ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the usage of the concept of development in development policy and research and its effects. It argues that development researchers need to abandon the concept of development because development has Eurocentric, depoliticising and authoritarian implications. The chapter explores the theoretical background of the argument and give reasons for the subsequent engagement with conceptual questions, establishing the relevance of discourse analysis. The concept of development has Eurocentric implications, because it assumes European societies as ideal models, they are referred to mature and complete in contrast to other societies, which are deviations from this norm: the less developed or developing ones. The concept of development has depoliticising implications, because it obscures inequalities and conflicts on the national and international level. The concept of development has authoritarian implications because it prescribes interventions in people's lives that these people themselves may disapprove of. Knowledge about development is knowledge about what a good society looks like and how it can be realised.
