Fallacies of Development: Crises of Human and Social Development

The development delusion in our globalized culture is a fascinating subject for informed debate. Fallacies of Development critiques the contemporary interventionist approach to social development. It offers a hermeneutical system of linkages that steers toward out-of-the-box thinking. The kitsch of developmentalism lacks legitimacy and relevance in a "flattening" world. From nation-building to globalization, there are harsh dualities in a neoglobal order that breeds a certain ‘de-developmentality.’ This book signifies the symbiosis of human and social development as a mega project of global-social transformation. Mohan offers a way of understanding the dialectics of oppression, exclusion, and other socio-political conundrums, all of which incubate global unfreedom and dehumanization. In nine chapters organized around three central themes, the book examines the paradoxy of development, unravels the archaeology of the "axis of evil," and presents the design of a new social developmental argument. The foundation for progress, the book argues, is rooted in the conviviality of a postideological coexistence. Fallacies of Development calls for a second enlightenment, a new epoch which again promotes counter hegemonic analyses, policies and programs. But how can we deliver a world without the scourges of poverty, intolerance and war, when we are hopelessly divided, when all around us socio-ethno-economic (and physical) barriers are being built to replace those we thought-for a moment-had crumbled, when terror and counter terror have replaced civility and culture, and when true believers on all sides are caught in a myopic, arrogant delusion? This book is a must-read for all scientists, intellectuals, professionals, policy makers, teachers and students who cherish the dream of a future worth living.