ABSTRACT
Postmodernism became a major social scientific theoretical paradigm during the 1980s and 1990s, although its popularity has now waned. 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.
