ABSTRACT
In recent years there have been several attempts to redefine development in order that it incorporate more equal forms of exchange between the agencies of development or change and local populations with the explicit aim of reducing divisions between variously termed ‘superior’ ideologies of development and ‘inferior’ systems of local knowledge. One of the strategies frequently suggested to mediate the two is that development policies and projects take greater cognizance of indigenous and local systems of knowledge. In this respect, one development strategy which has frequently been identified in the literature as combining to an unusual degree both a new national ideology of development and local systems of knowledge is the strategy formulated and implemented in the People’s Republic of China after 1949 and before 1976 (see Aziz 1978). One of the distinguishing features of China’s new development policies was the degree to which national policies, agencies and mechanisms of development formally acknowledged the potential contribution of local populations and local systems of knowledge.
