The Debate Between Post-Development and Its Critics

Abstract

The field of development studies witnessed an important debate between post-development critics and their opponents. The article presents this debate and focuses on neopopulism in post-development, or more particularly on romanticization, essentialization, the rejection of modern technologies and cultural relativism. It discusses the problem of the homogenization of the development discourse, practice and agency in ‘development’. It reacts to the criticism from the field of practice that post-development aims at the old-fashioned development discourse instead of focusing on the current discourse on globalization and that it ignores changes within ‘development’. And finally, the article deals with the political orientation of post-development, its alleged affinity with neoliberalism, the way it uses statistical indicators and its normativity. The conclusion answers the questions whether post-development is meaningful and whether it can remain an important approach under the light of this debate.