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Trends in Development Theory
Development in question
Globalization and regionalization are overtaking the standard unit of development, the nation. International institutions and market forces overtake
the role of the state, the conventional agent of development. The classic
aim of development,modernization or catching up with advanced countries,
is in question because modernization is no longer an obvious ambition.
Modernity no longer seems so attractive in view of ecological problems,
the consequences of technological change and many other problems.
Westernization no longer seems compelling in a time of revaluing local
culture and cultural diversity. In view of the idea of multiplemodernities,
the question is modernization towards which modernity? Several development decades have not measured up to expectations, especially in Africa
and parts of Latin America and South Asia. The universalist claims of neoclassical economics and structural adjustment policies have undermined the
foundation of development studies, the notion that developing countries
form a special case.Doesn’t all this mean the end of development? Everything that development used to represent appears to be in question, in crisis. There are various views of what this crisis means. One is that since development is in
crisis, let’s close the shop and think of something entirely different –
‘beyond development’. This is the position associated with post-development
thinking. A differentresponse is to qualify the crisis, acknowledging the
failures of the development record but also its achievements, avoiding
simplistic, one-sided assessments. Thus health care and education have
improved even in the poorest countries and in countries where growth has
been stagnant. Another reaction is to acknowledge crisis and to argue that
crisis is intrinsic to development, that developmentknowledge is crisis
knowledge. From its nineteenth-century beginnings, development thinking
was a reaction to the crises of progress, such as the social dislocations
caused by industrialization. Hence questioning, rethinking and crisis are
part of development and not external to it. A related view is not merely to
acknowledge questioning as part of development but to consider it its
spearhead –viewing development thinking as ongoing questioning, critique
and probing alternative options. Development then is a field in flux, with

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Development Theory

rapid change and turnover of alternatives. Precisely because of its crisis
predicament, development is a high-energy field.
This chapter mapsmajor trends in development thinking. The subsequent
chapters examine these trends in detail, building up to an inventory of current
and future directions in the closing chapter. Trends in this discussion refer to
long-term and ongoing as well as plausible future directions in the development field. The focus is on development theories, that is, organized reflections
on development, ratherthan on development tout court and in its entirety.
Since the major development theories are also policy frameworks, this
approach includes development strategies; but actual policies are informed by
many other considerations so this discussion emphasizes development
theories. Trend-spotting is not exactly an intellectually neutral activity so it
needs to be contextualized. This treatment openswith general observations on
the character of development thinking and the status of development theory.
The argument then turns to the different meanings of ‘development’ over
time, which places the discussion of contemporary trends in a historical
context. The next section juxtaposes these different understandings of
development to changing patterns of global hegemony. Zeroing in on the...