Going Beyond Development Monoculture: Critical reflections on the MDGs

Agostino, Ana

doi:10.1057/dev.2008.8

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Specifically, I explored McLaughlin’s (2011) model of evolutionary change within socially constructed adaptive landscapes as an approach to addressing the descriptive and prescriptive limitations of EMT. By moving beyond the “monoculture of linear time” (Agostino, 2008, p. 232) and conceptualizing social change as a mechanism rather than a direction, this perspective provides a more coherent explanation of the dynamics and diversity of social structures in space and time. It also enhances both the theoretical incorporation and political deployment of agency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Modernization in Evolutionary Perspective

McLaughlin

2012

Organization & Environment

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Ecological modernization theory (EMT) has emerged as a major theoretical and policy-making perspective. Despite its growing influence, EMT has significant limitations both as a descriptive and as a prescriptive theory. Taking the Darwinian revolution’s rejection of essentialism and developmentalism as the touchstone for ecological thinking, the author argues that EMT is premised on a nonecological foundation. The nonecological underpinnings of EMT preclude its elaboration into a descriptive theory capable of conceptualizing the interactions between social structures, human agency, and biophysical environments. As a prescriptive theory, these same assumptions marginalize people and projects that depart from EMT’s restricted vision of modernization. The author concludes by contrasting EMT with an evolutionary perspective on social change, premised on the concept of a socially constructed adaptive landscape, which combines population thinking with moderate constructionist insights into agency and culture. From the latter perspective, EMT’s prescriptive claims can be interpreted as a form of strategic essentialism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Modernization in Evolutionary Perspective

McLaughlin

2012

Organization & Environment

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“…There is a growing awareness in development research and practice that capitalocentric ways-of-doing (which position capitalism at the centre and dismiss everything else) limit horizons of action and transformation and diminish other ways-of-being. In particular, these debates have arisen through criticisms of capitalist and neoliberal approaches (from post-structural, postdevelopment and feminist schools of thought, among others) that are opposed to the way in which hegemonic discourses or monocultures, such as the capitalist economy, seem to control the discursive reality of the world and subjugate ordinary people as passive consumers (Santos, 2004;Ziai, 2007;Agostino, 2008;Escobar, 2011;Cameron, Healy & Gibson-Graham, 2013). These discourses silence and make invisible other ways of being which support and encourage well-being and action.…”

Section: Situating My Research In Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering new spaces: Celebrating and growing a diverse economy in Cape Town, South Africa

Hosking¹

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This thesis explores and celebrates diverse understandings and experiences of the economy through the narratives of four people working in Cape Town, South Africa. The diversity and multiplicity of the economy has been made invisible by a capitalocentric economic discourse which casts alternative ways of being as uncredible and weak. Thus, from a post-development/community economy perspective, I seek to foster a space in which non-conventional economic and political practices are seen as relevant and valid sites for action, where hope for a better future can be enabled. Living in the segregated city of Cape Town, I began to question the polemic framing of the country‟s “two economies”, a framing which disregards the actions of ordinary people who are improving the well-being of their communities directly, in favour of neoliberal pro-growth strategies. Therefore, I interrogate the binaries used to describe the economy and scale of action so as reimagine other possible trajectories for transformation. In so doing, I trace some of the relational connections that the participants articulated and employed on a daily basis so as to foster a sense of place beyond dualistic notions of scale and politics. I also contend that if we are to appreciate the community economy as a significant and persistent site of struggle, there is a need to understand politics as happening beyond the horizon of direct mobilisation. Through these reframings I work to reinsert the experiences and perspectives of spatially and economically marginalised people and places into implications in broader issues. I approach this research from a post-structural, feminist stance, not only to deconstruct the supposed dominance of the capitalist economy, but also to contribute to a project of growing a diverse economic discourse and enabling people to occupy this terrain and reclaim their agency. Hence, using ethnographic and visual collaborative methodologies I aim to promote and value the agency and autonomy of ordinary people who are performing, dreaming, enacting, connecting and enabling a broad horizon of opportunities in hybrid, multi-scalar ways. Therefore, alongside its conceptual contribution of enabling other economic possibilities, I hope that this thesis adds to a conversation about the need for methodologies to be realised as part of a broader movement towards transformation and change.

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Diverse Education for Diverse Economies: The relevance of Rural Training Centres in the Solomon Islands

Fleming¹

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Education is considered the cornerstone of development, essential to achieving economic and social goals. Under the powerful global education agenda, the western model of formal education has been implemented hegemonically in developing countries. This model largely prepares young people for a role in the formal economy in an urban environment, overlooking fundamental questions of purpose and relevance for local context. In the Solomon Islands, where 85% of the population reside rurally, such opportunities often do not exist or reflect local livelihoods. Rural Training Centres (RTCs) are informal vocational institutions that sit outside of the dominant education paradigm by aiming to prepare young people for local livelihoods. Through informal and vocational learning, they offer an alternative to urbanisation, supporting self derived and locally based livelihoods. Paradoxically, for this very reasons they are often disregarded at the government and donor level. From a postdevelopment perspective, this thesis considers the roles and relevance of RTCs under a wider conceptualisation of economy and knowledge than is applied in mainstream development practice. Using qualitative and ethnographical methodologies, this research investigates local understandings of RTCs as an education alternative through the voices of young people, women and the wider community. The inter-related aspects: economy, education, and development, are considered in two case study communities, Gizo and Vatu, providing a semi-urban/rural comparison. Using a Diverse Economies Framework (Gibson-Graham, 2005), this thesis reveals a more realistic picture of the myriad of activities that support local livelihoods exists. The formal economy is found to play a secondary role to informal and direct economic practices. Similarly, under a pluralistic view of education that accepts the legitimacy of traditional, cultural and indigenous knowledge, the aspirations of young people are found to be deeply rooted ‘at home’. Yet, this research argues that they do not conform to a simplistic modern-traditional dichotomy. Rather they reflect cultural hybridity, a third space ‘in between’ where different knowledges are transformed and negotiated. Despite criticisms, RTCs were positively viewed at a community level. They were considered to fill a vital gap left by the formal education system, support local livelihoods and help stem the flow of urban migration. They also offer an opportunity to support women in existing gender roles, as well as expand existing cultural educational boundaries. However, RTCs are facing pressure to standardise and formalise in order to attract greater government and donor funding. This reflects wider tensions in development policy and practice that favour the universal and the global over the local, and brings to light the inherent power disparity in the aid relationship.

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Going Beyond Development Monoculture: Critical reflections on the MDGs

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Ecological Modernization in Evolutionary Perspective

Ecological Modernization in Evolutionary Perspective

Fostering new spaces: Celebrating and growing a diverse economy in Cape Town, South Africa

Diverse Education for Diverse Economies: The relevance of Rural Training Centres in the Solomon Islands

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