidential

elec-

tions

by

virtue

of

his relative success

in

clamping

down on Maoist

guerrillas

and

his

promises

of better

living

standards,

despite

the undemocratic

route

by

which

he seized

power

a

few

years

previously.

More

generally,

the

struggles

by poor

people

to

meet their ba-

sic needs and

their

aspirations

for an

im-

proved quality

of life are

strongly

influenced

by

the

demonstration

effects of

modernization

and the

consumptive lifestyles

of the

middle

and

upper

classes.

Different methods

and

routes to

achieve these

goals may

be

adopted,

but active

alienation,

rejection

and rebellion

are

normally only

last resorts.

-

by

nation

states,

in

terms

of their

political pro-

grammes

and

national

development

plans.

For

example,

the Zimbabwean

government

has

consistently sought

to

prevent

and

eliminate

squatting

and

informal urban settlement

on

the

grounds

that

it is

demeaning

and

unworthy

of a

progressive,

modemrn

and

until

recently

also

supposedly

socialist)

African

state. De-

pending

on the nature

of the state and

open-

ness of the

political

system, regional

and local

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79

B

(1997)

?

4

187




7/20

DAVID SIMON

state

institutions

may

shareor

oppose

the

cen-

tral

state's

agendas,

but extreme

measures

such as active rebellion

and

attempts

at

seces-

sion

may

be

increasing

in

frequency

as the

writ

of

ossified

and

corrupt highly

centralized

states faces

challenges

from

outlying

and im-

poverished

areas.The armed

resistance

by

the

Sudan

People's

Liberation

Army

and

other

Christianand

animist

groups

to

Islamicization

in

southern

Sudan

by

the

government

in

Khar-

toum,

the

Zapatista

rebellion

in

Mexico's Chi-

apas

State,

the

insurgencies against

Mobutu

Sese Seko's

kleptocratic

former

dictatorship

in

Zaire

(now

the

Democratic

Republic

of

Congo)

and the Karen hill

people's

struggle

against

the

brutal

military regime

in

Burma/

Myanmar

are all cases

in

point.

-

by

international financial institutions

(IFIs)

and

donor

agencies,

in

terms of

their

over-

arching

discourses,

lending

criteria and

fund-

ing priorities.

For

instance,

the

World

Bank

and

other donor

agencies

have

continued

to

promote

large-scale

dam

projects

and

other

infrastructural

programmes

in

order

to maxi-

mize

conventional

economic

benefits

despite

the

well-known

social and

environmental

costs and

evidence that

smaller

schemes,

built

with

greater

sensitivity

to local

people

and

their

environment,

are

often

also

economical-

ly

more successful. In fairness, rather

greater

attention

has

been

devoted to

the

social and

environmental

consequences

of

large

schemes

in

recent

years,

but-with one

or two

notable

exceptions-generally

still

predicated

on

the

assumption

that

construction

should

go

ahead,

e.g.

the

Narmada

River dams

in

India,

the

Turkwel

Gorge

dam in

Kenya's

West

Pokot

District

and the

Three

Gorges

Dam on

the

Yangtse

River in

China.

More

emphasis

by

donors

and

recipient

govern-

ments on alternative

delivery systems,8

processes

and

project

types

emerged

during

the

1980s,

not

least

because

of

funding

constraints

and

condition-

alities,

themselves

linked

to the new

deity

of eco-

nomic

efficiency

and

marketization.

However,

such

co-option

often

devalued more

radical

alter-

native

antecedents,

reducing

them from

agendas

for

change

and

empowerment

into

little

more

than

shopping

lists which

are

hawked to

donors

for im-

plementation,

commonly

more in

line with

donors'

than

recipients' priorities.

This

has been

particular-

ly

graphically

illustrated

with

respect

to basic

needs

philosophies

(cf.

Wisner,

1988; Bell, 1992;

Simon

et

al., 1995;

Streeten, 1995; Wolfe,

1996)

and,

I would

argue,

is

currently being repeated

in

relation

to the

ubiquitious

sloganizing

about

'sus-

tainable

development'.

As I

argued

some

years ago,

the

pedigree

of

the

sustainability

debate

stretches back

at least to

the

early

1970s

(Simon,

1989),

when the

impact

of

Rachel Carson's

(1962)

landmark

catalogue

of

de-

velopment's

environmental

woes

in the

USA,

The

Silent

Spring,

and neo-Malthusian

concerns

about

resource

exhaustion,

prompted

important

new

re-

search

agendas, major

international

conferences

and the establishment of the United

Nations Envi-

ronment

Programme

(UNEP).

Certainly,

today's

environmental

discourses

are

very

different

from

those evident

in The Limitsto Growth

(Meadows

et

al.,

1972),

A

Blueprint

or

Survival

(The

Ecologist,

1972),

Only

One Earth

(Ward

and

Dubos,

1972),

Small

is

Beautiful

(Schumacher,

1973)

or

The

So-

cial Limits

to Growth

(Hirsch,

1977)

and

indeed

from

the

development

agendas

informing 'Reshap-

ing

the

International

Order'

or the Brandt

Commis-

sion

reports.

However,

what at that

time was

still

widely

regarded

as

a

radical(?)

or

eccentric

fringe

concern

has become

progressively

more

accepted

and

acceptable

over

the

intervening years.

The

es-

tablishment

of the World

Commission on

Environ-

ment

and

Development

(WCED) (the

Brundtland

Commission)

in 1983 and the

publication

of its

re-

port,

Our Common

Future,

in

1987 both

reflected

this and

provided

a new landmark

in the

'fore-

grounding'

of sustainable

development

as

dis-

course,

objective,

process

and

fad. In the

same

year,

Michael

Redclift's

(1987)

elegant

little

book,

Sus-

tainable

Development,

appeared,

taking

conceptu-

al and

analytical

rigour

in the field

to a

far more

so-

phisticated

level.

Five

years

later,

the

WCED

report

had

a

sequel

in

the form

of the

1992 UN

Conference

on Envi-

ronment

and

Development

(UNCED)

in

Rio de

Ja-

neiro,

intendedto transformthe

concept

into more

concrete

international

commitments

and

agendas.

Notwithstanding

substantial

horse-trading

and the

watering

down of

the

intended

conventions for

ide-

ological

and domestic

political

reasons

by

the

US

(Republican)

and

British

(Conservative)

govern-

ments

in

particular,

a

process

which

generated

much

criticism

and

cynicism

among

many

environ-

mentalists

and

radical

NGO

critics,

the

conference

did result in

unprecedented

intergovernmental

and

NGO

commitments to

biodiversity

conservation,

greenhouse

gas

emission

reductionsand the

imple-

188

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79

B

(1997)

?

4




8/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW

DIRECTIONS

IN

DEVELOPMENT

THINKING

mentation

f

Agenda

21 at

local

as well as

national

and

international

evels

(Middleton

et

al.,

1993).

Subsequently,

here

has

been

widespread

vidence

of

greater lexibility

and

commitment o more di-

verse

project

ypes

and

scales and

to

greater

nvi-

ronmental

prioritization

n various

policy

arenas

(Hurrell,

995;Reed,

1992).

Nevertheless,

t is

also

certainly

rue that most official

agendas

envisage

little

fundamental

hange,focusing

on

promoting

more efficient

resource

and

energy

valuationand

use,

recycling

and

reduced

pollutionbroadly

with-

in

existing

parameters

atherhanon radical

hang-

es to

lifestyles

and

economic

systems.

At the ex-

treme,

ustainable

evelopment

as become a con-

venient

slogan

to

signalpolitical

correctnesswith-

out the

corresponding

commitment to

change.

Such

expediency

s

usually

associatedwith estab-

lishmentnstitutions, s wasonce

again

underlined

by

the failure

of

the 'Rio

Plus

Five'

summitat

UN

Headquarters

n

New York

n

lateJune

1997.

Many

government

ministers and

NGO

activists

alike

were

very

criticalof the ackof

commitment

y key

Northern

overnments,

nddubbed he

event 'Rio

MinusFive'

(Independent,

8 June

1997).

Perhaps

such official

cynicism

prompted

Escobar's

1995:

192-3)

condescendingly

dismissive

assertions

about ustainable

evelopment

nd he

Brundtland

Commission

Report,

to which David Lehmann

(1997: 574-5)

has

ustifiably

aken uch

exception.

The dominantmodernist

evelopmental

thos s

still for the most

part

obsessed

by

the

agenda

of

economic

efficiency,

articulated

argely through

privatization

nd iberalization

rogrammes.

hese

programmes

ave

long pedigrees

but

derive

their

immediate

mpetus

from aid conditionalities

m-

posed by

the IFIs andotherdonor

organizations

s

strategies

or

overcoming

heThirdWorlddebt

cri-

sis and

promoting

free'

international

rade.The

logical-and

indeed

desired--outcome

has been

the

almostuniversal

olling

back

of the

state cou-

pled

with a

resurgent

ole for

domestic and

espe-

ciallyinternationalapital, ven nperipheral ost-

socialist states

(Hanlon,

1991, 1996;

Sidaway

and

Power,

1995).

The ultimate

prescription

as been

to maximize rade

hrough xport-orientedroduc-

tion

based

on

supposed

nternational

omparative

advantage.

While

this

approach

may

improve

he

delivery

of certain

goods

and

services,

t

generally

and de-

liberately

ails

to

address

quity

ssues

adequately

and is

likely

to

undermine

he

ability

of

develop-

mental states to deliver on their

political pro-

grammes

or

social

development,

romwhich heir

legitimacy

has been

sought

andderived.

Moreover,

there s a

deep-seated

ension

betweenthe

cutting

of

social

expenditures

n

line

with

donor ondition-

alities

(despite

some more recent

palliativepack-

ages

to address

he

social dimensions

of

adjust-

ment)

and he

promotion

f literate,

healthy

andac-

tive

participants

n

expanding

democraticstruc-

turesand

civil

society (e.g.

Simon

et

al.,

1995).

In

effect,

it

also has to be realized

hat,

particularly

n

their

earlier1980s

formulations ut also more re-

cently,

conventional

nalyses

of the debt

crisis and

the

most

effective solutionsamounted o

blaming

the

victims of

development,

he vast

majority

of

whom

had

little if

any say

in

the

policies adopted

by

theirstates

or

the

transnational anks

andother

financial institutions and

official donor bodies.

This is

closely

linked

to

'Afropessimism'

nd its

equivalents

n other

regions. Similarly,

SAPs and

conditionalities ave been

described

by

their

pre-

scribing

doctorsas

harshmedicine

required

o

ef-

fect a

systemic

cure.

Yet,

like most

conventional

Westernmedicine,

they

are

directedat the

symp-

toms rather

han

the

underlying

causes

(Simon,

1995b).

In termsof the

prevailing

onventional conom-

ic

development

wisdom,

greater

market

rientation

would

actually

nhance he

prospects

or

attaining

modernity y

achieving

conomic

growth,

which s

widely regarded

s

being

an

essential

prerequisite

for

subsequent

edistribution nd the widerfulfil-

mentof basicneeds

and

popular spirations

Slater,

1993,

1995b).

The one dimension

of

equity

which

has

generally

received

ncreasing

attention s that

of

gender:gender

awareness

s

now

accorded

x-

plicit recognition

n

most

policy

and

programme

documents,

lbeitstill

frequentlymerely

at the ev-

el of

lip-service

or

superficiality

n the

'women

n

development'

mould. More

thorough-going

nte-

gration

f

gender

ssues n

accordance

with

'gender

and

development'

pproaches

s

still

inadequate

n

practice,

despite

the now

increasingly

prominent

positionof various eministdiscoursesn

develop-

ment

debates,

especially

around

ndigenous

ights

and

identitiesas

well

as

communityparticipation

and

he environment

Shiva,

1988;Minh-ha,1989;

Moser, 1993;

Nesmith and

Radcliffe, 1993;

Rad-

cliffe and

Westwood,

1993; Bell, 1994;

Marchand

and

Parpart,

995;Townsend,

1995).

Post-

everything

The current heoretical

turns'

arecharacterized

y

the

prefix post-'

n relation o most

periods

or

par-

Geografiska

nnaler

-

79

B

(1997)

-

4

189




9/20

DAVID

SIMON

adigms,

as in

postcolonial, postmodern, post-Cold

War,

postdevelopment

and so forth.

Clearly they

are

used

to

signify

differences,

either

in

terms of

periodization

or

conceptual

and

methodological

approaches.

We

could therefore

be

forgiven

for suf-

fering

a

degree

of

post-itis,

of

feeling

past

it,

post-

everything

After

all,

even

history

has

ended,

if

Francis

Fukuyama's

simplistic triumphalist

credo

were to be believed.

In

a similar

vein,

some recent

discussions about

time-space compression

in

the

context of

globalization

and the

role of telecommu-

nications have

suggested

the end of

geography,

as

if

space

were somehow to

triumph

over

place

in

the

sense

of

localities

being

imbued with

specific

so-

cio-cultural

meanings.

What I

am

suggesting

is

the

importance

of

a

healthy scepticism

towards some of the

more

sweeping

andemotive formulations of

post-every-

thing,

which

may

universalize

from

particular

case

studies

in

a

manner reminiscent

of modernist the-

orizing,

be elitist

as

practised

by

its

advocates

de-

spite

the

supposed

concern with

precisely

the

op-

posite,

and

may

actually

be of

little

practical

use in

addressing poverty

and

providing

basic

needs.

Moreover,

critiques

of conventional

developmen-

talism and the search for more

meaningful, appro-

priate

and

socially grounded

and

bottom-up

alter-

natives are

not

new.

As with the different defini-

tions

of

development

and the

examples

of

basic

needs and environmental

sustainability

given

above,

there

is

a

long pedigree

of initiatives and

theoretical

formulations

stretching

back decades

and

including,

for

example, Reshaping

the

Interna-

tional Order

(RIO);

autarchy

as advocated

by

the

extreme

dependency

authors,

Andr6

Gunder

Frank

and

Samir

Amin;

the

Brandt

Commission;

Another

Development-as

articulated

by

the

Dag

Hammar-

skj6ld

Foundation

through

its

journal, Develop-

ment

Dialogue,

since the late 1970s

(e.g.

1978,

1980);

the

agenda

for

a New International Division

of

Labour articulated

through

UNCTAD;

and a

range

of

grassroots

and

bottom-up

strategies

from

different

perspectives,

of which

agropolitan

devel-

opment,

associated with John

Friedmann,

is

possi-

bly

one

of

the best known. More

recently,

Rose-

mary

Galli

(1992)

has

examined

anti-development

perspectives

which have little to do with

postmod-

em

or

postcolonial

critiques.

That

said,

and

as

I

have

recently argued

at

length

(Simon, 1997a),

it

is no

longer

appropriate

o

reject

these

perspectives

out of

hand

as

being

irrelevant to

societies in

the South.

Many

of the

problems

and

non-debates have arisen from

imprecisions

in

use

of the terms

'postmodem'

and

'postcolonial'.

I

dis-

cuss a threefold distinction between the

postmod-

ern

as

period

or

epoch,

as mode

of

expression

or

aesthetic

form,

and as

analytical

method or

prob-

lematic

(ways

of

seeing),

which is

very

helpful

in

disentangling

the

range

of

usages.

I

argue

that it is

the

last

of these three which has most

potential

in

relation to the South.

I

then

suggest

the

application

of

this same threefold

categorization

to the litera-

ture

on

postcolonialism; although

it

is

somewhat

more difficult to

separate

them,

it

is

again

the

post-

colonial

problematic

which

appears

to have

the

most

utility.

I

shall now

briefly

explain

why.

Postmodern

perspectives

What

distinguishes

the

present

period

is

that

the ex-

pression

of conventional

developmental

ideals and

the methods of

implementing

them no

longer

enjoy

universal

acceptance

and

legitimacy

within

target-

ed countries and

areas.

Increasingly,

individuals

and

groups

of

people

at

a

local level are either seek-

ing

the attainment of their

aspirations

for better liv-

ing

standardsoutside the realm

of the

state,

or

they

have

rejected

the

dominant

developmental

dis-

course(s)

and are

pursuing

alternative

agendas

with

very

different aims and

objectives.

In

the

former

case,

they

are still

seeking

the basic

needs

and other

fruits of modernization but have

despaired

of the

ability

of the state and official

development

agen-

cies

to

deliver on their

promises,

and have thus

tak-

en their own

initiatives.

In

the latter

scenario,

they

have

rejected

the basic

premises

and

trajectories

of

the

modem

developmental

state.

Hence,

urban and

other 'new'

social movements have arisen

in

a wide

variety

of

contexts and

countries

in

response

to a

vacuum

or,

more

generally,

as

alternative

modes of

organization

and

with

very

different

agendas

from

discredited official

local

government

or

communi-

ty

structures

(Walker,

1988;

Schuurman

and

Van

Naerssen, 1989;

Routledge,

1993; Bell,

1994;

Ed-

wards and Hulme, 1995; Hudock, 1995). Some-

times the

political,

social and

environmental di-

mensions

of

protest

and action have been

linked

(Schuurman

and Van

Naerssen, 1989; Schuurman,

1993a;

Radcliffe and

Westwood,

1996).

A

dramatic

recent

example,

which

integrates

development

and

environmental

concerns,

is the

citizens' rebellion

in

the

Mexican town of

Tepotzlain

in

late

1996,

when the

mayor

and town council

were

expelled

and a virtual

unilateral declaration of

independ-

ence was

proclaimed

over the

mayor's

efforts to

have a

major

US$400

million

upmarket develop-

190

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79 B

(1997)

?

4




10/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW

DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT

THINKING

ment

comprising

a

golf

course,

other

sports

facili-

ties,

a

hotel and

condominium of

800

homes in the

name

of

'development',

while

ignoring

popular

de-

velopment

demands.

In

addition,

the

golf

course

would

have exacerbated

the

local

water

shortageand

put

valuable land

beyond

the reach of most res-

idents:

In

Tepotzlan,

however,

where

cars

must

squeeze

into cobbled

streets

meant

for don-

keys

...

the local residents

were not

buying

the

golf

club's

passport

to modem life.

Petitions

demanding

the cancellation

of

the

golf

club

turned

into street

protests,

and then

into dem-

onstrations

outside the town

hall. When

Mo-

rales

[the

mayor]

still

refused to

meet

his

an-

gry

constituents,

a

group

stormed

into

his of-

fices and held six officials

hostage.

The rebel-

lion

had

begun.

...

"It

began

as an

environmental

protest,"says Rodriguez

[the

protest

leader],

...

"but with

the

jailing

of four

comrades

over

the

past year,

and

two

deaths

in

clashes,

and all

the arrest warrants

hanging

over

our

heads,

it has become

much

more

complicated.

We

cannot

give

up

the

fight

now."... "A

unique

and

extraordinary

phenom-

enon

is

taking place

in

Tepotzlin,"Adolfo

Aguilar

Zinser,

an

opposition

congressman

and

longtime

resident,

wrote

in

the

daily

La

Reforma. "We, the residents of

Tepotzlin,

are

discovering

that no

government

is

better

than

bad

government.

Without

a

PRI

government,

without

municipal

police,

without

the

pres-

ence of

any

federal law

enforcement

agency,

we

enjoy

a far

higher

level

of

security

than

in

the

rest

of the state of

Morelos."

Not

everyone

shares

Aguilar

Zinser's

rose-

tinted views. Some

residents

say

the

town has

become more

polarised,

while

many

are tired

of the

endless

appeals

for

money

to

keep

the

rebel

government

afloat. Relatives of

ousted

officials who remained in

Tepotzlin

have suf-

fered

discrimination and

abuse

(Crawford,

1996).

This

example

illustrates well

how the

politics

of

lo-

cal

protest,

induced

by popular rejection

of

conven-

tional

development

agendas

which are

perceived

to

be

imposed

in a

top-down

manner

by unresponsive

elected officials and

developers,

can,

if

the senti-

ments are

deeply enough

felt and the authorities

sufficiently

inflexible,

progress

to more direct ac-

tion in

defence of

space,

place

and

popular aspira-

tions.The outcome

was

apparently

nforeseen

nd

unimaginedby

any

of the

protagonists,

but

the

stakeswere

raisedand he

resultwas

open

rebellion

and he

usurpation

f the local state

by

the

protest-

ers

and heir

upporters.

o

doubt

herewere

other

local

complexities,

and the article

says

nothing

about

he

socio-economic

profile

of the activistsor

community

at

large.

However,

hewritof the

hith-

erto

omnipresent

RI

no

longer

runs n

Tepotzlin.

Whether he standoff

will

persist

and

whether he

residents

will

be

able

o

organize

n

alternative

ys-

tem

of local

administration emains

to

be

seen.

However,

his

example

highlights

he

importance

of

contingency

nd

ocality

n

the

analysis

of

events

andmovements

or

change,

even n this

age

of

glo-

balized

communications nd

glocalized

conscious-

nesses

and

dentities.

A

very

different

xample

s

provided

by

there-

sponse

of

headman

Sebastian

Kamangwa

of the

4000-strong

Shitemo

community

iving

in

an iso-

lateddistrict

of

Okavango

Region

n

north-eastern

Namibia,

o the recent

opening

thereof a

primary

health

care

clinic

by

the

country's

Minister of

Health.At a

time

when

conventional nd

radition-

al

(bio)medical

systems

are

increasingly

coming

together

n

complementary

yntheses

(which

are

arguably

ostmodemrn-see

imon,

1997a)

n vari-

ous

parts

of

sub-Saharan fricaand

beyond,

he

re-

portedlyproclaimed

ategorically

hat

In

the

past

malaria

caused

a

lot

of

suffering

and

ighting

because

people

thought

t

was the

resultof

witchcraft,

utnow we have

seen that

the clinics

can solve these

problems.

Some

people

are

still

trying

to

cause trouble

by

de-

manding

that traditionalhealers be

revered,

but I

am adamant hat we cannot

have

tradi-

tional

healers

working alongside

modem

health

services

(The

Namibian,

6

June

1997:

8).

Such anovertlymodernist tance

might

seemrath-

er

outdated

r

even

quaint,

et

the

headman

learly

perceives

himself as

progressive.

This

exemplifies

my

earlier

points

about

ocial

conditioning-mod-

ern

or

otherwise-and the

powerful

demonstration

effect,

albeit

ubstantially

imelagged,

f

perceived

successfulmodem nnovationsn

otherwise

appar-

ently

conservative

ural

ommunities.

t also

raises

several

questions

about

representation

nd

legiti-

macy

withinlocal

communities;

n other

words,

how

representative

s

theheadman's tance of his

people's

perceptions,

and

will

their

practices

Geografiska

Annaler

?

79

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(1997)

?

4

191




11/20

DAVID SIMON

change

in

view of his

attitude?There

is

also a

major

issue for social theorists

to

ponder.

The new

clinic

saves

people

a walk of

at

least 12 km and

helps

treat

malaria and other serious

illnesses.

Is it

therefore

legitimate

for

postmodern

and/or

postcolonial

crit-

ics to

decry

or dismiss the

significance

of such in-

novations

to

poor people's

lives? I

return

to

this

question

below.

These

contrasting

examples

also

demonstrate

that

there

is a

growing

disjuncture

between

mod-

ernist

developmental

rhetoric and

the

increasingly

diverse

experiences

of

such

programmes

on

the

ground.

While

spokespeople,

political

leaders and

even

many 'grassroots'

or

community

groups

re-

main

committed

to

the

grand

scale

and

'the

big

ide-

as' of

progress

and

development,

methods of

im-

plementation

invoke

strategies

which,

elsewhere

in

the

world,

have been associated with the

postmod-

em.

What is

therefore

emerging

is a

growing

accept-

ance of

heterodoxes,

diversities and

multiple

sys-

tems,

explanations

and modes/scales of institution-

al

organization,

which

are at least

partially super-

seding

the

conventional modernist traditions of

a

single

orthodoxy

in

state

ideology

and

practice.

However,

it is

by

no

means

certain,

or

even

desir-

able,

that this

trend

will

eventually

eliminate mod-

ern(ist)

development agendas.

Therefore,

it

may

well

be that the co-existence

and

simultaneity

of di-

verse

(and

even

divergent)

systems

and

practices

become an

enduring reality,

even

though

their re-

lationships

are

likely

to be flexible and

changeable,

and

perhaps

as much

symbolic

as substantive. This

condition

exemplifies

the

essence of

postmoderni-

ty

as understood

by analysts working

in

the

North

(Dear,

1988;

Folch-Serra,

1989;

Harvey,

1989;

Featherstone,

1991, 1995;

Soja,

1991; Bauman,

1992;

Berg,

1993;

Watson and

Gibson,

1995),

in

terms of which

the monolithic

modernist discours-

es,

both

liberal

and

Marxist,

have been or

are

being

discarded

in

favour of a

multiplicity

of

ideologies

and modes of

explanation.9

In terms of the schema

discussed

above,

this

represents

the notion

of

the

postmodern

as

problematic,

overlain with a distinct

element

of the

postmodern

as

epoch,

albeit without

a clear break from

the modem

and, indeed,

charac-

terized

by

the

co-existence of

and

overlap

between

the two.

10

In

many

respects,

this

conceptualization

appears

to offer a

far more

helpful

way

of

understanding

the

often

disjointed

and

conflicting processes,

phe-

nomena and

material and cultural

styles-both

ur-

ban and

rural-which are now so

typical

within

countries of the South

as well as a

way

to

help

re-

think

North-South relations

(e.g.

Slater,

1992a,

1992b, 1995a,

1997).

This will be

evident to

any-

one who has

encountered the

jarring

contrasts

on

stepping

out of an ultra- or

postmodern

urban

shop-

ping precinct

into untarredstreets lined with shan-

ties and

beggars,

or who has encountered

the

par-

adoxes

of

contemporary

tourist

landscapes

super-

imposed

on

poor

rural

communities in

the

Carib-

bean,

Latin

America,

Africa or the

Asia-Pacific

regions.

Indeed,

it

may

well be that this

condition

is far more

widespread

and

characteristic

of

the

South than the North. It is

also not

necessarily

a

very

new or recent

phenomenon-having

roots

at

least as far back

as

the

late colonial

period

in Afri-

ca,

Asia,

the Caribbean

Basin and Pacific

Islands-

but rather

a

different

way

of

seeing

and

interpreting

the

quite

long-standing phenomena

of

Southern

dislocation,

unemployment

and

poverty

previously

regarded

as

representing

incomplete

moderniza-

tion and the

iniquities

of

colonialism.

Moreover,

many

of the

contrasts,

contradictions and

fragmen-

tations

of

meanings

and

practice

within the

South

are at least

as

much

the result of deliberate

or

wilful

actions as is the case with

postmodern

showpieces

of

urban

design

and

other

forms of

expression

in

the North.

Postcolonialism-a Eurocentricconstruct?

Dani

Nabudere,

the

veteran radical

Ugandan

law-

yer,

social

scientist

and

politician,

takes issue with

the entire notion

of

postcolonialism

(personal

com-

munication,

14

January

1996).

He

regards

this as

too

Eurocentric,

implying

the

previous

hegemony

of

colonial

institutions,

social

structures and

iden-

tities as so

eloquently

elaborated

by

Blaut

(1993)

and

Corbridge

(1993a).

Consequently

the

experi-

ence of

colonialism is

the

defining

point

of

refer-

ence.

However,

in

many

parts

of the

former colo-

nial

world,

including

sub-Saharan

Africa,

indige-

nous values, social structures and identities sur-

vived-admittedly

to

differing

extents and with

differing

degrees

of

engagement

with or

transfor-

mation

by

colonial

impositions.

Hence,

in his

view,

the task of

evolving

and

promoting

new,

people-

centred

and

indigenously

generated

African alter-

natives to the

colonial

and the modern

should be

more

accurately

termed

'post-traditional'.

A

fascinating example

is

provided

by

the land-

mark

investiture of

Sinqobile

Mabhena,

a

young

female

trainee

primary

school

teacher,

as chief of

the

100,000

Nswazi

people

in

Zimbabwe in De-

192

Geografiska

Annaler

-

79 B

(1997)

?

4




12/20

DEVELOPMENT

RECONSIDERED;

NEW DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT

THINKING

cember 1996. Under the

headline,

'The

chief who

wears

a

miniskirt',

Andrew

Meldrum

wrote thus

in

The

Guardian

(24

December

1996):

Surrounded

by government

ministers

and

trib-

al

chiefs,

Sinqobule

Mabhena

appears

a mod-

el

of female

subservience as

she

bows

her

head and

modestly

lowers

her

eyes.

But this

demure

23-year-old

has rocked Zimbabwe's

traditional culture

3. dt. o noua directie in gandirea despre dezvoltare

Documents