A critical look on our perception of development by understanding Arturo Escobar’s literature

Is there any point in doing ‘development’ work?

Term Paper , 2013 , 15 Pages , Grade: 1,7

Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology

Once I started to reflect the course “Anthropology and Development”, it was quite sure that I would choose one critical and mind-opening article as a base for my work. The works of Arturo Escobar a Columbian anthropologist came into my head. I really appreciated his interdisciplinary methods. During our class, his concepts were the one that polarized the most and lead to vivid discussions. He took discursive analysis out off sociology and philosophy and completed a very sophisticated breakdown of our most essential perception of what we called “development”. His ideas covered enormous fields starting from malnutrition up to women rights. Most points about development I took before my readings for granted and never scrutinized it. Similar to debunking the term “Orient” in Edward Said’s work “Orientalism”, Escobar questions our notion of “development” and calls it a product of the western world. Going through lots of his texts Arturo Escobar reveals his points with a clear language and made it a good read for me. What he really emphasizes repeatedly is that the uses of terms like “Third World”, “underdeveloped” and “poor” have to be reconsidered on a big scale. It is not about criticizing one point after the other. It is a highly challenging work for every reader to leave so much concepts behind which were naturally built in our language and thoughts. His major work “Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World” summarizes plenty of his earlier works published in magazines like “Development or “Future” in the 1990s. Although sometimes reviewed as too much based on generalizations it is interesting how my view on lots of political, economical and cultural topics was not only changed but also completely flipped inside out. Even if you do not agree with Arturo Escobar on every point or fail to follow on his side-trips into other topics, there remains at least a small impact in your perceptions of your surroundings, whether it is to a positive or a not so good direction. I definitely see so much potential in Escobar’s work not only for anthropology and development itself but also most notably for presenting the discursive methods on a broader scale. Much of his presented improvements or alternatives are already working today for several regional and international campaign and organizations. It is fascinating how his ideas never lost any topicality until now.

Index

1.) Introduction

2.) A historical view on ‘development’

3.) Deconstructing ‘development’

4.) Pluriverse instead of universe or local social movements

5.) Concluding Remark

Bibliography

• College: University of Heidelberg (Institut für Ethnologie)
• Course: Anthropology and Development
• Grade: 1,7
• Author: Konstantin Dyck (Author)
• Publication Year: 2013
• Pages: 15
• Catalog Number: V214545
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656430049
• ISBN (Book): 9783656433347
• Language: German
• Tags: Arturo Escobar, development, Ethnology, Ethnologie, Anthropology, Anthropologie, Deconstruction, Encountering Development