Gustavo Esteva on Going Beyond the Development Paradigm

* Article: Gustavo Esteva, Au-delà du développement, 1994. CRITIQUE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT

URL = https://sniadecki.wordpress.com/category/critique-du-developpement/

Summary

Reading notes from Michel Bauwens, 2006:

"- Development as an idea usually is credited to a 1949 'State of the Union' speech by U.S. President Truman ("Point 4")

It has a messianic undertone, claims the West is exemplary, and that the Other is 'lacking'. In the 80s, it became clear there was no catching up, and the myth started cracking (in 1960, industrial countries were 20 times richer, in the 1980s, 42 times).

The key question of the author is: "is there a 'beyond development', when pre-development is no longer accessible, and the developmental illusions are broken ?

First, he describes the breakdown of tradition, and the human suffering this entails for millions of of culturally and physically uprooted people; then, the arrogant superiority of the few lucky 'moderns'. But where are the post-developmentalists ?

The author then brings the story of an Indian village in Oaxaca province, where one family experienced how counterproductive modern institutions were (such as schools and hospitals) and undertook a 'return to tradition'. He concludes that this represents a huge social movement of de-institutionalization.