Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World

Arturo Escobar critics the whole concept of development in theory and practice from an extremely unusual and original perspective. He steps back and views development as something exotic and almost non-sense. Inspired on the work of Foucault, the author examines the evolution of the discourse about development as a form of how the West keeps exerting power and influence on the Third World. The ethnocentric views of development and interventions that come with them - propagated by Western governments, multinational companies, development institutions and academia - puts Third World cultures and traditional populations as something that should be significantly changed to achieve the so-dreamed "development." Although the results of these western-driven interventions over decades have usually been catastrophic for Third World's populations and cultures, Western "experts" keep coming to the Third World and elaborating new forms of discourses on development, now addressing objects like sustainable development, women and development and poverty erradication - all ethnocentric and based on western values. This book should be read by anyone who wants to reunderstand development in the Third World (and reflect if it is needed at all!).