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Thinker of the Day | Arturo Escobar
Work – Encountering Development – The Making and Unmaking of the Third World
Views
- Escobar argued that “development” is not simply an economic process. It is also a discourse that defines what counts as poverty, progress, modernity and backwardness.
The Western industrial model cannot automatically be applied to every society.
Institutions such as international organisations, governments and experts classify societies as developed and underdeveloped shaping how problems and solutions are understood.
Escobar emphasised local knowledge, cultural diversity, community autonomy and alternative conceptions of well-being rather than imposing externally designed development models.
Escobar shifts the question from ‘How can we develop the underdeveloped?’ to ‘Who defines development, and whose knowledge determines its meaning?
Keyword of the Day | Development as Discourse | Arturo Escobar
Development as discourse means that development is not merely an objective economic process it also shapes how governments, experts and institutions define problems, classify populations and prescribe solutions.
PUB AD PYQ VAULT | Day 51 | PYQ (2015)
“The market-based approach to development is not compatible with the goal of social justice.” Discuss.
