Towards a Reinvention of Development Theory: Theorizing Post-Development

该项目旨在通过对后发展方法的系统理论化来克服发展理论正在发生的范式危机。范式危机与发展理论中以欧洲为中心的进化论的遗产有关，这导致了一个相当狭隘的概念，即一个好的、“发达”的社会可以是什么样子。通过他们对欧洲中心主义和权力关系的批判，特别是通过他们对非西方政治、经济和知识模式的关注，后发展方法允许拓宽视野，重新发明发展理论，完全放弃了过去作为该学科特征的进化论，现在有时仍然存在。为了促进这种重新发明，该项目将绘制和分析关于后发展概念和实践的大量文献，目的是对这一观点进行系统的理论化。在学术辩论的基础上，包括对后发展方法的批评，该项目将对后发展的不同变体进行分类，调查它们所促进的替代方案的可行性和可取性，追踪后发展文献向更具建设性方法的转变，调查后发展中的性别关系并澄清其理论歧义。在此基础上，后发展理论将有助于发展理论的重新发明，它考虑到“发展”中的欧洲中心主义和权力关系，而不放弃对全球范围内物质改善的渴望。

The project intends to overcome the ongoing paradigmatic crisis of development theory through a systematic theorization of Post-Development approaches. The paradigmatic crisis is linked to the heritage of Eurocentric evolutionism in development theory which leads to a rather narrow conception of how a good, 'developed' society can look like. Through their critique of Eurocentrism and relations of power and in particular through their focus on non-Western models of politics, the economy and knowledge, Post-Development approaches allow for a broadening of the horizon, a reinvention of development theory which fully abandons the evolutionism which has characterized the discipline in the past – and is sometimes still present nowadays. In order to contribute to this reinvention, the project will map and analyse the vast literature on Post-Development concepts and practices with the aim of a systematic theorization of this perspective. Building on the academic debate, including the criticism launched against Post-Development approaches, the project will categorize different variants of Post-Development, investigate the viability and desirability of the alternatives promoted by them, trace the shift in Post-Development literature towards a more constructive approach, investigate gender relations in Post-Development and clarify its theoretical ambiguities. On this basis, the theorization of Post-Development will contribute to a reinvention of development theory which takes into account Eurocentrism and relations of power in 'development' without giving up the desire for material improvements on a global scale.