Should we still believe in Development?
DEVELOPMENT – conceived by the Second World War victors as a grand strategy for bringing modernity to the ‘third world’ - has ground to a halt. Critics and proponents alike agree that nowadays it is undesirable and unrealistic to dream of the original development idea. Some scholars even signal the dawn of the ‘post-development’ era. Should we still believe in DEVELOPMENT?
Wednesday, 2 April Leon Pijnenburg (WUR) will argue that the history of critical and mainstream approaches to development explains why it seems to be a lost cause. He will philosophically explore the current impasse by walking through the evolution of European and American development discourses. Can we still believe in development if it has been co-opted by military institutions as intervention for reconstruction and post conflict stabilization or has development been reduced to issue management and niche work for fragmented idealists?
Tuesday, 8 April Toon van Eijk, author of “Development and Work Ethic in Sub-Saharan Africa”,