ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of closing thoughts covered in the previous chapters in this book. It deals with the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies by summing up and discussing frequent points of criticism towards discourse analysis in development studies and highlighting important points of selected texts of this research and articulates their contribution in the light of this critique. A common critique is that already talking about development discourse in the singular unduly homogenizes a very diverse field of statements and vastly different concepts simply put, it even ignores the differences between capitalist development and socialist development. Historical analyses have exemplified the massive shift in the representation of North-South relations and the struggle against poverty between 1970-2000 as a result of the influence of neoliberal discourse. The greater part of analyses of discourse in development studies is visibly concerned with a critique of relations of power and often also with the promotion of political alternatives.
