Conventional or alternative development? Varying meanings and purposes of territorial rural development as a strategy for the Global South

K Koop

doi:10.5194/gh-69-271-2014

Abstract

Abstract. This paper discusses the increasing interest in the territorial dimension of rural development in the Global South. Adapting the local development approach of the 1970s to the changing context of globalization and to the competitiveness discourse, mainstream development agencies and scholars currently see territorial development (TD) as an attractive model for the integration of rural regions into globalization dynamics. However, territory serves not only conventional mainstream ideologies, but also post-development thinking. It is shown that territory has turned out to be a crucial element for social movements in the defense of alternative visions of modernity and in the constitution of life worlds outside the conventional development path. The analysis of the meaning development actors give the term territory and the focus on the purposes for which it is mobilized allows a variety of possible development paths for the rural South to be identified, thus going beyond the prevailing modernist vision.

Highlights

The renewed interest of scholars in rural development issues in the Global South is marked, among other aspects, by an increasing discussion of its territorial dimension
The first section of this paper argues that the growing attention paid to issues of territory in rural development studies and praxis is a result of the global shift in the way development is conceptualized, or more precisely in the thinking on how development dynamics occur and should be instigated
The increasing interest in the territorial dimension of rural development in the Global South expresses the awareness that the sub-national level is an important, if not the crucial, www.geogr-helv.net/69/271/2014/

Summary

Introduction

The renewed interest of scholars in rural development issues in the Global South is marked, among other aspects, by an increasing discussion of its territorial dimension. It is argued that the idea of TD falls within the contemporary assumption that sub-national spatial entities constitute an adequate perimeter for political, economic and social rescaling of development processes It has led mainstream regional science, planning agencies and development cooperation to shift their approach to development from catch-up development at a national scale towards the “integration of regions” within globalized dynamics. It shows that interpretations of this relatively recent concept vary considerably. The scrutiny of alternative rural TD projects, such as the Navdanya Indian peasant movement, shows that the territorial rural development approach is used in a version much closer to the original local development concept It is argued, that these alternative territorial projects do constitute a novelty in the sense that they do not aim at development according to the conventional regime of modernity. Studying the varying meanings actors in development attribute to the term according to their systems of reference allows one to discern the plurality of possible development paths beyond conventional modernity

The global change in the conception of how development occurs

The meanings and use of territory in development practice in the Global South

Conclusions