Eleven Theses on the Humanization of Development: ‘Praxis Philosophy’ in World of the Third

This paper makes space for eleven possible moves to humanize development. The first is to turn to capabilities-functionings, quality of life and questions of well-being (in addition to ‘growth’). The second is a critique of the reduction of a part of humanity to the epithet underdeveloped and the consequent dehumanization. The third is a disaggregation of the map of the world into those that are ‘hooked to the circuits of global capital’ and those that are not and are outside (designated world of the third). The brunt of the cruelty of (capitalist) development projects is borne by the world of the third subjects. This paper is a critique of that inhumanity and an attention to the pain inflicted upon the world of the third. The fourth is a turn to those subject positions that constitute the world of the third. Such post-capitalist and post-Orientalist subject positions further humanize development. The fifth is a turn to the real human being; not data; not graphs; breathing, living human beings. The sixth is to re-establish a long lost real relationship with the ‘subaltern’. Not to study them; not to churn out papers on their miseries; but to relate to them and their miseries; to alleviate some of the social suffering, if possible. The seventh is a turn to being in the polis. Development Studies can perhaps be humanized only if it is singed in development practice, in transformative social praxis; i.e. if poverty is alleviated; not just studied. The eighth would be the displacement of ‘field work’ with immersion in subaltern life-worlds and worldviews, of research with action research, of theories of social suffering with practices of social healing. The ninth would be a turn to the Borromean Knot of knowing-being-doing. The tenth is a rewriting of politics as reconstruction and not just critique. The eleventh is a turn to praxis philosophy—a philosophy of not just being intelligent but about being good as well—where philosophy is not just a way of knowing but a dharma—a way of life and ethical living.