ABSTRACT
During the last two decades, a novel and controversial approach in development theory has been discussed, but also been increasingly accepted in academic debate: the post-development (PD) school. Whereas earlier criticisms, such as the dependency school, had criticized development theory and policy usually with a view to devising better theories and policies of development, the post-development school explicitly refused to do so, engaging in destructive instead of constructive criticism. What distinguished PD from the critiques in development studies was that it did not intend to improve the attempts to bring about ‘development,’ but questioned this very objective, advocated the “rejection of the entire paradigm,” and instead called for “alternatives to development”. According to the post-development school, ‘alternative development’ is not enough, because it reproduces the idea that the majority of the world’s population is ‘underdeveloped’ and needs to live like the West.
