Name: Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World
Price: 81.81 NZD
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Author: Arturo Escobar
ISBN: 9780691150451

portada Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World

Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World

Type

Physical Book

Author

Arturo Escobar

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Year

2011

Language

English

Pages

344

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9780691150451

Edition No.

2011

Synopsis "Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World "

How did the industrialized nations of North America and Europe come to be seen as the appropriate models for post-World War II societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? How did the postwar discourse on development actually create the so-called Third World? And what will happen when development ideology collapses? To answer these questions, Arturo Escobar shows how development policies became mechanisms of control that were just as pervasive and effective as their colonial counterparts. The development apparatus generated categories powerful enough to shape the thinking even of its occasional critics while poverty and hunger became widespread. "Development" was not even partially "deconstructed" until the 1980s, when new tools for analyzing the representation of social reality were applied to specific "Third World" cases. Here Escobar deploys these new techniques in a provocative analysis of development discourse and practice in general, concluding with a discussion of alternative visions for a postdevelopment era. Escobar emphasizes the role of economists in development discourse--his case study of Colombia demonstrates that the economization of food resulted in ambitious plans, and more hunger. To depict the production of knowledge and power in other development fields, the author shows how peasants, women, and nature became objects of knowledge and targets of power under the "gaze of experts." In a substantial new introduction, Escobar reviews debates on globalization and postdevelopment since the book's original publication in 1995 and argues that the concept of postdevelopment needs to be redefined to meet today's significantly new conditions. He then calls for the development of a field of "pluriversal studies," which he illustrates with examples from recent Latin American movements.

Arturo Escobar

(Author)

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Arturo Escobar (Manizales, Colombia, November 20, 1952) is an influential anthropologist and critical thinker, known for his work in political ecology, development anthropology, social movements, and decolonial studies. He was a professor at the University of North Carolina until 2018 and is currently linked to the doctoral programs in Environmental Sciences at the University of Valle and in Design and Creation at the University of Caldas, in Colombia.

Escobar is known for his critique of the Western development model and his proposal of alternatives based on autonomy, relationality, and the pluriverse. His most influential book is The Invention of Development (1995), which questions the dominant narratives about progress and proposes an alternative vision centered on cultural and epistemological diversity.

In his most recent work, Relationality: An Emerging Politics of Life Beyond the Human (2024), co-written with Michal Osterweil and Kriti Sharma, Escobar explores the idea of radical relationality, which understands that all entities are the result of a network of interrelations and interdependencies, and proposes a politics based on the interconnection and interdependence of all forms of life.

Throughout his career, Escobar has worked closely with Afro-Colombian communities, environmentalists, and feminists, supporting their struggles for territory, identity, and social justice. His approach seeks to promote transitions to more sustainable and just life models, based on respect for diversity and the interconnection of all living beings.

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