Power of Development

This book examines the power of development to imagine new worlds and to constantly reinvent itself as the solution to problems of national and global disorder. The common thread of the enclosed essays is the language and rhetoric of the development text. By conceptualizing development as a discourse, the book argues that development cannot simply be reduced to the outworking of deeper economic logics and structures but has its own logic, internal coherence and effects. The Power of Development discusses three main questions: how and why does the language of development change over time? What role does geography play in the language and practices of development? And is it possible to imagine a world in which development has no redeeming features or power? At the same time, the book rejects the postmodern conceit that all is language and language is all there is, arguing instead that the text of development must be situated within the power-laden political and institutional context out of which they arise and to which they speak. Combining abstract analyses of development discourse with concrete examples of how that discourse is constructed and operates in particular times and places, the contributors stake out the terrain for post-marxist development studies in a post-marxian world. Robert Shenton, Queen’s University, Ontario; Michael Cowen, Queen’s University, Ontario; Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley; Doug Porter, Australian National