The discourse of “development” and why the concept should be abandoned

This paper discusses the discourse of “development” and its effects. It argues that there are good reasons for giving up the concept of development and replacing it with various other concepts. Practices that aim at improving the human condition need not be identified with the term “development”. Numerous practices which have not improved the human condition have been carried out in the name of “development”. These should not be seen as an abuse of a positive concept, but as linked to certain Eurocentric, depoliticising, and authoritarian implications of the concept of “development”