ABSTRACT

Postmodernism became a major social scientific theoretical paradigm during the 1990s, although its prominence has now waned somewhat. In development studies it gained prominence as one of the routes for transcending the so-called theoretical ‘impasse’ that emerged in the mid-to late 1980s. However, the concept assumed diverse meanings, a factor contributing substantially to the often heated but unenlightening debates over its usefulness in the context of development.