Development, post-structuralism, and post-development: controversies between (the critique of) modernity and the emergence of alternative "modernities"

Abstract

Over a period of more than fifty years of policies, programs, and theoretical debates, the theme of development remains persuasive in social sciences. Giving special attention to the anthropological reflection over this topic, this article analyzes the path from the beginning of the development anthropology to the post-structuralist and post-colonial critique as well as the emergence of a multidisciplinary perspective known as post-development. Following the discussion over ideas of post-development, we turn our focus to the recent association between this perspective and the critique of modernity through the notion of decolonization. Moreover, we examine which problems come up in the dialogue among interpretations over an issue that can reinvent and reconfigure itself in multiple theoretical possibilities.

Development; Post-development; Alternatives to modernity; Decolonization; Applied anthropology