Arturo EscobarUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

and Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.

Kapuscinski Lecture in Development

Center for African, Asian, and Latin American Studies (CESA)

University of Lisbon

September 23, 2016

Development @ 70:New Life or Critical Disconnection?

Preamble: At the dawn of the development era

There is a sense in which rapid economic progress is impossible without painful adjustments. Ancient philosophies have to be scrapped; old social institutions have to disintegrate; bonds of caste, creed, and race have to burst; and large numbers of persons who cannot keep up with progress have to have their expectations of a comfortable life frustrated. Very few communities are willing to pay the full price of economic progress. (United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs, Measures for the Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, 1951: 15)

The lucid pensamiento of the Nasa people

But we say—as long as we continue to be Indigenous, in other words, children of the earth—that our mother is not currently free for life, but she will be when she returns to being the soil and collective home of the peoples that take care of her, respect her, and live with her. …

The releasing (la desalambrada) of Uma Kiwe (Mother Earth) will depend upon uncoiling our hearts (desalambrar el corazón). And uncoiling the heart is going to depend upon uncoiling Mother Earth. Who would have believed it: heart and earth are one single being. That is what we know and feel in this moment. Being this way, should we get on the train of progress? Like servants, or like bosses? ….

This is why to fight for the Earth is not only a duty of indigenous peoples, it is an ancestral mandate for all the peoples, for all women and men who want to defend Life.

About the talk

I. Introduction: Four hypotheses on the life of development

II. What was (and is) postdevelopment, anyway?

III. ‘Beyond development’? Buen Vivir and other ‘radical worldviews’

IV. Post/Development and civilizational transitions in the age of design

V. Conclusions: New life or critical disconnection? Implications for development cooperation.

Four hypotheses(Critical development studies)

Eduardo Gudynas: Co-existing ‘varieties of development’ within a common background of core assumptions. Three types of disputes: within a given variety; between varieties (e.g., neo-Keynesian vs neoliberal); about ‘alternatives’ to any and all varieties.

Ana P. Cubillo and Antonio Hidalgo: Four cosmovisions (pre-modernity, modernity, postmodernity and trans-modernity) with four corresponding paradigms (subsistence, development, post-development, and trans-development).

Aram Ziai: Entanglements of development studies and post-development concepts

Maristella Svampa: three tendencies: neoliberal neodevelopmentalism; progressive neodevelopmentalism; and postdevelopment perspectives.

Four phases in the Development Studies Field

1. 1950s-1960s: Modernization theory (paving the way for the replication in poor countries of

features of industrialized nations)

2. 1960s-1970s: First challenge: Dependency theory, self-reliance

(internal exploitation/ external dependence; socialist

development).

3. 1991-2005: Second challenge: Postdevelopment [Mainstream: neoliberal globalization; SAPs, microfinance, HIPCs, PRSPs…]

4. 2006-present: a) make development more ‘complex’; Alternatives to development. [Mainstream: MDGs; SDGs;

green economy….]

P. McMichael: 1) The Development Project (1940s to early 1970s); 2) The Globalization Project (1980s-2000s: global markets, global farms, global governance); 3) The Sustainability Project (land grabs, climate change, agroecology; rethinking development)

Paradigm

IssueLiberal Theory Marxist theory Post-structuralist Theory

Epistemology Positivist (realist) Dialectical (realist) Constructivist Pivotal Concepts Individual, Market, Rights Production, Labor Language, Meaning

Object of study ‘Society’, Economy Social structures (social relations); Ideologies

Representation,Discourse, Power-K

Relevant actors Individuals Institutions State

Social classes (peasants)

Social movements State (democratic)

• Local communities”• All Knowledge

Producers (individuals, state, SM’s)

Question of development

How can societies develop through a combination of capital, technology, and individual and state actions?

How does dev. function as an ideology? Can development be delinked from capitalism?

How did the TW come to be represented asUnderdeveloped?

Criteria for change Material progress, growth Growth plus distribution

(1970’s) Adoption of markets

Transformation of social relations

Development of the productive forces

Class consciousness

Transformation of political economy of truth

New discourses, Ks, and representations

The question concerning development and modernity

More egalitarian and sustainable development (complete Enlightenment Project of modernity)

Re-orient dev. towards social justice and sustainability (Critical modernism: delink capitalism and

Articulate ethics of expert knowledge as political practice (Alt. modernities, transmoder-nity, alt. todevelopment)

Development theories according to their root paradigm

II. What is ‘postdevelopment’?The ‘invention’ of development

A sophisticated ‘construction’ of ‘underdeveloped areas’. The whole of humankind was now included in the development paradigm.

A total restructuring of ‘underdeveloped’ societies.

It became ‘hegemonic’, the only thinkable way forward

The result of a complex historical conjuncture (intentionality?).

Professionalization and institutionalization.

Imagining a Post-Development era?

• Sources: Social theory; intellectuals from the South, North; social movements.

• Questioning the equivalence of development with

economic growth, and of both with wellbeing.

Stop describing Asia, Africa and Latin America as

“in need of development”!

• Differentiate between ‘development alternatives’

and ‘alternatives to development.’

Postdevelopment insights

Questioning the core premises of development:

o growth, progress, material consumption, subordination to globalization, market reforms, export orientation

o reliance on expert knowledge

o Anthropocentrism

o Modernity

Incorporating other knowledges and analyses (social movements, ethnic groups, peasants, women, environmentalists)

Acknowledging a multiplicity of definitions and forms of livelihood, economy, and relations to nature and each other.

‘Premature burials’ and ‘haunting ghosts’(Aram Ziai)

Haunting ghosts: Many of PD’s central insights have been incorporated into development theory (e.g., Pieterse and Corbridge); e.g., development as Western hegemonic model; attention to knowledge production and local knowledges.

Premature burials: Development is not dead (e.g., lack of evidence; development assistance; desire for development; sustained growth in some countries).

Ergo: Rearticulate critique for new contexts (climate change), beyond ‘utopian radicalism,’ and contribute to pragmatic solutions, focused on empowering the disempowered, change criteria of wellbeing.

Newer trends in CDS (after J. M. Hodge).

Pluralize, historicize, localize, turn into movement. What we learn:

‘Histories of development’: colonial histories; roots of MT in New Deal and post-War eras in USA; more global histories; new periodizations.

Transnationalize development historiography beyond Western experience.

Look at local appropriations of development (local agency).

A global context (post-9/11; ‘the imperial turn’): security and development.

“…discover the lessons and elements of the development project that might be worth salvaging or wisely avoiding”

(Hodge 2015b: 129; Uma Kothari)

Type II critique

III. ‘Beyond development’: Emergenceof radical (alternative, holistic) worldviews?

• A span of radical alternative notions: buen vivir, ubuntu, swaraj, kametsa asaiki, agaciro, Minobimaatisiiwin; degrowth, commons, ecofemism, bioregionalism….). Towards a ‘Post-development Dictionary.’

• What is a ‘radical alternative’? Five pillars (Vilkap Sangams Process)

Ecological integrity and resilience

Social well-being and justice

Direct and delegated democracy

Economic democracy

Cultural diversity and knowledge democracy

Strategies consistent with the goals

Questions core concepts of development [and modernity?]

Type III critique

Sumak kawsay, suma qamaña, buen vivir(Beyond ‘development’?)

• Originating with indigenous movements in the Andes, yet a) not restricted to IPs (Afro); b) relying on eclectic sources; c) culture-specific; d) potentially applicable everywhere

• A holistic model of social life that is not anthropocentric but biocentric; it is not economistic or primarily materialistic; acknowledges the communal and spirituality. A genuine alternative to the Occidental model of social life?

Buen Vivir and the debate on alternatives to development in South America

• “El Buen Vivir represents an alternative to development, and hence constitutes a possible answer to the critiques of postdevelopment” (Guynas and Acosta 2011)

• A ‘Type III’ debate (Gudynas):

Still under construction

Plural set of ideas; intercultural (indigenous + non-indigenous).

Substantive critique of development

Exploration / promotion of alternatives to development and modernity

Range of appropriations (e.g., by progressive regimes).

‘Really existing’ Buen Vivir.La Constitución de Ecuador 2008

http://ecuadoruniversitario.com/directivos-y-docentes/legislacion/constitucion-de-la-republica-del-ecuador/la-educacion-superior-se-reforma/

The dialectics of Buen vivir (after Eduardo Gudynas)

On the questioning side:

• Rejection of ‘progress’ and of the centrality of the economy

• Displacement of Western centrality and expert knowledge

On the affirmative side:

• Non-linear historical processes

• Values material, spiritual, cultural, ludic, ecological aspects

• Diversity of knowledges.

• Intrinsic value of non-humans; biocentrism; Nature’s rights

• Centrality of communal and relational dimensions of life

• Contextualized within social, environmental and historical conditions.

Buen vivir: multiple visions

SUMA QAMAÑA

SUMAK KAWSAY

Ecología profunda

Source: Eduardo Gudynas

Other BV visions(e. g., peasant, urban; in Europe?)

The search is on!

MODERNITY

Twitter: @EGudynas

Buen Vivir as ‘Platform’

Source: Eduardo Gudynas

Trans-Modernity

IV. Postdevelopment and transitions in the age of design (outline)

1) Raising trend: cultural-ecological / civilizational transitions

2) Territorial struggles, re-invigorating the communal.

3) Shifts in design thinking: Design, when everybody designs.

1. A possible framework for ‘civilizational transitions’

Discourses of Transition

Transition(s) Activism(s) for BV

In the Global South:

Alternatives toDevelopment

Post-Growth/Post-Development

In the Global North:

Degrowth

PD and BV as basis for transitions?

Post-carbonPost-materialistPost-economicPost-capitalistRelocalization

Post-developmentNon-capitalistNon-liberalAlt. to modernityRe-communalization

ThichNathHanh; Boa

Santos

• The Ecozoic era: “A transition from the period when humans were a disruptive force on the planet Earth to the period when humans become present to the planet in a manner that is mutually enhancing.” (Thomas Berry: The Great Work 1999:11).

• Transition from a globalized civilization (industrial-economic) to an ecological-cultural civilization (H. Greene).

• The Ecozoic vision: more compelling than the ‘anthropocene’; a foundation for the territorial struggles and for rethinking sustainability.

A transition example.The Ecozoic era: A new story

The Earth is a communion of subjects, not a

collection of objects

(Berry)

Transitions are already happening!(Transition activist praxes)

• Many territorial and environmental struggles are ontological struggles

• The territory as a collective space to re/create life and to guarantee ethnic and cultural diversity. Centered on the Buen Vivir.

• Non-liberal and non-capitalist forms of power enacted through struggles for the defenseof territory, place, and cultural difference.

2. Territorial struggles:Keeping communal worlds alive.

Social movementsSocieties in movementworlds in movement

The courageous struggle of the black women of La Toma, Cauca

We, the Afrodescendant women of Northern Cauca, understand the ancestral value of our territories. Our ancestors taught us … we should guarantee our descendants (renacientes) permanence in the ancestral territory. …

Because our love for life is stronger than our fear of death!Territories and life are not sold—

they are loved and defended!

Source: Comunicado Movilización de Mujeres Afrodescendientes, Enero 7, 2015

Relational worlds(non-dualist ontologies)

• Life is inter-relation and inter-dependency through and through Nothing preexist the relations that constitute it.

• Ecological anthropology; Gaia; self-organization; dependent co-arising; meshwork

• The political activation of relationality and non-dualist ontologies

Artista : Jaime Rivas, Tumaco (c. 2000)

Expansion of oil palm for agro-fuels (destruction and occupation of relational worlds)

The politics of the communal

On ‘actually existing communities’: communities are also sites of intense capitalist exploitation and forms of domination (e.g., patriarchal), consumerism, etc. Affected by globalization but not completely determined by it.

‘Neo-transnational communities’ and ‘motley societies’ (‘sociedades abirragadas; Silvia Rivera C.); strictly contemporaneous, for whom “there is no ‘post’ nor ‘pre’ because their vision of history is neither linear nor teleological, it sketches a path without ceasing to return to the same point” (Silvia Rivera C.)

“We will walk the same path but will not repeat it. We are

from before, but also new” (EZLN)

Change in design theory and practice towards participatory, ecological, and collaborative design. Co-design.

Ontologically-oriented design: In designing tools we are designing ways of being; we design the world and it designs us back. Design generates our structures of possibility.

Re-position the human among earth beings, vibrant things, and spirituality and the sacred.

3. Design, when everybody designs.The ontological dimension of design

destruction / creationdeworlding / reworlding

defuturing / futuring Individual / communal

(un)sustainability / Sustainment

Development and design

Brining design into development. Design of humanitarian goods

Design thinking, participatory design and co-design in development.

A space for new types of development alternatives?

Avoid narratives of global salvation that ignore non-Western ways of thinking rooted in craft practices (“Africa has little to offer, but much to receive”; Pereira and Gillet 2015). Vernacular forms of design

• Gradual transition to non/post-extractivist models.

• Capitalism, liberalism, and state forms do not cease to exist; their discursive and social centrality have been displaced, so that the range of existing social experiences that are consider valid and credible alternatives to what exist is enlarged.

• There is life after extractivism!

V. Conclusion. Transition politics: New life or critical disconnection?

Post/trans-development as design for transitions?

Predatory

Extractivsm

EMERGENCY - URGENCY

Indispensable

extractivsm

DIRECTION:

BUEN VIVIR

Twitter: @EGudynas

Transitions to Post-extractivism

Source: Eduardo Gudynas

Design for the pluriverse:Healing and re-weaving the mesh of life.

• Build effective bridges by attempting community and reconnection with place; repair the damage by the modern, patriarchal, capitalist ontology of separation (FPE).

• From globalization as the universalization of modernity to globality as the struggle to foster the pluriverse (Blaser, Zapatista)

(Adriana Paredes Pinda, Mapuche machi).

Artista : Jaime Rivas, Tumaco (c. 2000)

What about development cooperation?

Three co-existing and overlapping domains or spaces for cooperation

Cooperation as development assistance: Takes the world as we know it for granted without questioning it, seeks improvements in peoples’ conditions within it.

Corporation as social justice: Takes the world as we know it for granted yet aims to make some significant transformations to it

Cooperation as transitions to Buen Vivir: Questions radically the world as we know it and seeks to reorient all social practices to contribute to (civilizational) transitions to BV and the Liberation of Mother Earth.

Note on Sources and acknowledgements

I have relied on many sources in the fields of development, territory, relationality, political ontology, design, and transitions, of which I will only mention my most immediate collaborators and the most direct sources of inspiration: Proceso de Comunidades Negras, PCN, Colombia; Mario Blaser (Memorial University, Canada), Marisol de la Cadena (UC Davis), Eduardo Gudynas (CLAES, Montevideo), Michal Osterweil (Chapel Hill), Gustavo Esteva (Oaxaca) and the Australian and Carnegie Mellon design groups (Tony Fry, Anne-Marie Willis, Cameron Tonkinwise, Terry Irwin, Gideon Kossoff). Thanks to Philp McMichael (Cornell), Luis Eslava (Kent Law School) and Aram, Ziai (U. of Kassel) for recent sources on development studies, and to Ashis Kothari, Federico Demaria, Ariel Salleh, and Alberto Acosta for our joint work on the Postdevelopment Dictionary. See written papers for additional acknowledgements. My special thanks for Katarzyna Czaplicka for inviting me to deliver the Kapuscinski Development Lecture in Lisbon; to Professor Luis Mah for hosting the lecture at CESA, Universidade de Lisboa; and to Professor Jochen Oppenheimer for kindly agreeing to provide a commentary on to my remarks.