Postdevelopment Theory

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally J. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Ways Of Life

Postdevelopment theory is a compelling and controversial field of thought in contemporary development studies. It gained prominence during the 1990s, when it sparked fierce debate, but its influence has since waned somewhat. This chapter summarizes the contribution of postdevelopment theory to development studies and, more generally, to international studies. Postdevelopment theory’s key contribution was a stringent and multifaceted critique of the idea of development. The critique offered by postdevelopment thinkers went beyond other critical engagements with development theory, in that it sought to reject, rather than reform, development. The critique was strongly informed by concerns about Westernization and by an associated desire to validate, protect, and revive non-Western ways of life. Furthermore, postdevelopment theorists adopt a critical stance toward globalization, seeking to defend the local against the global. After reviewing postdevelopment theory’s radical critique of development, the article provides an overview of critical engagements with postdevelopment theory. Critics have been particularly concerned about postdevelopment theorists’ reluctance or inability to move beyond critique in order to clearly outline possible alternatives to development. While this critique is well founded, the article does describe the ways in which some of the recent work by postdevelopment writers has begun to take on a more constructive character. The chapter concludes that post-development theory is relevant not only to those interested in development theory, but also to all those interested in thinking of alternatives to the capitalist, industrialized way of life that has for so long been held up as an ideal toward which all should strive.

Varieties of Worldly Wisdom

1957 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. W. Manning
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Natural Way

The English and American ways of life have more than a little in common. Except however when “Rhodes Scholars in reverse,” Englishmen do not “major.” Instead, they “specialize”—a very, very few in International Relations. Some of these do it in London. This article is on what that means.In cricket—a staple, incidentally, of the English way of life—there are broadly two techniques for bringing a ball to “turn from the off.” One, the less usual, is the “googly.” Fifty years ago it was a rarity indeed. Yet the writer knew in those days a fellow-schoolboy who, bowling googlies, was unaware that not everybody did. To him, they seemed the natural way to have a ball “turn from the off.”

scholarly journals Geography, poverty and development: an interdisciplinary debate

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-236
Author(s):  
Anand Prasad Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Multiple Routes ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Tribal Region ◽  
Geographical Space ◽  
Mode Of Production

An emerging feature of contemporary development studies in India is the deployment of an interdisciplinary approach involving geographical location, level of poverty, nature of development and planning etc. The prevalence of poverty in a specific geographical location represents the evolving pattern of deprivation under a particular mode of production. The historicity of poverty in a geographical space needs an independent enquiry and identification of different production systems which are responsible for the problem of deprivation through multiple routes. The present paper is an attempt to initiate a debate on the issue of poverty, especially in a tribal region, through a multi-dimensional perspective, i.e. interrelation between geography, poverty, development and planning. The paper identifies one of the most poverty-stricken regions of India for a detailed discussion of the various casual factors which are apparently responsible for the poverty of that region. The paper also tries to explore the historical background of poverty in the study area (Babhani Block of Sonbhadra U. P.).

Families of Dull Children

1960 ◽  
Vol 106 (445) ◽  
pp. 1296-1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zena Stein ◽  
Mervyn Susser
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Society ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Ways Of Life

Culture in its anthropological sense has been described as “a configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society” (Linton, 1936); in other words, a way of life. It has long been understood that more than one type of culture may be found in any one society. All societies are stratified and in an industrial society people of different levels have different ways of life. These are subcultures.

scholarly journals Changes in the ways of life of farmers in the northwest of Portugal after 1980

Revista CERES ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Ana Louise de Carvalho Fiúza ◽  
Maria Johanna Schouten ◽  
Neide Maria de Almeida Pinto
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Consumer Markets ◽  
The Family ◽  
Theory Of Structuration ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ways Of Life

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the changes from 1980s in the lifestyles of families of pluriactive and exclusively agricultural farmers in the northwest of Portugal caused by the income arising from the migration of at least one member of the family to another country in the European Union and the narrowing of the labor and consumer markets among the villages, towns and cities. The theoretical framework used to analyze the changes in the way of life of the pluriactive farmers was based on Giddens' theory of structuration, which denies both the absolute determinism of the structure on the subject and the freedom of unrestrained action of these same subjects. The study was carried out with the application of a survey to 78 farmers, divided into "pluriactive" and "exclusively agricultural" farmers. The findings pointed out to a greater aquisition of modes of urban life by pluriactive farmers compared with the exclusively agricultural farmers and showed a generational bias in this process of acculturation.

The response of normal men and women to changes in their environmental temparatures and ways of life

1971 ◽  
Vol 259 (835) ◽  
pp. 533-561 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Time ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Impaired Ability ◽  
Water Salt ◽  
Normal Men ◽  
Similar Programme ◽  
Ways Of Life

Sudanese men and women were flown to Cambridge in the winter of 1966/67 and at once began to take part in an experiment there lasting for 8 days with a corresponding number of British subjects. The Sudanese conformed to the British way of life. Time was provided for relaxation and exercise and the intakes and expenditures of water, salt and energy were measured. The British party were flown to Khartoum in the spring of 1968—not, for political reasons, as was originally planned in June 1967. They matched up again with the Sudanese subjects and adopted the daily routine of the latter while a similar programme of relaxation exercise and measurements was being carried out. The dry-bulb temperatures out of doors in England ranged from —5.6 to 12.5 °C but the rooms were warmed. The dry-bulb temperatures ranged from 14.8 to 38.7 °C in Khartoum and none of the rooms were cooled. The food in Khartoum provided more protein and less salt than in Cambridge. The subjects ate more and expended more energy in Cambridge than in Khartoum and they also tended to gain weight, particularly the Sudanese. The British food intakes were considerably lower in Khartoum and, in spite of expending less energy, the subjects lost weight. To live the lives they did the British males had an obligatory water expenditure of around 2223 ml/ day in Cambridge and 2920 ml. in Khartoum ; the figures for the Sudanese were 2278 and 3381. All the subjects would have required about 7 to 8 g of sodium chloride/day in Khartoum to make their food palatable and to provide for the obligatory losses. The women ate less, expended less energy and had considerably lower obligatory losses of water and salt than the men. Neither the British nor the Sudanese showed impaired ability to perform arithmetic or prolonged vigilence tests in their unaccustomed environment. The Sudanese were less cautious than the British in that they made more false reports of signals in the vigilance task.

Attitudes of Senegalese Secondary School Students towards Traditional African Way of Life and Western Way of Life

1980 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter D'Hondt ◽  
Michel Vandewiele
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
Know How ◽  
Polygamous Marriage ◽  
Traditional Marriage ◽  
Bride Price ◽  
Ways Of Life

With the help of an open-ended questionnaire addressed to some 882 Senegalese collegians, we inquired about the opinions of school-going adolescents upon traditional and Western ways of life, including two major problems, polygamy and the bride-price. Nearly half of the Senegalese adolescents (45%) wish to preserve, before everything else, certain traditional virtues such as solidarity, sharing with others, hospitality, respect paid to parents and elders, politeness, honour. Half of the students wanted to get rid of traditional marriage (imposed marriages, bride-price, polygamous marriage, need for maidenhood, prestige ceremonies). One-third of students praised the Europeans' discretion, freedom of mind, know-how, hardworking qualities, modesty. Marriages in the European fashion seemed to appeal to them (11%), but they most envied the better educational opportunities European children had (26%). What they did not like most was the Europeans' racism (26%), then their individualism (21%). The majority of our subjects were against polygamy (79%) and the bride-price (60%).

scholarly journals New territorial rights for sinking island states

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Angell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Island States ◽  
The People ◽  
Traditional Assumption ◽  
Territorial Rights ◽  
Territorial States ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Climate Refugees

Anthropogenic climate change is an existential threat to the people of sinking island states. When their territories inevitably disappear, what, if anything, do the world's remaining territorial states owe them? According to a prominent ‘nationalist’ approach to territorial rights – which distributes such rights according to the patterns of attachment resulting from people's incorporation of particular territories into their ways of life – the islanders are merely entitled to immigrate, not to reestablish territorial sovereignty. Even GHG-emitting collectives have no reparative duty to cede territory, as the costs of upsetting their territorial attachments are unreasonable to impose, even on wrongdoers. As long as they allow climate refugees to immigrate, receiving countries have done their duty, or so the nationalist argues. In this article, I demonstrate that the nationalist's alleged distributive equilibrium is unstable. When the islanders lay claim to new territory, responsible collectives have a duty to modify their way of life – gradually downsizing their territorial attachments – such that the islanders, in time, may receive a new suitable territory. Importantly, by deriving this duty from the nationalist's own moral commitments, I discard the traditional assumption that nationalist premises imply a restrictive view on what we owe climate refugees.

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