IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v32y2001i3p577-606.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Development and Discourse among the Maya of Southern Belize

Author

Listed:
  • Shawn Van Ausdal

Abstract

This article explores the discourse of development in southern Belize, and the appropriateness of post‐development ideas to understand its effects. It investigates a prevailing notion in development texts from the region that population pressure represents an environmental threat, an odd image for a country with so few inhabitants and so many trees. It also examines the consequences of apparent attempts by the government to employ development projects to defuse local contention over plans to privatize Maya land tenure. While post‐developmentalists have opened up fruitful avenues of analysis this study suggests that some of their conclusions are overstated. In particular, it questions the de‐politicizing effect of development discourse, and the notion of grassroots movements searching for alternatives to development, amounting to a ‘rejection of the entire paradigm’.

Suggested Citation

  • Shawn Van Ausdal, 2001. "Development and Discourse among the Maya of Southern Belize," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 577-606, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:32:y:2001:i:3:p:577-606
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00217
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-7660.00217?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tanya Jakimow, 2008. "Answering the critics," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 8(4), pages 311-323, October.
    2. Wittmer, Heidi & Birner, Regina, 2005. "Between conservationism, eco-populism and developmentalism: discourses in biodiversity policy in Thailand and Indonesia," CAPRi working papers 37, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Murat Arsel & Aram Ziai, 2015. "Forum 2015," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(4), pages 833-854, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:32:y:2001:i:3:p:577-606. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.