IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v50y2019i2p458-467.html

Towards a More Critical Theory of ‘Development’ in the 21st Century

Author

Listed:
  • Aram Ziai

Abstract

In response to the article by Horner and Hulme which opens this Debate section, this contribution argues that while the call for a shift from international to global development by Horner and Hulme is justified, their approach is confined to what has been called traditional or problem‐solving theory. On the levels of concepts, theory and metatheory, it fails to transcend orthodox approaches in development theory. Concerning concepts, it employs the traditional concept of ‘development’ without recognizing its ambiguity, referring at different times to social change, positive social change or social change according to the European model. Concerning theory, it is based on the nation state as a unit of analysis, not differentiating between different socio‐economic groups or classes, and neglects questions of power. Concerning metatheory, its knowledge interest, epistemology and methodology also remain within orthodox boundaries, for example reproducing the measurement of aggregate per capita income and its evaluation as progress. In the last section of this article, the author presents an outline sketch for a more critical theory of ‘development’.

Suggested Citation

  • Aram Ziai, 2019. "Towards a More Critical Theory of ‘Development’ in the 21st Century," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 458-467, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:50:y:2019:i:2:p:458-467
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12484
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12484
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/dech.12484?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2263 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jason Hickel, 2016. "The true extent of global poverty and hunger: questioning the good news narrative of the Millennium Development Goals," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(5), pages 749-767, May.
    3. Kees Biekart & Wendy Harcourt, 2013. "Transnational Feminist Engagement with 2010+ Activisms," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(3), pages 621-637, May.
    4. Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen, 2013. "Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships: The imperial mode of living and the limits to environmental governance," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 687-711, August.
    5. Sally Matthews, 2017. "Colonised minds? Post-development theory and the desirability of development in Africa," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(12), pages 2650-2663, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Andy Sumner, 2024. "Unity in Diversity? Reflections on Development Studies in the Mid-2020s," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(5), pages 1280-1298, October.
    2. Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland & Sophia Rhee & Whitney Okujagu, 2023. "Dominant Development Indexes’ Construction of Gender and Challenges for Recognizing Everyday Activism for Peace and Security," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(2), pages 152-168, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aram Ziai, 2025. "Theorizing Postdevelopment," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(3), pages 500-523, June.
    2. Gloria Novovic, 2022. "Can Agenda 2030 bring about “localization”? Policy limitations of Agenda 2030 in the broader global governance system," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(4), July.
    3. Spash, Clive L., 2014. "Better Growth, Helping the Paris COP-out? Fallacies and Omissions of the New Climate Economy Report," SRE-Discussion Papers 2014/04, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    4. Shuanglei Zhou & Shaojun Chen, 2023. "The Impact of the Anti-Poverty Relocation and Settlement Program on Farmers’ Livelihood: Perspective of Livelihood Space," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-15, May.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2020. "The role of Globalization in Modulating the Effect of Environmental Degradation on Inclusive Human Development," Journal of Africa SEER Centre(ASC) 20/023, Africa SEER Centre(ASC).
    6. Enrique A. Mundaca & Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar & Lucas Pujol-Cols & María Teresa Muñoz-Quezada, 2021. "The Emotional and Cognitive Scale of the Human–Nature Relationship (ECS-HNR)," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    7. Letizia Bindi & Angelo Belliggiano, 2023. "A Highly Condensed Social Fact: Food Citizenship, Individual Responsibility, and Social Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    8. Fabian Pettig & Mandy Singer-Brodowski, 2024. "Learning in Relation with a Changing World: Thinking Beyond ESD 1 and ESD 2 Towards ESD 3," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 18(2), pages 176-201, September.
    9. Jem Bendell, 2022. "Replacing Sustainable Development: Potential Frameworks for International Cooperation in an Era of Increasing Crises and Disasters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, July.
    10. Junxi Qian & Yun Ma & Xueqiong Tang, 2024. "In the frontier zone of market transition: Economic possibilities across the market/non-market divide," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(6), pages 1710-1730, September.
    11. Österreichische Forschungsstiftung für Internationale Entwicklung (ÖFSE) (ed.), 2014. "Österreichische Entwicklungspolitik 2014. Die Post-2015 Agenda. Reform oder Transformation?," Austrian Development Policy Report, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE), number 268193.
    12. Dengler, Corinna & Seebacher, Lisa Marie, 2019. "What About the Global South? Towards a Feminist Decolonial Degrowth Approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 246-252.
    13. Keith R. Skene, 2021. "No goal is an island: the implications of systems theory for the Sustainable Development Goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 9993-10012, July.
    14. repec:sae:envval:v:25:y:2016:i:5:p:503-525 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Bliss, Sam & Egler, Megan, 2020. "Ecological Economics Beyond Markets," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    16. Johanna Kramm & Melanie Pichler & Anke Schaffartzik & Martin Zimmermann, 2017. "Societal Relations to Nature in Times of Crisis—Social Ecology’s Contributions to Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-12, June.
    17. Wendy Harcourt, 2014. "A feminist response to Stephen Marglin’s Premises for a New Economy," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 25(4), pages 603-611, December.
    18. Valdecantos, Sebastian, 2025. "The green transition dilemma: The impossible (?) quest for prosperity of South American economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    19. Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Florian Keil & Stefan Liehr & Immanuel Stieß, 2017. "Social Ecology as Critical, Transdisciplinary Science—Conceptualizing, Analyzing and Shaping Societal Relations to Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-20, June.
    20. Klees, Steven J., 2024. "Why SDG4 and the other SDGs are failing and what needs to be done," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    21. Spash, Clive L. & Gattringer, Clemens, 2016. "The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change," SRE-Discussion Papers 2016/02, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    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:50:y:2019:i:2:p:458-467. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.