From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: 3RD WORLD RESOURCES V8N3 -- BOOKS: >>DEVELOPMENT<<
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 01:38:33 GMT

    Readers who are "doing good" and are comfortable "doing good" and
    are being rewarded (financially, professionally, or otherwise) for
    "doing good" might find <The Development Dictionary> radical
    analysis personally threatening.

			     *** *** ***

        The following is from the quarterly magazine, THIRD WORLD
        RESOURCES: A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF RESOURCES FROM AND ABOUT THE THIRD
        WORLD; subscriptions to the 24-page hardcopy edition are $35/year
        (organizations) and $35/two years (individuals). For rates outside
        North America, write to: Third World Resources, 464 19th Street,
        Oakland, CA 94612-2297 USA. See also their conference `twr.nl' on
        PeaceNet, or email to tfenton@igc.org (Tom Fenton)
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Topic 123       BOOKS, 8:3 - 1992       Response  8 of 16 
tfenton 
twr.nl  11:09 am  Jul  8, 1992 
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***<THE DEVELOPMENT DICTIONARY: A GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE AND  
POWER.> Wolfgang Sachs, ed. Zed Books, 57 Caledonian Rd.,  
London N1 9BU, England. 1992. 306 pp. $25. ISBN  
1-85649-044-0. Index, bibliography, list of contributors,  
references. 

It was U.S. President Harry S. Truman, editor Wolfgang Sachs  
points out, who ushered in "the age of development" when--in  
a speech in early 1949--he described countries in the  
southern hemisphere as "underdeveloped areas." 

"Four decades after Truman's invention of underdevelopment,"  
Sachs states, "the historical conditions which had given  
rise to the developmental perspective have largely  
disappeared. By now development has become an amoeba-like  
concept, shapeless but ineradicable." But for all its  
apparent blandness and vagueness, Sachs contends, the term  
development is <not> politically neutral. It reflects a  
Western perception of reality. It allows "any intervention  
to be sanctified in the name of a higher goal." It clouds  
the political perceptions of well-meaning grassroots  
activists. It creates "a common ground, a ground on which  
right and left, elites and grassroots fight their battles." 
The nineteen essays in <The Development Dictionary> are  
designed to expose and critically analyze the pernicious  
ideological underpinnings of development. More than that,  
they boldly and insistently challenge readers "to re-view  
the developmental model of reality and to recognize that we  
all wear not merely tinted, but tainted, glasses if we take  
part in the prevailing development discourse." 

Readers who are "doing good" and are comfortable "doing  
good" and are being rewarded (financially, professionally,  
or otherwise) for "doing good" might find <The Development  
Dictionary>  radical analysis personally threatening.  

You will never think of "development" in the same way again  
after reading Gustavo Esteva's essay on the term. Or of  
"helping" after reading Marianne Gronemeyer's essay. Or of  
"needs" after reading Ivan Illich. Or of "poverty" after  
reading Majid Rahnema.  
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