development reconsidered; new directions in development thinking.pdf

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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: Wileyon behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and GeographyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490357.

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DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED; NEW DIRECTIONSIN DEVELOPMENT THINKING1byDavid Simon

Simon, D., 1997: Development reconsidered; new directions indevelopment thinking. Geogr. Ann., 79 B (4): 183-201.ABSTRACT. This paperoffers broad and criticalperspectives oncurrent development thinking. A brief summary of differentmeanings of development and a thumbnail sketch of broad trendsover the past twenty to thirty years in relation to major develop-ment indicators is followed by a discussion of reasons for theemergence of fundamental critiques of conventional develop-ment and developmentalism from perspectives known variouslyas post-structuralist, post-development and anti-development.Connections are made between these and the literatureson post-modernism, postcolonialism and post-traditionalism. Finally, theimplications of these rapid paradigmshifts and changing realitiesfor futureresearch,teaching and action across the South/Northdi-vide are considered.Key Words:development theory, development studies, post-de-velopmentalism, postmodernism, development in practice

IntroductionThepurposeof thispaper s to surveycurrentde-batesand rendsndevelopmenthinkingand obeprovocativeof debate.It offers my own insightsinto some of the dramaticparadigm hifts of thelast twodecades,andreflects npartmyrecentre-thinkingof thepotential elevance o theSouthorThirdWorldof concepts of postmodernism ndpostcolonialismsee Simon,1997a).Inonesense,atleast,wecurrentlyive andworkin anage whereanythinggoes:the certainties nduniversalizingmodernizingthoswhichhavechar-acterized mainstreamdevelopmentthought andpolicy, and which persisted hroughout he ColdWar,havegivenwaytoaflowering f diverse,evencontradictory heories and modes of analysis.Whileby no meansequalorperceivedasof equiv-alenttheoreticalandpracticalvalue,virtuallyallareatleast toleratedn that heyhave beenable tofindaparticulariche.Thisapparently ostmodernera s commonlycharacterizedstranscendingheso-called 'impasse' n development heorywhichwasidentified yDavidBooth(1985)andothers nthe mid-1980s.The impasse s said to have arisenasaresultof widespread isillusionmentwithcon-ventionaldevelopmentand development ailure;

thecrisisandeventual clipseof thevarious trandsof socialismas alternative aths; hegrowingeco-nomic diversity of countries within the ThirdWorld;ncreasing oncernwith the needforenvi-ronmental ustainability;he increasingassertive-ness of voices 'frombelow'; andthe rise of thepostmodernchallengeto universalizing heoriesandconventional racticesof developmentSchu-urman,1993b).Hopefully, his specialissue will offerinsightsnotonly intorecenttheoreticaldevelopments ndreconceptualizationsf development nd he envi-ronmentbut,equallyimportantly, rovidean op-portunityto examine their implicationsfor thepracticeof developmentn different ontexts.Theimportance f thisis twofold.First, hereundoubt-edly remainssignificantscope for improving henature of interventionsmade by NorthernandSoutherndevelopmentworkersandagencies,bothofficial and non-governmental.This means en-hancing the effectiveness-in terms of specificgoalsandobjectivesas well as theimplementationandmonitoring---of oth direct nterventions ndindirectassistance hroughheprovisionof funds,forexample. talso meanschallenginghe conven-tionalpracticesandbeliefswhichserve to perpet-uateinequalityandthe lack of effective(em)pow-er(ment) n the name of humanitarian ssistanceand political feel-good factors.In this respect,Istressthescopeforimprovement mongSouthernas well as Northernnstitutionsandworkers,be-cause there s a widespread ndfranklyunhelpfulimplicationn the literaturehatmost if not all oftheproblemscanbe blamedon misguidedNorth-erntheoriesandpolicies.Whilethesimplisticanddeterministic onstructions f the dependencistashave ongbeendiscredited,his intellectualegacyremainsquite angiblenpost-oranti-developmentandeven some strands f postmodern ndpostco-lonial writings.It has, of course,also been rein-forcedby the stronglynegativesocial impactofstructural djustment ndeconomicrecoverypro-grammesand the associatedaid conditionalities

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(e.g. Cornia et al., 1992; Woodward, 1992; Simonet al., 1995).The second importantreason for rethinkingde-velopment (in) practice is that importantstrands ofmainstream post-structuralist, postmodern andpostcolonial work would have us disengage frompractising development at all. Not only is 'the de-velopment project' deemed to have failed but thethrust of 'anti-development' writings asserts that ithas undermined local vitality and social cohesion.On the other hand, if the implication of the moreextreme postmodern challenge to the very basis ofcollective rationalityand identifiable social interestis accepted, then even the possibility of state orNGO interventions in pursuit of 'development'must be illusory and reactionary.The emphasis ofmuch 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. Howconvenient, then, to abandonconcern, resource al-location and action in the name of fraternalethicalconcerns If this would actually help the approxi-mately 1.2 billion people living in absolute povertyto improve theirposition, this might be defensible,but I know of no evidence to support such an as-sertion. This brand of postmodernism certainlywould place no more faith in trade than in aid as avehicle for poverty alleviation.2 So, unless we areto 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 asmuch as with development in theory.

Meaningsof DevelopmentIt is not my intention here to address or even com-parethe numerous and very different definitions orconceptions of 'development' in the manner of atextbook. These are too well known. For presentpurposes, it is sufficient to remind ourselves that-at least for even vaguely reflective and reflexivetheoreticians and practitioners-definitions arecontextual and contingent upon the ideological,epistemological or methodological orientation oftheirpurveyors. Many of these areevident fromthelabels associated with the multiplicity of approach-es to development proffered over the last fifty-oddyears by those concerned, for example, with 're-construction and development', 'economic devel-opment', 'modemrnization','redistribution withgrowth', '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-moderndevelopment'.It is therefore evident that,notwithstandingwhatsome postmodern critics and advocates of main-stream development alike would have us believe(albeit for contrasting reasons), there has neverbeen consensus or unanimityaboutthe meaning orcontent of 'development'. On the contrary,debate,dissension, contestation and negotiation have beenever-present, both on the ground in particularlo-calities and among the numerous official and unof-ficial agencies engaged in development work. In aninterestingif inaccessible archaeology of 'develop-ment', Cowen and Shenton (1996) trace the lineageback to Malthus, Comte, ecclesiastical writings byJ.H. Newman andothersin the early decades of thenineteenth century,when it was imbued with spir-itual meanings and interwoven with ideas of'progress', intent to develop and stewardship.However, their frustrationat what they see as theincorrect contemporaryusages reflects an unwill-ingness or inability to accept thatmeanings and us-ages change and/orarereconstituted over time andin different contexts. By contrast, for example,Leys (1996) is quite explicit about the differencesin meanings adopted since the Second WorldWar,while Escobar (1995) elaboratesthe use and abuseof development as a vehicle for postwar Westerneconomic and geopolitical imperialism (see alsoWatts 1995).Of course, none of the foregoing gainsays thefact that one paradigm, that of modernization andits contemporaryincarnationas neoliberalism, hasenjoyed long-standing dominance on account ofthe power of its institutional advocates and the dis-crediting of interventionist strategies during thelate 1960s and 1970s. If modernization/neoliberal-ism has been and remains the orthodox, there hascertainly not been a shortage of heterodoxes. Wehave not had to wait for the postmodern and post-colonial challenges for this. After all, an apprecia-tion of, and challenge to, existing institutionalstructures,power relations and legitimizing prop-aganda (or discourses, as these are now generallydescribed post-Foucault) have long been centralconcerns of the approaches generally known col-lectively as political economy. Lehmann (1997)echoes this point with reference particularlyto de-184 Geografiska Annaler ? 79 B (1997) ? 4



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DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED; NEW DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT THINKING

pendency theory'.Toa significant xtent,anti-de-velopment, postmodernand some postcolonialwritershave-to modifytheparabledeployedbyTerryMcGee(1997)ina recent ectureona similartheme-set up a strawelephant n seekingto por-traythepostwarengagementswithpoverty n theSouthas asingleorsingular development roject'in order o be ableto knock t downmoreeasilyWhat heserecent heoreticalturns',particular-ly with their emphasison deconstruction,havehelpfullyhighlightedand remindedus of is theneedforgreater elf-consciousness, eflexivityandencouragementof difference and heterogeneity(Slater,1997).The inherentandappliedvalueofindigenoustraditions,histories and 'knowledg-es'-especially those lost or marginalized uringthe colonialandmodern(ist)developmentaliste-riods(thelatteroftenchronologicallypostcoloni-al)-have beenbrought entrestageas a counter-pointto the often arrogantWesternizationwhichdeprecated r ignored hemas ignorant,primitiveorsimply rrelevant.Nevertheless,t is alsoimpor-tant opointoutthat,especially nthosesocial sci-ences withstrong raditions f fieldwork,ncludingsocialanthropology ndgeography,herehave al-ways been sensitive researchersarticulatingheview frombelow,withthe loss of indigenous ife-styles andculturaldiversity.Admittedly,his wassometimes sentimental,sometimes Eurocentricandoftenpreservationistn the senseof seeking ocreate ivingmuseumsas if behindglass.3However,t canbe noaccident hat t is preciselywithin heseveryacademicdisciplines hat he riseof postmodernismasbeen mosthotlydebated ndits relevance o the three-quartersf the world'spopulation iving in absoluteand relativepovertyin countriesof the South most frequently esistedand denied.Mostpostmodernists ndpostcoloni-alists have greatdifficulty n embracing he con-cretedevelopment spirations f thepoorinprac-tice,despite heir heoreticalophistication. artofthistrend s agrowingretreato thecosy Northernpavementcaf6-a favouredhauntof those withpanopticvision(s) -from the rigoursand chal-lengesof field researchn theSouth,by hidingbe-hind theconvenientlyhyped'crisis of representa-tion'of whohas a/theright o speakor writeonbe-half of ThirdWorld others'.This issue will be re-turned o belowand is also addressed n a slightlydifferentway by MikeParnwell 1997).All that wishtoaddhere s that, orme,humandevelopments theprocessofenhancingndividualand collectivequalityof life in a manner hat sat-

isfiesbasic needs(as a minimum),s environmen-tally,sociallyandeconomically ustainable nd sempoweringnthe sensethat hepeopleconcernedhavea substantial egreeof control because otalcontrol may be unrealistic) over the processthrough ccessto the meansof accumulatingocialpower.Given ts important ualitative ndsubjec-tive content, his broaddefinitionnaturallydefieseasy quantification r cardinalmeasurement. talsodrawson majorcontributionso the fieldoverthe ast wenty-five earsor sobyauthors sdiverseas DudleySeers, PaulStreeten,Muhbubul Haq,John Friedmannand Michael Redclift, perhapsslightly ingedbyWolfgangSachsandGustavoEs-teva.Trends in basic needs and qualityof lifeInassessing heshortcomings r failuresof devel-opment nitiatives,postmodernistsnd somepost-colonialcriticsdownplayorignore hecompellingevidence romaround heglobethat hedominantaspirations f poor peopleand theirgovernmentsremainconcerned albeitforstructurally ifferentreasons)withmeetingbasicneeds,enhancingheirlivingstandards ndemulating dvancedndustrialcountriesn some variant f classicmodernizationstrategies.

Similarly,the very tangible achievementsofmany 'development'programmes-albeit to dif-feringextentsandatdifferent ates nruralandur-banareasand n almostallcountries f theSouth-in termsof wider access to potablewater and in-creasing literacyrates,averagenutritional evelsand life expectancy, or example,areoften over-looked orignored.A glanceat anyrecent ssue ofthe Human Development Report (UNDP, annual)or even the World Development Report (WorldBank,annual), onfirms hegeneral rendoverthelast twentyto thirtyyearsin statesof virtuallyallideologicalorientations.Theprincipal xceptionsare those countries-many of them previouslyseeking o implement omeformof radical ocial-ist programme-where widespreador long civilwarshavedestroyed hysicalandsocial nfrastruc-tureanddisruptedocialprogrammes. hesecon-flictswereoftenspawnedorfannedby superpowerrivalryduring he ColdWar; xamples ncludeAn-gola,Mozambique ndSudan,ElSalvador,Grena-da andNicaragua, ndAfghanistan ndCambodia.A morerecentandworrying rend owards allingschool enrolmentsespeciallyat secondaryevel),literacy evels and access to health care facilities

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has emerged since the early 1980s in countrieswhere previously high proportionsof state expend-iture on education, health and other social serviceshave been severely cut andusercharges introducedin terms of structuraladjustmentand economic re-covery programmes.Two of the most clear-cut ex-amples are Tanzania and Zimbabwe, as even theWorld Bank now readily acknowledges in its advo-cacy of greaterattentionto the social dimensions ofadjustment (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, bothwithin and between countries. While average in-comes and the quality of life for a substantialpro-portion of people have been rising over the last twoor three decades in much of South-east Asia andparts of Latin America, for example, the reverse istrue in most of Africa, partsof SouthAsia, the Car-ibbean, and latterly also Central and Eastern Eu-rope. Within many countries, as well as betweencountries in particular regions, disparities havebeen widening rather hannarrowing,with little ev-idence that this trend will shortlybe reversedin linewith 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.

Developmentdiscredited4Notwithstanding the above point, the way in whichoften diverse programmes, agendas and even prin-ciples espoused by very different donor and recip-ient governments, non-governmental organiza-tions andinternationalfinancialinstitutionsaredis-missed by post- or anti-developmentalcritics usingthe fashionable phrase, 'the development project'(e.g. Pieterse, 1991; Esteva, 1992; Sachs, 1992;Routledge, 1995), is unhelpful, as thereneitherwasnor is such a monolithic or singular construction,even during the heyday of modernization in the1960s and early 1970s. Arturo Escobar (1995) ex-emplifies this trend in a more sustained mannerthan most, by globalizing the argument from hispenetrating 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-postmodernuniversalizing representsa shortcomingwhich sig-nificantly reduces the power of his critique.5

By no means all authorshave succumbed to thistemptationto universalize: for example, several ofthe contributors to Crush(1995), especially Porter(1995), Mitchell (1995) and Tapscott (1995), pro-vide nuanced analyses of individual countries,agencies or projectsandhighlight the interplaybe-tween metatheories and broad ideologies, particu-lar discourses and concrete contextual applica-tions. However, many poststructuralist critics ofconventional development(alism), e.g. contribu-tors to Sachs (1992), still need to take far greateraccount of the differences in objectives, policy andpractice among the various official bilateral andmultilateral donors (cf. for example, the Nordiccountries and the USA; or UNICEF and the WorldBank), which were arguably far more substantiveduringthe 1970s and 1980s thanin today's neocon-servative, market-oriented climate). In addition,many very diverse Northern and Southern non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) have adoptedvery different objectives andmethods from officialdonors over the last twenty years or so, generallyworking with community-based organizations(CBOs) and so-called social movements, andwhich have made considerable contributions toboth community empowerment and material im-provement in quality of life.Indeed, such organizations and movements dofigure centrally in the alternativediscourses advo-cated by Escobar and others; however, the great di-versity in every respect of such collectivities andthe now-voluminous literature on NGOs warnagainst idealizing them uncritically as embodyingthe latest 'magic bullet' of development (Walker,1988; Schuurman and Van Naerssen, 1989; Ekins,1992; Schuurman, 1993a; Edwards and Hulme,1995; Hudock, 1995). Somewhat bizarrely, givenhis 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 awider critique of Escobar's book. The contrastbe-tween Escobar's treatment and Schuurman'sequally theoretically informeddiscussion of NGOsis sharp.Conversely, developmentalists all too often stillignore or fail adequately to internalize the reasonsfor widespread 'developmentfailure', especially inpoor countries and among often large subordinate,

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unpowerful groups, and thereforethe 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 andstate-led development strategies is central to neo-liberal and post- or anti-development approachesalike. Hence, the rolling back of the (generally de-velopmentalist) state, one of the central tenets ofcurrent neoliberal development orthodoxy, is in-creasing the political and symbolic spaces for, andhastening the evolution of, diverse NGO and CBOinitiatives in many countries,6which some writerssee as constitutive of postmodernity (Bell, 1992;Escobar, 1995). Simply to dismiss postmodernismand related paradigms as irrelevant or esotericwithout any attempt at serious evaluation of or en-gagement with them is both methodologically andpractically unhelpful (see below).The rapidly expanding literatureson globaliza-tion and 'flexible' post-Fordist production in theworld economy have been quite successful, albeitunevenly, in examining the interconnectedness ofthe divergenteconomic 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 stilldominated unequivocally by Northern-centricworld views. Little consideration is given to possi-ble alternativeperspectives focusing on local worldviews and development strategies or ideologieswhich rely rather less on external determinants(e.g. Adedeji, 1993; Himmelstrand et al., 1994).Many of the contributors to these two booksshareAfro-centric world views, and are critical ofthe inequities of the existing world order and thecolonial or neocolonial relations which have givenrise to the currentcrisis of sustainability.Yet theirperspectives would not be considered as 'postco-lonial' by adherents of that paradigm. Indeed, thediffuse literature on postcolonialism connects re-markably little with conventional developmentalagendas or-far more surprisingly-with post-modernism, despite the former's valuable focus onrestructuring nequitablecolonial inheritances,andthe culturalpolitics of identity, especially recover-ing the 'lost' identities of groups subordinatedandmarginalized by colonial practices, official histo-ries and Northern feminist and environmentalistdiscourses. This fragmentation of discourse, orperhaps more accurately the politics of discourseand labelling, will be returnedto below.In view of theirvery differentpoints of departureand agendas, it is somewhat ironic that the two

dominantoccidental development paradigmsof re-cent decades, namely modernization and politicaleconomy/structuralism, have generally shared thecharacteristics of being rathernarrow,often econ-omistic, top-down and overtly modernizing in ap-plication. They also share the characteristic of be-ing overarching metatheories, firmly rooted in thediscourses of intellectual modernism, and there-fore seeking to provide singular, universal expla-nations for poverty andunderdevelopment andpre-scriptions for overcoming them.7 However, it isworth reminding ourselves that modern develop-ment is not a totally uniform or smooth process,and thatmodernization need not lead to global ho-mogeneity, especially if undertaken with a degreeof politico-economic andculturalautonomy,as theJapanese 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-ulardiscourses, 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. Thiscan be illustratedby Peru'sPresident Fujimoriwinning widespread popular support in that

country's 1992 general and presidential elec-tions by virtue of his relative success inclamping down on Maoist guerrillas and hispromises of better living standards, despitethe undemocratic route by which he seizedpower 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 influencedby the demonstrationeffects of modernizationand the consumptive lifestyles of the middleand upper classes. Different methods androutes to achieve these goals may be adopted,but active alienation, rejection and rebellionare normally only last resorts.- by nation states, in terms of their political pro-grammes and nationaldevelopment plans. Forexample, the Zimbabwean government hasconsistently sought to prevent and eliminatesquatting and informal urban settlement onthe groundsthatit is demeaning and unworthyof a progressive, modemrnand until recentlyalso supposedly socialist) African state. De-pending on the nature of the state and open-ness of the political system, regional and localGeografiska Annaler ? 79 B (1997) ? 4 187



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state institutions may shareor oppose the cen-tral state's agendas, but extreme measuressuch as active rebellion and attempts at seces-sion may be increasing in frequency as thewrit of ossified and corrupt highly centralizedstates faces challenges from outlying and im-poverished areas.The armedresistance by theSudan People's Liberation Army and otherChristianand animist groups to Islamicizationin southern Sudan by the government in Khar-toum, the Zapatistarebellion in Mexico's Chi-apas State, the insurgencies against MobutuSese Seko's kleptocratic former dictatorshipin Zaire (now the Democratic Republic ofCongo) and the Karen hill people's struggleagainst 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 Bankand other donor agencies have continued topromote large-scale dam projects and otherinfrastructuralprogrammes in order to maxi-mize conventional economic benefits despitethe well-known social and environmentalcosts and evidence that smaller schemes, builtwith greater sensitivity to local people andtheir environment, are often also economical-ly more successful. In fairness, rathergreaterattention has been devoted to the social andenvironmentalconsequences of large schemesin recent years, but-with one or two notableexceptions-generally still predicated on theassumption thatconstructionshould go ahead,e.g. the Narmada River dams in India, theTurkwel Gorge dam in Kenya's West PokotDistrict and the Three Gorges Dam on theYangtse River in China.More emphasis by donors and recipient govern-ments on alternative delivery systems,8 processesand project types emerged during the 1980s, notleast because of funding constraintsandcondition-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 agendasfor change and empowerment into little more thanshopping lists which are hawked to donors for im-plementation, commonly more in line with donors'thanrecipients' 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 inrelation to the ubiquitious sloganizing about 'sus-tainable development'.As I arguedsome years ago, the pedigree of thesustainability debate stretches back at least to theearly 1970s (Simon, 1989), when the impact ofRachel Carson's (1962) landmarkcatalogue of de-velopment's environmentalwoes in the USA, TheSilent Spring, and neo-Malthusian concerns aboutresource exhaustion, prompted importantnew re-search agendas, major international conferencesand the establishment of the United Nations Envi-ronment Programme (UNEP). Certainly, today'senvironmental discourses are very different fromthose evident in The Limitsto Growth(Meadows etal., 1972), A Blueprint or Survival (TheEcologist,1972), Only One Earth (Ward and Dubos, 1972),Small is Beautiful (Schumacher, 1973) or The So-cial Limits to Growth (Hirsch, 1977) and indeedfrom the development agendas informing 'Reshap-ing the InternationalOrder'or the BrandtCommis-sion reports. However, what at that time was stillwidely regarded as a radical(?) or eccentric fringeconcern has become progressively more acceptedand acceptable over the intervening years. The es-tablishmentof the WorldCommission on Environ-ment and Development (WCED) (the BrundtlandCommission) in 1983 and the publication of its re-port, Our CommonFuture, in 1987 both reflectedthis and provided a new landmark in the 'fore-grounding' of sustainable development as dis-course, objective,process andfad. In the sameyear,Michael Redclift's (1987) elegant little book, Sus-tainable Development, appeared,taking conceptu-al and analyticalrigourin the field to a far more so-phisticated level.Five years later,the WCED reporthad a sequelin the form of the 1992 UN Conference on Envi-ronment andDevelopment (UNCED) in Rio de Ja-neiro, intendedto transformthe concept into moreconcrete internationalcommitments and agendas.Notwithstanding substantialhorse-tradingand thewateringdown of the intendedconventions for ide-ological and domestic political reasons by the US(Republican) and British (Conservative) govern-ments in particular, a process which generatedmuch criticism andcynicism amongmanyenviron-mentalists and radicalNGO critics, the conferencedid result in unprecedented intergovernmentalandNGO commitments to biodiversity conservation,greenhouse gas emission reductionsand the imple-188 Geografiska Annaler

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mentation fAgenda21 atlocalas well asnationalandinternationalevels (Middletonet al., 1993).Subsequently,herehasbeenwidespread videnceof greater lexibilityandcommitment o more di-verseproject ypesandscales andto greater nvi-ronmentalprioritizationn variouspolicy arenas(Hurrell, 995;Reed,1992).Nevertheless,t is alsocertainly rue that most officialagendasenvisagelittlefundamentalhange,focusingon promotingmore efficientresourceandenergyvaluationanduse,recyclingandreducedpollutionbroadlywith-inexistingparametersatherhanon radical hang-es to lifestylesandeconomicsystems.At the ex-treme, ustainable evelopment as become a con-venientsloganto signalpoliticalcorrectnesswith-out the correspondingcommitment to change.Suchexpediency s usuallyassociatedwith estab-lishmentnstitutions, s wasonceagainunderlinedby the failureof the 'RioPlusFive'summitatUNHeadquartersnNew YorknlateJune1997.Manygovernmentministers and NGO activists alikewereverycriticalof the ackof commitment y keyNorthern overnments, nddubbed heevent 'RioMinusFive'(Independent,8 June1997).Perhapssuch officialcynicismpromptedEscobar's 1995:192-3) condescendingly dismissive assertionsabout ustainable evelopment nd heBrundtlandCommissionReport,to which David Lehmann(1997: 574-5) has ustifiablyaken uchexception.The dominantmodernist evelopmentalthos sstill for the most partobsessedby the agendaofeconomic efficiency,articulated argely throughprivatizationnd iberalizationrogrammes. heseprogrammes avelong pedigreesbutderivetheirimmediate mpetusfrom aid conditionalitiesm-posed by the IFIs andotherdonororganizations sstrategiesorovercomingheThirdWorlddebtcri-sis andpromoting free' internationalrade.Thelogical-and indeeddesired--outcomehas beenthe almostuniversal ollingbackof the state cou-pled with a resurgent ole fordomestic andespe-ciallyinternationalapital, ven nperipheral ost-socialist states(Hanlon,1991, 1996;SidawayandPower,1995).The ultimateprescription as beento maximize rade hrough xport-orientedroduc-tionbasedon supposed nternationalomparativeadvantage.Whilethis approachmayimprove he deliveryof certaingoods andservices, t generallyand de-liberately ailsto address quity ssuesadequatelyand is likely to underminehe abilityof develop-mental states to deliver on their political pro-grammesorsocialdevelopment,romwhich heir

legitimacyhas beensoughtandderived.Moreover,there s a deep-seated ensionbetweenthecuttingof socialexpendituresnlinewithdonor ondition-alities(despitesome more recentpalliativepack-ages to address he social dimensionsof adjust-ment)and hepromotion f literate,healthyandac-tive participantsn expandingdemocraticstruc-turesandcivil society (e.g. Simonet al., 1995).Ineffect,it also has to be realized hat,particularlyntheirearlier1980s formulations ut also more re-cently,conventional nalysesof the debtcrisis andthemosteffective solutionsamounted o blamingthe victims of development, he vast majorityofwhomhadlittle if any say in thepolicies adoptedby theirstatesorthetransnational anksandotherfinancial institutions and official donor bodies.This is closely linkedto 'Afropessimism' nd itsequivalentsn otherregions. Similarly,SAPs andconditionalities ave beendescribedby theirpre-scribingdoctorsas harshmedicinerequiredo ef-fect a systemiccure.Yet, like most conventionalWesternmedicine,they aredirectedat the symp-toms rather han the underlyingcauses (Simon,1995b).In termsof theprevailing onventional conom-ic developmentwisdom,greatermarket rientationwouldactually nhance heprospects orattainingmodernity yachieving conomicgrowth,which swidely regarded s beinganessentialprerequisitefor subsequent edistribution nd the widerfulfil-mentof basicneedsandpopular spirationsSlater,1993, 1995b).The one dimensionof equitywhichhas generallyreceived ncreasingattention s thatof gender:genderawarenesss now accorded x-plicit recognition n most policy andprogrammedocuments, lbeitstillfrequentlymerelyat the ev-el of lip-serviceor superficialityn the 'women ndevelopment'mould. More thorough-goingnte-gration fgenderssues naccordancewith'genderanddevelopment' pproachess stillinadequatenpractice, despitethe now increasinglyprominentpositionof various eministdiscoursesn develop-mentdebates,especiallyaroundndigenous ightsandidentitiesas well as communityparticipationand he environmentShiva,1988;Minh-ha,1989;Moser, 1993;Nesmith andRadcliffe, 1993;Rad-cliffe andWestwood,1993; Bell, 1994;MarchandandParpart, 995;Townsend,1995).Post- everythingThe current heoretical turns'arecharacterizedytheprefix post-' n relation o mostperiodsorpar-

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adigms, as in postcolonial, postmodern, post-ColdWar, postdevelopment and so forth. Clearly theyare used to signify differences, either in terms ofperiodization or conceptual and methodologicalapproaches.We could thereforebe forgiven for suf-fering a degree of post-itis, of feeling past it, post-everything After all, even history has ended, ifFrancis Fukuyama's simplistic triumphalistcredowere to be believed. In a similar vein, some recentdiscussions about time-space compression in thecontext of globalization and the role of telecommu-nications have suggested the end of geography, asif space were somehow to triumphover place in thesense of localities being imbued with specific so-cio-cultural meanings.What I am suggesting is the importance of ahealthy scepticism towards some of the moresweeping andemotive formulations of post-every-thing, which may universalize from particularcasestudies 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 practicaluse inaddressing 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 basicneeds and environmental sustainability givenabove, there is a long pedigree of initiatives andtheoretical formulations stretching back decadesand including, for example, Reshaping the Interna-tional Order (RIO); autarchyas advocated by theextreme dependency authors,Andr6 GunderFrankand SamirAmin; the BrandtCommission; AnotherDevelopment-as articulatedby the Dag Hammar-skj6ld Foundation through its journal, Develop-ment Dialogue, since the late 1970s (e.g. 1978,1980); the agendafor a New International Divisionof Labour articulated through UNCTAD; and arange of grassroots and bottom-up strategies fromdifferent perspectives, of which agropolitandevel-opment, associated with John Friedmann,is possi-bly one of the best known. More recently, Rose-mary Galli (1992) has examined anti-developmentperspectives which have little to do with postmod-em or postcolonial critiques.That said, andas I have recently arguedatlength(Simon, 1997a), it is no longer appropriate orejectthese perspectives out of handas being irrelevant tosocieties in the South. Many of the problems andnon-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 oraesthetic form, and as analytical method or prob-lematic (ways of seeing), which is very helpful indisentangling the range of usages. I arguethat it isthe last of these three which has most potential inrelation to the South. I then suggest the applicationof this same threefold categorization to the litera-ture on postcolonialism; although it is somewhatmore difficult to separatethem, it is again the post-colonial problematic which appears to have themost utility. I shall now briefly explain why.PostmodernperspectivesWhat distinguishes the presentperiodis thatthe ex-pression of conventional developmental ideals andthe methods of implementing them no longer enjoyuniversal acceptance and legitimacy within target-ed countries and areas. Increasingly, individualsandgroupsof people ata local level are either seek-ing the attainment of theiraspirationsfor better liv-ing standardsoutside the realm of the state,or theyhave rejected the dominant developmental dis-course(s) and arepursuingalternativeagendaswithvery different aims and objectives. In the formercase, they are still seeking the basic needs and otherfruits of modernization but have despaired of theability of the state and official development agen-cies to deliver on theirpromises, and have thus tak-en their own initiatives. In the latter scenario, theyhave rejected the basic premises andtrajectoriesofthe modem developmental state. Hence, urban andother 'new' social movements have arisenin a widevariety of contexts and countries in response to avacuum or,more generally, as alternativemodes oforganization and with very different agendas fromdiscredited official local government or communi-ty structures(Walker, 1988; Schuurman and VanNaerssen, 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 VanNaerssen, 1989; Schuurman,1993a;Radcliffe andWestwood, 1996).A dramaticrecent example, which integratesdevelopment andenvironmental concerns, is the citizens' rebellionin the Mexican town of Tepotzlainin late 1996,when the mayor and town council were expelledand a virtual unilateral declaration of independ-ence was proclaimed over the mayor's efforts tohave a major US$400 million upmarket develop-

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DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED; NEW DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT THINKINGment comprising a golf course, other sports facili-ties, a hotel and condominium of 800 homes in thename of 'development', while ignoring popularde-velopment demands. In addition, the golf coursewould have exacerbated the local water shortageandput valuable land beyond the reach of most res-idents:

In Tepotzlan, however, where cars mustsqueeze into cobbled streets meant for don-keys ... the local residents were not buying thegolf club's passport to modem life. Petitionsdemanding the cancellation of the golf clubturned 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 anenvironmental protest,"says Rodriguez [theprotest leader], ... "but with the jailing of fourcomrades over the past year, and two deaths inclashes, and all the arrest warrants hangingover our heads, it has become much morecomplicated. We cannot give up the fightnow."... "Aunique andextraordinaryphenom-enon is taking place in Tepotzlin,"AdolfoAguilar Zinser, an opposition congressmanand longtime resident, wrote in the daily LaReforma. "We, the residents of Tepotzlin, arediscovering that no government is better thanbad 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 inthe rest of the state of Morelos."Not everyone sharesAguilar Zinser's rose-tinted views. Some residents say the town hasbecome more polarised, while many are tiredof the endless appeals for money to keep therebel government afloat. Relatives of oustedofficials 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 areperceived tobe imposed in a top-down mannerby unresponsiveelected officials and developers, can, if the senti-ments are deeply enough felt and the authoritiessufficiently inflexible, progress to more direct ac-tion in defence of space, place and popular aspira-

tions.The outcomewasapparentlynforeseen ndunimaginedby any of the protagonists,but thestakeswereraisedand heresultwasopenrebellionand heusurpationf the local stateby theprotest-ersand heir upporters. o doubt herewereotherlocal complexities,and the article says nothingabout hesocio-economicprofileof the activistsorcommunityatlarge.However, hewritof thehith-ertoomnipresent RIno longerruns nTepotzlin.Whether he standoffwill persistandwhether heresidentswillbeable oorganize nalternativeys-tem of local administration emainsto be seen.However, his examplehighlights he importanceof contingency nd ocality ntheanalysisofeventsandmovementsorchange,even n thisageof glo-balizedcommunications ndglocalizedconscious-nessesand dentities.A verydifferent xample s providedby there-sponse of headmanSebastianKamangwaof the4000-strongShitemocommunityiving in an iso-lateddistrictof OkavangoRegion n north-easternNamibia, o the recentopeningthereof a primaryhealth care clinic by the country'sMinister ofHealth.At atimewhenconventional nd radition-al (bio)medicalsystems are increasinglycomingtogether n complementaryyntheses(whicharearguably ostmodemrn-seeimon,1997a) n vari-ouspartsof sub-Saharan fricaandbeyond,here-portedlyproclaimed ategoricallyhatIn the past malariacaused a lot of sufferingand ightingbecausepeoplethoughtt was theresultof witchcraft, utnow we haveseen thatthe clinics can solve these problems.Somepeople arestill tryingto cause troubleby de-mandingthat traditionalhealers be revered,but I am adamant hat we cannothave tradi-tional healers working alongside modemhealthservices(TheNamibian,6 June1997:8).

Such anovertlymodernist tancemightseemrath-eroutdated revenquaint, et theheadman learlyperceiveshimself asprogressive.Thisexemplifiesmyearlierpointsabout ocialconditioning-mod-ernorotherwise-and thepowerfuldemonstrationeffect,albeit ubstantiallyimelagged, fperceivedsuccessfulmodem nnovationsnotherwiseappar-entlyconservativeural ommunities.t alsoraisesseveralquestionsaboutrepresentationndlegiti-macy withinlocal communities; n otherwords,how representatives theheadman's tance of hispeople's perceptions, and will their practicesGeografiska Annaler ? 79 B (1997) ? 4 191



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change in view of his attitude?There is also amajorissue for social theorists to ponder.The new clinicsaves people a walk of atleast 12 km andhelps treatmalaria and other serious illnesses. Is it thereforelegitimate for postmodern and/orpostcolonial crit-ics to decry or dismiss the significance of such in-novations to poor people's lives? I return to thisquestion below.These contrasting examples also demonstratethat there is a growing disjuncture between mod-ernist developmental rhetoric and the increasinglydiverse experiences of such programmes on theground. While spokespeople, political leaders andeven many 'grassroots' or community groups re-main committed to the grandscale and 'the big ide-as' of progress and development, methods of im-plementation invoke strategieswhich, elsewhere inthe 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 asingle orthodoxy in state ideology and practice.However, it is by no means certain, or even desir-able, that this trendwill eventually eliminate mod-ern(ist) development agendas. Therefore, it maywell be that the co-existence andsimultaneity of di-verse (and even divergent) systems and practicesbecome an enduring reality, even though their re-lationships arelikely to be flexible andchangeable,andperhaps as much symbolic as substantive. Thiscondition 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), interms of which the monolithic modernist discours-es, both liberal andMarxist,have been or arebeingdiscarded in favour of a multiplicity of ideologiesand modes of explanation.9In terms of the schemadiscussed above, this represents the notion of thepostmodernas problematic,overlain with a distinctelement of the postmodernas epoch, albeit withouta clear break fromthe modem and, indeed, charac-terized by the co-existence of and overlap betweenthe two. 10Inmanyrespects, this conceptualization appearsto offer a far more helpful way of understandingtheoften disjointed and conflicting processes, phe-nomena and material and culturalstyles-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 onsteppingout of an ultra- orpostmodern urbanshop-ping precinct into untarredstreets lined with shan-ties and beggars, or who has encountered the par-adoxes of contemporarytourist landscapes super-imposed on poor rural communities in the Carib-bean, Latin America, Africa or the Asia-Pacificregions. Indeed, it may well be that this conditionis far more widespread and characteristic of theSouth than the North. It is also not necessarily avery new or recent phenomenon-having roots atleast as far back as the late colonial period in Afri-ca, Asia, the CaribbeanBasin and Pacific Islands-but ratheradifferent way of seeing andinterpretingthe quite long-standing phenomena of Southerndislocation, unemploymentandpovertypreviouslyregarded as representing incomplete moderniza-tion and the iniquities of colonialism. Moreover,manyof the contrasts,contradictions andfragmen-tations of meanings and practice within the Southare at least as much the result of deliberateorwilfulactions as is the case with postmodern showpiecesof urban design and other forms of expression inthe North.

Postcolonialism-a Eurocentricconstruct?Dani Nabudere, the veteran radical Ugandan law-yer, social scientist and politician, takes issue withthe entire notion of postcolonialism (personalcom-munication, 14 January 1996). He regards this astoo Eurocentric, implying the previous hegemonyof 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 withdiffering degrees of engagement with or transfor-mationby 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 bemore accurately termed 'post-traditional'.A fascinating example is provided by the land-mark investiture of Sinqobile Mabhena, a youngfemale trainee primaryschool teacher, as chief ofthe 100,000 Nswazi people in Zimbabwe in De-192 Geografiska Annaler - 79 B (1997) ? 4



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cember 1996. Under the headline, 'The chief whowears a miniskirt', Andrew Meldrum wrote thus inThe Guardian (24 December 1996):Surroundedby government ministers and trib-al chiefs, Sinqobule Mabhena appearsa mod-el of female subservience as she bows herhead and modestly lowers her eyes. But thisdemure 23-year-old has rocked Zimbabwe'straditional cultureby becoming one of the firstwomen to take on the powerful mantle of trib-al chief. "Iknow many people are opposed tome becoming chief because I am a wom-an"said Ms Mabhena. "Being a womandoesn't mean you are disabled."..."Chief Howard Mabhena died in 1993 andhe had no son to succeed him. It therefore fellupon his eldest daughter, Sinqobile, to suc-ceed him and she has taken up her chieftain-ship responsibilities with humility"[said JohnNkomo, Minister for Local Government]. MsMabhena's investiture has been delayed bymore than a year because of objections. "Thegovernment held lengthy discussions and theNswazi people insisted they would ratherhave Sinqobile than a male chief who wouldnot have been appointed by them. All's wellthat ends well."...Mr. Nkomo invested Ms Mabhena with thetraditional chief's costume, an incongruousbut arrestingmix of African andcolonial sym-bols of authority:a crimson andpurplechief'srobe, a white pith helmet, a leopard skin and astaff. ..."I want to look at all sides in any disputeand to be fair,"said Ms Mabhena. "I don'twant to only take the woman's side or to justtake the man's side."... As scores of well-wishers crowded around to congratulate MsMabhena, the young chief wiped a few tearsfrom her eyes. "Ijust thought aboutthis wholething, the history, my father, the future, the re-sponsibility, everything,"she said. SinqobuleMabhena is a combination of the old Africaand the new. During the week she lives in Bu-lawayo, where she is studying to be a primaryschool teacher. She wears short skirts, highheels and has a boyfriend, who is a school-teacher. At weekends she goes back to herfamily's ruralhome where she meets in coun-cil with the Mabhena clan's elders.Her investiture, however, does not bring anend to the controversy. The ceremony was

boycotted by several chiefs and political fig-ures and the attendance of 800 was smallerthan the 2,000 thathad been anticipated."Ire-main opposed to this because it is against ourculture,"said Welshman Mabhena, governorof the neighbouring Matabeleland Northprovince, who did not attend the investiture."An Ndebele chief must always be a man."George Moyo, chairman of the VukaniMahlabezulu Cultural Society, also opposesthe investiture of Ms Mabhena. "Our ances-tors did not approveof a female chief. It is go-ing to destroy our culture. In our culture wom-en were only advisors at home, that's all,"hesaid. "There are many chiefs who are not go-ing to accept this. The Nswazi people are go-ing to have trouble because of this."Ms Mabhena's grandmother, Gogo FloraMasuku, is outspokenly in favour. "I am very,very happy to see a female chief. Women muststand up for their rights and advance their po-sition. Women fought to end Rhodesia. Wenow have female cabinet ministers and air-plane pilots. Why not chiefs? Is the queen ofBritain a man? Is MargaretThatcher a man?Women can be leaders."

Here we have a rich tapestryof cross-cutting con-tinuity and change, of old, new and hybrid identi-ties, of reason andreaction,of genderandpower re-lations, of thepreservationversus transcendence ofcategories, and of how and by whom they are ne-gotiated, defined and safeguarded.These issues areall chronologically and analytically postcolonial.Moreover,we have here a timespan and a problem-atic which simultaneously engages the indigenous,precolonial 'traditions'; the colonial institutionsand laws which subordinated indigenous practiceinto a category of 'customary law' and its uphold-ers, embodied in the office of chief, into clients ofthe colonial state; and the ongoing struggles andchallenges of the postcolonial epoch, one criticaldimension of which is the relationshipbetween thestate and indigenous institutions. We are given thebroadly accurate impression of a powerful govern-ment which nevertheless treads warily with regardto custom andchiefly powers: it sought amediatoryratherthan a prescriptive role, yet ulitmately reaf-firmed its statutoryand effective primacy over thecustomary realm by despatching no lesser a repre-sentative than the Ministerof Local Government toinstall the new chief. The ironies are considerable,ranging from the quintessentially colonial name of

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the one male traditionalist (i.e. Welshman) seekingto uphold precolonial norms, and the Scottish first("European") name of the feminist grandmother,who invokes examples both Zimbabwean and Brit-ish in support of her postcolonial argument, to the"incongruousbut arresting"symbolsof chiefly of-fice, and the equally incongruous role mixture ofthe modem, abode- and dress-code-swapping ru-ral-urban commuter student/chief. School-teach-ing, like nursing, is one of the most enduringcolo-nial traditions among Africans, in the sense of be-ing one of the few skilled modem vocational/pro-fessional avenues open to African women. In thissense, apart from the fashionable clothes alludedto, there is nothing postcolonial about her chosencareer; however, her assumption of the chieftain-ship and her decision and ability to combine thiswith a career is certainly 'postcolonial' and simul-taneously 'post-traditional'.The implications of this perspective need to beconsidered, both in terms of terminology andin re-lation to frames of reference, not least by postco-lonial authorsconcerned primarilywith the identi-ties and world-views of former colonial subjectpeoples now living in erstwhile imperialmetropoles in Europe and North America. Fromthe examples analyzed above, and from a priori ar-gument, it would seem to have several potentialmerits.First,it encompasses abroader, ess specificsense of the 'traditional' as the accumulated amal-gam of practices and beliefs from previous epochsand domains. Second, and following on directlyfrom the previous point, it removes the 'colonial'nomenclature which imposes an implicitly North-ern-centric fixety of epoch and dominant peoples,identities, institutions and discourses/practices;third, it is historically more inclusive since not allterritories and indigenous polities in the Southwere colonized by Europe, although the vast ma-jority certainly were; and, fourth,it implies thepos-sibility of greater weight being given to indigenousandhybrid pasts, which may in turn(re)combine innew hybrid ways, both appropriateand dysfunc-tional/disjunctural. Naturally, this perspectiveclearly has much in common with some strands ofpostcolonial writing which are concerned with therecovery of lost indigenous histories and identities.However, to the extent thatit might signpost the im-portance of Southern perspectives and modes ofproblematization and decentre Northern preoccu-pations, 'post-traditionalism'seems a helpful con-cept.However, even this term is already being used in

different contexts, and suggests the need for somecaution (Simon, 1997a). It is also apposite in thiscontext to consider the importanceof shedding thecolonial and/or 'traditional' modernist legacieswithin academic disciplines like geography, in theSouth, as we move towards the new millennium(Crush, 1993; Simon, 1994; Singh, 1995).

RethinkingDevelopment:From TheorytoPracticeThe conceptualizations of postmodernism,postco-lonialism and post-traditionalism that I have ad-vanced are, of course, very different from the par-alysing and conservatizing, even self-indulgent,nature of extreme relativism adopted by some post-modernists in the North. I am tryingto push out thefrontiers of theorizing andengagement. Therefore,in this concluding section I shall examine twoquestions: first,the extent to which these poststruc-turalist and postmodern ideas, and also currentconceptualisations of sustainabledevelopment, in-form how and what we teach ourstudents,and,sec-ond, how far these ideas are being transferred ntothe arena of practice by the broader developmentcommunity?

TeachingdevelopmentstudiesThe volume of researchpublications attemptingtoengage with poststructural and postmodern per-spectives is rising but still representsonly a smallfraction of total research output within develop-ment studies. As these paradigms become morewidely accessible, one might expect student inter-est in development studies to wane somewhat. Per-haps paradoxically, the opposite seems true. Stu-dent numbers on undergraduatecourses are hold-ing firm, at least in the UK and Nordic countries,while new postgraduatetaught courses have beenor are being established by a number of universi-ties. These are popular among British and foreignstudents alike.Less surprising,then, is the currentrushby pub-lishers to produce new textbooks in developmentstudies which attemptto keep up with the rapidre-cent changes in the South. Additional volumes areappearingall the time and the current choice is un-precedented. I will concentrate on those bookswhich include some conceptual ortheoretical cov-erage. In some cases, authorshave sought to updateolder books throughnew editions. Such efforts areoften unexciting, if only because they tend to retain

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the old format and approach(albeit within a rede-signed jacket), merely adding a postscript chapter,updating some data or case studies, and rearrang-ing some partsof the text at a time when a fresh ap-proach is really called for. Perhaps the most rele-vantrecent exemplar of this category is the secondedition of BjmrnHettne's Development Theoryandthe Three Worlds, which appeared in 1995. Thepublishers' blurb on the cover implies far greaterrevisions than the minor ones actually undertaken.Most conspicuous, moreover, is the paucity of newliterature added to the bibliography and the ab-sence of any mention of, let alone engagementwith, poststructuraland postmodern perspectives.Of the more empirically focused but conceptuallyinformed books, the second edition of A Geogra-phy of the Third Worldby Dickenson et al. (1996)illustratesjust what can be achieved by substantialrewriting and reorganization.Among the plethoraof recent books on develop-ment, Paul Streeten (1995) and Marshall Wolfe(1996) have written retrospective accounts fromthe perspective of their own careers, highlightingthe challenges of changing times and paradigms.Both express regret that more has not beenachieved in the field of poverty alleviation but alsopoint out some of the contemporarychallenges, es-pecially the necessity of having states which arecapable of decisive action and development inter-vention when appropriate.In other words, they de-crie the currentobsession with minimizing the in-terventionist role of the state. Under the circum-stances, it is not very surprisingthatthey do not dis-cuss poststructural perspectives. While not avaledictory surveypriorto retirement, Colin Leys's(1996) The Rise and Fall of Development Theoryhas some similarities with the formertwo books, inas much as it is a collection of papers and chaptersin the broad subject area, written at various stagesover a number of years, although several are orig-inal to the book. There is much excellent materialin an accessible prose style suitable for both teach-ing and research,but Leys does not address the re-cent theoretical 'turns'. The same is true of OzayMehmet (1995), whose slim volume is a ratherdis-appointing critique of Eurocentrism in economicdevelopment theories but ultimately addressesonly a few of the mainstream contenders. ArturoEscobar's (1995) Encountering Development, oneof the most widely distributedand read of the re-cent texts, is written as a detailed and elegant cri-tique of conventional development(alism) from ananti-development position. However, his devastat-

ing critique is not matched by an exposition of analternativevision or its application; even his finalchapter-something of a prospect--does littlemore thaneulogize NGOs as representing the wayforward.At least four recent textbooks on developmenttheory, namely Peter Preston's (1996) Develop-ment Theory; an introduction, John Brohman's(1996) Popular Development, John Martinussen's(1997) Society, State and Market, and John Rap-ley's (1996) Understanding Development, offerclearly written and accessible accounts of the var-ious modem development theories and debates,linked to issues surrounding the role of the stateand the impact of externaland internalimperatives.However, they all omit any explicit reference topoststructuralist and postmodern theories. Rap-ley's final paragraph begs the question withouteven a hint of such possibilities:The time for hardquestions is approaching.Ifthe experience of the East Asian NICs was ex-ceptional, if conditions have changed for theworse in the world economy and the interna-tional political economy, if the political andeconomic prospects for some countries aregrowing bleaker all the time, a serious recon-sideration of what development is and shouldentail may be in order. The time for anotherparadigm shift may be drawing near (Rapley,1996: 158).

I am aware of only one substantialand threepartialexceptions to this state of affairs. Power of Devel-opment, edited by Jonathan Crush (1995), offersthe most sustained and accessible treatment ofthese perspectives and themes. As an edited vol-ume, though, the extent of engagement and the pre-cise perspective varies across chapters. Similarly,the recent festschrift for Jan Kleinpenning, a lead-ing Dutch development geographer, TheDiversityof Development (Van Naerssen et al., 1997) con-tains several theoretical chapters(including one byFransSchuurman)which do address currenttrendsand debates. JohnBrohman's (1996) text goes rath-er furtherthan the other single- or double-authoredtexts in opening such vistas and considering 'alter-native' issues and agendas which reject Eurocen-tric bias and grandtheories, and centre on empow-erment of the poor.Although he uses the umbrellaterm 'populardevelopment', much of his analysiscorrespondsto postdevelopmentalism as discussedabove. Michael Cowen andRobert Shenton (1996)Geografiska Annaler ? 79 B (1997) ? 4 195



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seek to address postmodernism by way of a finalchapter in their Doctrines of Development whichwas clearly writtenas something of anafterthoughtand does not sit easily with the rest of their mate-rial. It certainly fails to engage with the new per-spective, and is little more than heated invectiveagainst one particularedited volume which Cowenand Shenton take to be the embodiment of all theevil that is postmodernism.1IFinally, it seems appropriate to include twoslightly earlierbooks which, while not incorporat-ing poststructuraland postmodern theories explic-itly, do set out detailed alternative, locally appro-priate and bottom-up approaches to development,which they call empowerment and coevolution re-spectively. These areJohnFriedmann's(1992) Em-powerment, on which Brohman (1996) dreew sig-nificantly, and Richard Norgaard's (1994) Devel-opment Betrayed. So perhaps paradoxically, thesetwo representthe most substantive treatments of al-ternative, poststructural"revisionings", to borrowNorgaard'sterm.I have undoubtedly inadvertentlyomitted otherbooks, but on the basis of those cited here, it seemsclear that thereis as yet no comprehensive textbookcoverage of the major emerging theoretical fer-ment in terms far broader than the impact of thedebt crisis and policies of liberalization and de-mocratization for communities on the ground andthose concerned with improving their lot. The rea-sons for such omissions areno doubtvaried,butin-clude a lack of personal familiarity on the part ofthe authors,theirperceptionthatpostmodernisminparticular, is irrelevant to the South, and the un-doubted difficulties involved in tryingto synthesiseextremely diverse and even contradictory litera-tures in a manneraccessible to undergraduates.Forthe time being, then, our students will be reliant onmore fragmented research-oriented literature ifthey areto gain an understandingof the 'post-' par-adigms.As pointed out earlier,the environment is one ofthe leading development topics of the 1980s and1990s. One would thereforecertainly expect to findextensive coverage of environment-developmentissues in this new crop of texts, taking full accountof the sustainability debate and the range of envi-ronmentalist theories or ideological positions, suchas ecodevelopment, deep ecology, political ecolo-gy and the like. However, I must confess to someastonishment at how marginalthis theme is in mostof the books under discussion. Frans Schuurman's(1993) book contains a very useful overview chap-

ter on 'Sustainable development and the greeningof development theory' by Bill Adams. Adams hasalso contributed a chapter on 'Green developmenttheory?' to Jonathan Crush's (1995) edited collec-tion, along with a chapter by Gavin Williams on'Modernizing Malthus: the World Bank, popula-tion control and the African environment'; the en-vironment, environmentalism and sustainable de-velopment are also touched on elsewhere and areextensively referenced in the index.In terms of single- or double-authored books,the situation is far more worrying. As discussedabove, Escobar (1995) provides approximatelytwenty pages on sustainable development-a cri-tique of the Brundtland Commission report and asummary of some alternativeperspectives. Marti-nussen (1997) devotes one eighteen-page chapterout of twentyfive to 'Development with limitednatural resources' and Brohman (1996) one chap-ter out of eleven on 'Environment and Sustainabil-ity'; Streeten (1995) provides similar coverage aspartof his chapteron 'Global institutions for an in-terdependent world', as does Marshall Wolfe(1996), with a chapter entitled 'The environmententers the political arena'. By contrast, Hettne(1995), Mehmet (1995), Preston (1996) and Rap-ley (1996) all provide only outline sketches in threeor four pages of the environment-development in-terface andissues of sustainability,with only one ortwo index entries to match. Cowen and Shenton(1996) mention them only in passing, while thewords 'environment' and 'sustainable develop-ment' do not even appear in the index to Leys(1996); there is also no coverage of these issues inthe two or threechaptersdealing with the importanttheoreticaldevelopment debates in Kenya and 'De-velopment theory and the African tragedy'.While one might understand the omission ofpostmodernism and similar paradigms from mostof the new texts for reasons mentioned above, therelative absence and even silence in the single- anddouble-authored volumes must be a matter forgrave concern. Even where there is coverage, ittends to be compartmentalizedin a separatechap-ter which, while arguably highlighting its impor-tance, also fails to engage with the extent to whichenvironmental concerns and theorizations havebeen integrated within or have engaged other de-velopment theories andparadigms.The wide influ-ence of Blaikie (1985), Blaikie and Brookfield(1987) and Redclift (1987), for example, in estab-lishing what is now widely known as political ecol-ogy (Bryant, 1992, 1997), makes this silence all the

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more remarkable. There therefore remains an ur-gent need for more up-to-date development studiestexts; the hype from publishers surrounding thevalue of the plethora of recent books is clearly ex-aggerated.Postmodernpractice in developmentOne response to the crisis of representationand thechallenge of postmodern practice has been to with-draw from field research, advocacy and develop-ment work, a stepwhich, as I arguedabove, may ap-pearto let those individuals feel vindicated butdoesnot ultimately let them off the moral hook. It mightalso address one of the key concerns of Cowen andShenton (1996), by re-establishing a clear distinc-tion between a secularprocess of development overtime and the explicit intention to develop. By con-trast, nearly a decade ago, as the theoretical im-passe became more widely debated, Michael Ed-wards (1989) fomented lively exchanges by ques-tioning the relevance of development studies towhat happens on the ground.He bemoaned the lackof impact of theories and vast research efforts onconditions on the ground. Four years later, he feltthe situation to be less dire and saw progress in in-tegratingtheory andpractice through greaterinter-action between the respective groups of actors, thedevelopment of new research methodologies suchas the actor-oriented approach and techniques in-cluding participatoryruralappraisal:

In the 'postmodem void' which faces devel-opment studies today, it is important to havesome convincing theory to act as a counter-weight to conventional economics. ... Is therein fact any alternative to an eclectic approachwhich examines everyday experience from anumber of different points of view and thensynthesises the results into higher-level expla-nation? ... So long as theory is constructedfrom real experience it will have explanatorypower. But it will never be 'Grandtheory' inthe sense implied in the classical tradition.This may be a disappointment to academics,but is scarcely relevant to practitioners (Ed-wards, 1993: 85).He then concluded by re-emphasizing two coreideas:

First, that the purpose of intellectual enquiryin this field of study is to promote the develop-

ment of people denied access to knowledge,resources and power for hundreds of years.Second, that the most effective way of doingthis is to unite understanding and action, ortheory and practice, into a single processwhich puts people at the very centre of both.This is the real task for development theoriesin the 1990s (Edwards, 1993: 90).This perspective conveys a clear sense of moralduty or commitment to engagement; in otherwords, development practitionersareintenton con-tinuing their work as sensitively andresponsibly aspossible (see also Corbridge, 1993b). To this endappropriate theories that are grounded in the realworld will be helpful; others will be discarded. Bymeans of the concrete examples in the previous sec-tion, I have sought to indicate the potential rele-vance of the new perspectives in a mannerwhich isvery different from the grand theorizing, universal-izing and/or uncritical eulogizing of NGOs andnew social movements so evident in the work ofmany postmodern and postcolonial proponents.Such bodies may have many advantages and nowoperate within a far more favourable climate of re-duced state involvement and increasing politicaltolerance. However, they representno sinecure andhave many drawbacks, including vulnerability tochanging circumstances,the loss of key leaders andformerexternalfunding,andmisconduct. The chal-lenges facing the civic associations in South Africaduring and following the transition away fromapartheid llustrate all these dilemmas, as they haveto adapt from frontline resistance politics to morewatchdog roles undera legitimate government. De-velopment may have become a dirtyword to some,as an intimate partof a particular geopolitical andeconomic 'project'which has wreaked much hav-oc. Inthatsense, perhaps,we need to transcend 'de-velopment', notby pulling down the shutters butbyformulating different paths to the same end. It iscertainly incumbent on us not to moralize about orto seek to representothers,distantor proximate, bythe uncritical/unselfconscious projection of ourown world views from aposition of unequal power.Ultimately, this amounts to asking whether devel-opmentwork in practiceretainsany legitimacy and,if so, for and by whom?A UN reportpublishedon 12June 1997 suggeststhat the elimination of world poverty would cost arelatively modest ?50 billion, less than the annualbudget of the UK, for example (BBC Radio4 TodayProgramme,12 June 1997; althoughnot stated,this

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mayrefer to the 1997 HumanDevelopment Report).The report emphasizes facilitation as the crucialmechanism-helping people to help themselvesthrough appropriate,enablinginterventionssuch aspromotingeducation (especially of girls, who com-monly have farlower enrolment,completion andlit-eracy rates than boys) and debt relief rather thanmerely the untargeted giving of increased aid vol-umes. This approachhasbecome widespreadwithinprogressive agencies andNGOs andis substantivelydifferent from the supposedly targeted aid condi-tionalitiesof structuraladjustmentandeconomic re-covery programmes,where social expenditure cutshave retardedrather han acceleratedskills acquisi-tion and hence the development of civil society as acounterweight to government.The implications here areclearly that increasedresponsive, co-operative, locally appropriateanddirected resource transfersdo and can have a con-tinuingrole in meeting the challenge of widespreadpoverty--of which powerlessness is such an im-portantcomponent alongside nutritional and otherbasic need considerations. In other words, it is thebasis of intervention rather than whether to inter-vene that is at stake. We-the wealthy and power-ful of both North and South-cannot abandon ourmoral responsibility to the poor unless we see our-selves as caf6 patronswho studiously if somewhatuncomfortably ignore the pavement beggar or weregardthe struggle for survival anddevelopment ofthe poor in other cultures and countries as a leisuretime spectacle akin to a latterday gladiatorialcon-test to be observed and discussed at a safe distance,albeit on television rather than in the ColosseumDr David Simon, Dept. of Geography,Royal Hol-loway, University of London, EGHAM, SurreyTW20OEX,UK. email: [email protected]

NotesEarlier versions of this paper were presented at the at theSociety of South African Geographers'Conference on Envi-ronment and Development in Africa: an Agenda for the 21SPCentury,ESKOM Conference Centre, Midrand, South Afri-ca, 29 June to 3 July 1997; an earlier version was given atthe Nordic-British-Dutch Conference on RethinkingDevel-opment and the Role of Development Co-operation, Sida-SANDO, Sweden, 14-17 June 1997.2 These critical comments should not be interpretedas a blan-ket dismissal of the relevance of all strands of postmodern-ism to the South; indeed, I have recently argued at somelength (Simon, 1997a) that aspects of this perspective dohave substantial value in rethinking development and cul-turaldiversity. I shall returnto this issue in a later section ofthis paper.

Such museums have now, of course, increasingly becomesanitized and idealized as part of the postmodern pasticheexperience laid on for international package tourists, al-though a minority do succeed admirably in their aims ofsensitive conservation and recovery of threatened culturesand social identities.4 Parts of this section, like the foregoing subsection, aredrawn from my recent analysis of the relevance of postmod-ernism and related perspectives to the South (Simon,1997a).5 I will returnto this methodological question later on in rela-tion to other writings on postmodernity and postmodernism.6 For various reasons, it is by no means inevitable, however,that political liberalization and the establishment of formalmulti-party democratic structures will translate into greaterfreedom and diversity of practice within civil society andNGOs (Hudock, 1995; Simon, 1995a: 35-41).7 This point has recently been elaborated more fully by Tay-lor (1996).8 This term is still in wide use among development agenciesbut is itself problematic in contemporaryterms, as it impliestop-down provision. However, much of the thrustof recentchanges to the practices of such agencies has been con-cerned to become more locally responsive and involved col-laboratively-either directly or indirectly-in the process.9 However, it is importantto reiterate that, as explained earli-er, the implicit globalizing and universalizing of 'the post-modern condition' by authors like Harvey and Soja reflectsa continuing modernist methodological praxis. Featherstone(1995: 79) has recently amplified this point in relation to theoverall methodology of Harvey and Frederic Jameson,namely their conception of postmodernism as a culturalform accompanying the transitionto late capitalism or flexi-ble accumulation:Like Jameson, Harvey sees postmodernism as a nega-tive culturaldevelopment with its fragmentationand re-placement of ethics by aesthetics leading to a loss of thecritical edge and political involvement which he regardsas characteristic of the works of artistic modernism. Yet

... [such] analyses rely on a totalizing logic which as-sumes that the universal structuralprinciples of humandevelopment have been discovered and that culture isstill caused by, and is a reflection of, economic changes.... They rely upon a neo-Marxist metanarrativeand me-tatheory which insufficiently analyses its own condi-tions and status as a discourse and practice. ... Thisleads to an inability to see culture andaesthetic form aspractices in which their meanings are negotiated by us-ers. It also displays an inability to see that economicsshould itself be regarded as practices which dependupon representationsand need to be seen as constitutedin and throughculture too.10 Naturally, different forms and processes may occur in dif-ferent regions and contexts. For example, Leontidou (1993)has arguedthat postmodernity in SouthernEurope has beencharacterized by a transition from preindustrial to postin-dustrial without having experienced widespread industriali-zation. This challenges the conventional linear stage ap-proach to development as well as views of the postmodernas being strictly epochal. Cohis (1994) engages with a varie-ty of literaryand culturalperspectives from Latin America." For more detailed reviews of some of these recent books,see Brown (1996) and Simon (1997b).

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