Postdevelopment

Abstract

Postdevelopment anthropological thought is both an important critique of institutionalized development ideology and practice and a search for sustainable alternatives to development. Some postdevelopment anthropologists focus on development since 1949, treating it as an ethnocentric and colonialist discourse and practice that fails to deliver on its promises. Other postdevelopment anthropologists take a longer view and explore alternatives to development by envisioning possible future worlds. According to scale and power theory, development has failed because it is an elite‐directed, runaway growth process that concentrates power and distributes unsustainable costs to global society at large. In a democratically organized future small nations world, decision making would be at the lowest possible level, cultural diversity would be emphasized, and citizens would reach a consensus on how best to meet human needs. This may be the most promising way to achieve social justice and limit environmentally destructive growth discourse and practice.