ABSTRACT
DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE: LIMITS AND SIGNIFICANCE In human history, there has always been a dominant mode development discourse shaped and reinforced by economic needs and demands, social class and political power structures, cultural norms and beliefs, and ideological and intellectual orientations. With the basic shifts in these various factors at the national and global levels, there emerged some significant changes in the nature of development thinking in different epochs. During the precolonial phase, diverse modes of human progress (often known as civilizations) occurred in different parts of the world based on distinct historical traditions (Chinese, Indian, Persian, Egyptian, European, and so on) with unique sets of human needs, social systems, political structures, and cultural beliefs (Haque, 1999a). These different traditions or civilizations became marginalized, impoverished, and eventually supplanted during the centuries of worldwide colonial conquests. The colonization process eroded human diversity, restructured various economies and political systems, transformed cultures and lifestyles, and imposed a Eurocentric development discourse on subjugated societies and peoples, which continued in different forms during the postcolonial phase.
