Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power

Book Overview

In this classic collection, some of the world's most eminent critics of development review the key concepts of the development discourse.

Each essay examines one concept from a historical and anthropological point of view, highlights its particular bias, and exposes its historical obsolescence and intellectual sterility. The authors argue that a bidding farewell to the whole Eurocentric development idea is urgently needed, in order to liberate...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1848133804
• ISBN13: 9781848133808
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Zed Books
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

This book is the best investment you can make - it liberates thought

I hope we get to a point where the development dictionary is a household word. This book opened my eyes and gave me the ability to choose how I understand the world. For people who care about social and personal awareness, living responsibly, and getting to a sustainable global community, this book is an invaluable guide.

Paradigmmatic Transcendence

I prescribe this book for an Executive MBA Class that I teach on Global Strategy. Most of the 20 students this year talked about this book as one of the most profound life-changing, world-view altering books they have ever read! I think the book is profound and thought provoking. I have earned four Master's Degrees and a Ph.D and nothing I have ever read in my life comes even close to The Development Dictionary in terms of the level of intellectual stimulation that it engenders. This is a wake up call and I hope more of my former colleagues in the World Bank and IMF would read it! It has been of immense scholarly and practical benefit in my work.

Mandatory Reading

Like the related Post-Development Reader, this stunning collection of essays are mandatory for any development student or practitioner. It is essential for complementing all the traditional readings and providing an important critical outlook. The advantage of this book lies in its organization. Broken up by topic such as "Development", "Poverty", "Market", and "Science", the book provides excellent insights into these concepts. In fact it's critiques reach much further than just development, to science, the state, and modernity overall. A must read!

Heads up

I am buying this book today because an organizational behavior professor I highly respect said recently it was the best book he'd read. I had flipped through his copy months earlier and recalled that it is dense with diverse essays. I am looking forward to reading it.

A MUST READ!

I read this book in a Third World Development class. It takes a lot for a book to impress me the way this book has. For the first time, I could not put down a book I had to read for class. If you want a different, non-western perspective of development, this is a must read. The arguments and writing within the different topics are very strong. It's definitely a keeper and well worth the money. I highly recommend it!