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Book
Review: The Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of
the Third World by Arturo Escobar
In this review, I will discuss the key points from Escobar’s
The Encountering Development and the strengths
and weaknesses of the book.
The author started his book with a quote from US President
Truman’s inaugural speech in 1949, which is about his policy called a ‘fair
deal’. According to Truman’s speech, there are many countries in difficult
situations in terms of economic development. Thus, the West should play an active
role in the development of third world countries through capital, science and
technology. Truman’s speech was one of the examples of hegemonic policies of
Western countries. In the last few decades, the West has influenced many of the
third world countries through this kind of policy. According to the author, the
vision of a western style of development not only failed but also brought great
damage to third world countries. In his strong statement, he called it a “nightmare’.
The nightmare includes economic crises, poverty and violence. Even though critics like McKinney (1995) who stated
that the author did not mention his definition of development, has seen him as
a nightmare.
The author also mentioned that the West influenced to third world
countries through its politics, economy and culture. Thus, development as a
discourse was distributed under the same western principles and ideas. In
general, it can be seen that the development is a totally western-oriented
experience, so if it is not in this frame, then you are not developed. We can
understand it simply as modernization. McGregor (2007, p. 156) described
clearly that a common post-development argument is “development has artificially
naturalized an ideal state, modeled upon the developed west, and promoted this
state as universally desirable and achievable for all peoples and cultures.” To
the author, not only the economy,
politics and culture, but the whole system of knowledge is based on western
hegemonic discourse. The author says that the West thinks that a non-western
system is not a qualified one. To put these ideas into simple one, he tried to
liberate or deconstruct the current global trend and theories related to this development.
From my personal point of view, his goal was to liberate, not to bring the
systematic new alternative models into the development theories.
According to the author, the main objective of the book was to
analyze the discourse of development, the idea of underdevelopment, economic
theories and also current trends such as rural development, sustainable
development and women in development within the period from World War II to the
present. Interestingly, the author dedicated five chapters out of six to
explain what was happening in the third world. It was only in the last chapter
that he mentioned his alternatives to development.
Now I will discuss the book chapter by chapter, which will also
reveal the main points clearly to me. I have already covered the first chapter,
so I will begin with the second one.
In
the second chapter, the author illustrates how the West created the idea of
poverty and how three worlds divided. One of most interesting statements in the
book was concerning poverty. He mentioned that the West found poverty in third
world countries like a discovery. It is clear that the third world itself also had
a western-oriented idea. While constructing the idea of poverty, the West tried
to solve the main problem in third world countries, which was poverty. Poverty was
the center of all the ideas related to the discourse on development and the
solution was science, technology, planning and international organizations,
which generally came from the West. From my personal point of view, it is true
that creation of poverty and a great emphasis on poverty itself was
significant. We can see it from a motto of one of the most influential
organizations in the world, the World Bank. The World Bank declared that they were
“working for a World Free of Poverty” (World Bank,
2015, p. 1). McKinnon (2007) confirmed that the fundamental concern of post-development
was to decrease poverty and social injustice.
In the third chapter, the author argued that economic theories
have emphasized economic development in the last few decades. In general, it
was claimed that the Western economy and its economic theories determined the
economy of third world countries. There were few economic schools that were
powerful in this sense such as the interventionist Keynesian economy and free-market-based
neoliberal economy. In this realm, the author tried to see the economy from an anthropological
point of view. As an anthropologist, the author tried to use his professional
attributes, and even created a new term, which was to ‘anthropologize’ the
economy. He explicitly mentioned that there is a strong social power in the
economic discourses and economy. According to Ziai (2015) post-development
texts clearly showed certain relations of power. It was significantly useful for
me to see the modern economics from a totally different angle, that is, an
anthropological angle.
In the fourth chapter, the author illustrated how hunger and
food related language was constructed. His main argument was food dependency,
which generally went with food aid from the western world, particularly, from
the USA and European countries. It was argued that in order to understand the
development, we must understand how development institutions work in reality. For
example, Smith (2014) clarified that the USA has a $2 billion annual budget for
food aid and 80% of this aid must be sourced from US farmers and businesses,
and 50% of food aid should go with USA vessels. Escobar’s points related to
hunger and food have shown clearly the logic of this kind of generosity. It is a
common criticism that food aid is creating food dependency in third world
countries.
In
the fifth chapter, the author discusses issues related to women, peasants and
the environment. One of the interesting features of this book was the starting
quote of every chapter. People can understand his argument from those quotes.
In this chapter, the author quoted from Trinh T and Minh-ha, a women’s rights organization
that usually applies a similar practice of western women in African women
(Escobar, 1995). To put it simply, Escobar argued that the West tried to direct
modernity in every aspect of development. Not just women’s issues, but also
rural and sustainable development had the same attitude toward the development
discourse. The author argued that there are no fundamental changes even in the
newly development models. It was interesting to challenge new trends like
sustainable development. Salman (2009, p. 162) said, “I am, therefore,
surprised and disappointed at the extent to which Escobar rejects the idea of
sustainable development. After all, the environmental movement did begin at the
grassroots level, which is exactly what Escobar proposes as his only solution.”
In the sixth chapter, the author shows what would happen
after deconstructing the development. McKinnon (2007) acknowledged that one of
the most important influences of the post-development idea was post-structuralism
and its denial of the modern world. The author admitted that the process would not
be an easy one and there was no simple or grand solution to the post-development
era. For him, it was more suitable to talk about complex hybridization and
grassroots cultural movements. He even stated that the cultural variation is
fundamental for the post-development era. According to the author, there was no
need to seek for grand alternatives, so it should go more likely in the local
settings. One of critics, Salman (2009), pointed out that even though it is
appealling, Escobar’s solution was not strong enough to fight with the global
trend and global institutions. Also, Escobar did not clarify how culture could help
to avoid the development (Salman, 2009). Ziai (2015) agreed that post-development
ideas were not alternatives to development, and rather doubted them.
Strengths
and weaknesses of the book
Most importantly, the book effectively challenged current
theories and trends related to development. Ziai (2015) acknowledged that most
critics agreed that discourse related to development is western-oriented, which
was illustrated clearly in Escobar’s book.
On one hand, I agree with him that we should think twice about current
trends and theories of development, because of global issues like climate
change and overpopulation. On the other hand, if we see the long-term statistics,
we can find good results easily. I will mention some statistics later in this
paper.
One of the strengths of the book was its opposition to
top-down approaches and locally-based responses to any issues (McGregor, 2007).
I agree that governmental involvement in people’s lives is increasing in many
ways. People should have the freedom to make decisions on everything related to
their lives unless their decision is intervening someone else’s life.
As mentioned previously, in order to alleviate poverty,
international organizations and western countries are involved in the lives of people
in third world countries. It is a simple example of a top-down approach of
development. For example, according to the United Nations, if you are earning
less than $1, you will be considered as poor (UNESCO, 2015). From my personal
experience, I can say that you can live a normal life in the Mongolian
countryside with less than $1. Thus, the idea of poverty is problematic in that
sense and the author has shown it successfully. I would say that I found more weaknesses than
strengths and will explain this further in the following paragraphs.
Firstly, Ziai (2015) mentioned that some East Asian
countries and China are catching up to western countries in terms of their economic
development. Thus, it would have been better if the author had discussed from the
Chinese and Japanese models of development in the book. There was no
information in the book, as to how the post-development theory would see the
success of Asian tiger countries and China. Even though they had great influence
from the West, their development practices were based on their cultural norms.
Secondly, I argue that Escobar sees the third world
countries and their people as victims of western-oriented development. For
example, from a public opinion poll of Mongolia in 2001, ninety percent of the total
population thought that democratic revolution was a good choice for Mongolia
(Baabar, 2006). Democratic revolution of Mongolia was definitely a historical
choice for western-style development for Mongolia. Politicians usually make the
decisions but they follow the opinions of the majority of the population most
of the time. Storey (2000) mentioned that most of the people in the third world
want to have access for development and not its rejection. If there were options,
I would definitely choose the way of development as a regular citizen of a third
world country.
Thirdly, the author does not want to see the successes of development.
For example, in the last twenty years, life expectancy has increased from age
60 to 68 and the child mortality rate has decreased three times. The average
income grew from $6 to $100 per week, and students at tertiary level rose from
16,000 to 120,000 in Mongolia (Baabar, 2006). These are just a few statistics from
one third world country. “The author does not support with evidence his thesis
that the peoples of the less-developed countries have on balance been made
worse off by the development programs of the past forty years” (McKinney, 1995,
p. 818).
Finally, from my personal experience, I can say if the
criticism does not give a solution, it will most likely amount to ineffective
criticism in many situations. For me, the fifth chapter was the weakest part of
the book. Even though the goal was to deconstruct the whole trend of
development, it seems to me that, even for Escobar, the post-development era
has not become clear yet. If there are no certain solutions to the problems,
deconstruction of development will remain just as an idea.
Conclusion
In general, his approach was anthropological and post-structural
(McKinney, 1995). The title of the book is Encountering
Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Thus, it is clear
that the author tried to see things from a Third World perspective. McKinnon
(2007) acknowledged that the idea related to power relations comes from a post-colonial
theory and the denial of modernization comes from post-structuralism.
From my personal point of view, his analyses of the issue of
poverty and food aid were a valuable contribution in the theoretical dialogues.
I totally agree with him that western countries and international organizations
emphasize poverty too much. There is a problematic question such as – poverty to
whom?
As an anthropologist, Escobar has successfully seen how people
construct their knowledge related to development. The book has shown clearly
that there are certain matters that need to be seen from a different angle of
the whole development discourse. As mentioned earlier, the author did a good
job in challenging the current global trend. However, Salman (2009) criticized
Escobar’s idea that post-development revealed a lack of strength to stand
against development.
After I weighed up the strengths and weaknesses of the book,
it became clear that there were more weaknesses than strengths. Most
importantly, the general attitude of the book was paternalistic. I think that
we should not forget that people who live in third world countries are smart
enough to make decisions about their lives and their future. Ziai (2015)
admitted that most post-development authors have little evidence toward their
discontent of development. I think that Escobar’s book also lacked evidence. As
mentioned earlier, people in third world countries are not passive recipients.
For example, McGregor (2007) mentioned that the Timorese people are not simply
victims of western development.
Even though its general attitude sees development as a discourse,
the author did not state clearly what development was. Ziai (2015) acknowledged
that whatever development was supposed to be in the post-development, it was far
from clear. Development is a “buzzword”. For some people, local cultural
movements of post-development can be seen as development. I totally agree, “If
development can mean anything, how can the post-development authors be so
convinced of its rejection?” (Crush, 1995a. p. 3).
In considering that the goal of the book is about third world
countries, the author should have looked at developed countries. If developed
countries are sustaining a high quality of life, third world countries will
follow their paths no matter what. One of the disadvantages of the book was an
attitude of pessimism. If we want to see the good side of something, we will
definitely find it. As mentioned earlier, concerning the case of Mongolians, I would
argue that western-style development is bringing more opportunities and more
freedom to regular citizens of third world countries.
References:
Baabar, B. (2006)
What is the wrong system? [Online] Ulaanbaatar: Baabar.mn Available from http://baabar.niitlelch.mn/content/7255.shtml
Crush, Jonathan
(1995a) ‘Introduction: Imagining Development’, in J. Crush (ed.) Power of
Development, pp. 1–23. London: Routledge.
Escobar, A. (1995)
Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World.
Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
McKinney, Joseph A. (1995) Review. The
Journal of Asian Studies, 54 (3) 817-819
McGregor, Andrew. (2007) Development,
Foreign Aid and Post-development in Timor-Leste. Third World Quarterly, 28 (1)
155-170
McKinnon, Katharine. (2007)
Postdevelopment, Professionalism, and the Politics of Participation. Annals of
the Association of American Geographers, 97 (4) 772-785
Salman, Aneel. (2009) Book Review.
Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 29 (1) 161 -162
Smith,
James. (2014) “From the American
People”: the US Farm Bill and the reform of emergency food aid. Lancent Global Health 2 (5) e255-2256
Storey, Andy. (2000)
‘Post-Development Theory: Romanticism and Pontius Pilate Politics’, Development
43(4) 40–46.
UNESCO (2015) Learning to live together.
[online] Paris: UNESCO, Available from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/poverty/
World Bank (2015) About [online] Washington:
World Bank Group, Available from http://www.worldbank.org/en/about
Ziai, Aram. (2015) Post-Development:
Premature Burials and Haunting Ghosts. Development and Change, 46 (4) 833-854