Escobar: Development and Domination. Book Review
Development and domination.
Escobar's one sided discourse.
Book Review: Escobar, Arturo (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (1995), written by Arturo Escobar, has been a controversial book in development debates. The book establishes a critical reading of multiple ideas and practices that have evolved, since World War II, to form what Escobar calls the development discourse. This book is continuation of an academic and political effort, started in the 1980s, to understand social constructions through discourse analysis.
Inevitably, Escobar's claims have raised comments and harsh criticisms by various authors (Little and Painter, 1995; Lehmann, 1997; Crew & Harrison, 1998; Pieterse, 1998; Mosse & Lewis, 2006). For most of these authors the problem is not so much with discourse analysis but with Escobar's actual study.
This article is divided in two. In the first some of Escobar's ideas in Encountering Development are revised: (1) the claim that development is a historical construction, and can be analysed as a discourse, and that by doing so, the analysis becomes a study of domination; (2) the authors perspective against claims of truth and universal models of understanding and acting; and (3) the idea of resistance as expression of alternative discourses. In a second part, I will consider some criticisms done to Escobar's arguments, and highlight aspects, that have resulted from the development debate, and seem relevant for understanding social processes of development. Domination and discourse.
The structure of the book offers a general idea of Escobar's arguments, one of which is, discourse matters. Encountering Development is divided into six chapters. In the introduction the author explains his methodology and its usefulness, as well as the use of it by other authors. In the second
Escobar's one sided discourse.
Book Review: Escobar, Arturo (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (1995), written by Arturo Escobar, has been a controversial book in development debates. The book establishes a critical reading of multiple ideas and practices that have evolved, since World War II, to form what Escobar calls the development discourse. This book is continuation of an academic and political effort, started in the 1980s, to understand social constructions through discourse analysis.
Inevitably, Escobar's claims have raised comments and harsh criticisms by various authors (Little and Painter, 1995; Lehmann, 1997; Crew & Harrison, 1998; Pieterse, 1998; Mosse & Lewis, 2006). For most of these authors the problem is not so much with discourse analysis but with Escobar's actual study.
This article is divided in two. In the first some of Escobar's ideas in Encountering Development are revised: (1) the claim that development is a historical construction, and can be analysed as a discourse, and that by doing so, the analysis becomes a study of domination; (2) the authors perspective against claims of truth and universal models of understanding and acting; and (3) the idea of resistance as expression of alternative discourses. In a second part, I will consider some criticisms done to Escobar's arguments, and highlight aspects, that have resulted from the development debate, and seem relevant for understanding social processes of development. Domination and discourse.
The structure of the book offers a general idea of Escobar's arguments, one of which is, discourse matters. Encountering Development is divided into six chapters. In the introduction the author explains his methodology and its usefulness, as well as the use of it by other authors. In the second