After Post-Development: On Capitalism, Difference, and Representation

What is it about?

Many recent critiques of development reject it as “western” and colonial. Ideas of “post- development,” popularized by Arturo Escobar’s writings, suggest that the knowledge and traditions of local communities offer alternatives to development. These positions risk representing local communities as simply being “anti-development” and inadvertently fostering the idea that “natives will save us.” We argue that those committed to struggles for social justice and democratic change must grapple with how capitalist development unfolds and relates to difference. To further this task we invite scholars and activists to engage with Gayatri Spivak’s deconstructive feminist reading of Marx. Many admirers of post-development reject her work as being too complex and negative. However, we make the case that Spivak’s work is not only key in helping to deepen and sharpen critiques of development, but also to imagine planetary justice.

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