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- From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
- Subject: 3RD WORLD RESOURCES V8N3 -- BOOKS: >>DEVELOPMENT<<
- Message-ID: <1992Sep3.013833.6985@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
- Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 01:38:33 GMT
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-
- 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)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Topic 123 BOOKS, 8:3 - 1992 Response 8 of 16
- tfenton
- twr.nl 11:09 am Jul 8, 1992
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- ***<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.
-