ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways through which language and discourse are central to the creation and sustenance of the praxis of the spectacle of development. It discusses oppression as a behaviour that can be displayed by anyone. The chapter considers the discursive tools employed by the various forms of oppressors so as to consolidate power in the ideological and material world. It also explores the experiences of becoming an oppressor in development contexts, thereby exposing deliberative development practice to contradictions, especially when it comes to the acquisition of subaltern perspectives. Communication is central to the art and science of oppression. In critical theory, language is treated as a system of representation. The chapter expresses that the oppressor is no longer foreign, white, male or westerner. In fact, to implement deliberative development, planners and policy makers must study, understand, unmask and uproot the processes and networks that produce horizontal oppressors and oppression.
