ABSTRACT
The mission of civilising the uncivilised has been replaced by the global establishment of social institutions in a European fashion and the transformation of the people into performance-oriented individuals. The basic structure of colonial discourse is the division of the world into civilised peoples or nations and uncivilised tribes or masses. Colonial discourse turned into the discourse of development. The discourse of development which became immensely influential in the second half of the 20th century exhibited fundamental changes in comparison with the discourse of colonialism. During the middle decades of the 20th century, the colonial order of discourse was pushed aside by that of development. Just like in colonialism, the Northern experts still know how the South has to be remodelled, in their image and according to their values. Constant elements in the comparison between the two orders of discourse referred to as social technology that is intented to shape the societies in the South according to rational criteria.
