Blackwell Reference Online

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Development discourse refers to the process of articulating knowledge and power through which particular concepts, theories, and practices for social change are created and reproduced ( Escobar 1995 ; 1999; 2000 ; Crush 1996 ). Historically, the approach to development in terms of discourse has evolved out of debates on →  modernization and Marxist dependency theory rooted in social evolutionism (→  Dependency Theories ). Departing from the linear models of social progress, this approach to development seeks to articulate the processes and meanings of more nuanced social control and challenges. Epistemological premises are grounded in poststructuralist concepts asserting language and discourse of development as systematically organizing power through the subjectivity of social actors and their actions (→  Power and Discourse ). Attention to development discourse emerged in the 1990s, building upon critical approaches to →  development communication studies. Development discourse studies tend to view dominant models of development as a highly contested domain in which dominant groups attempt to assert control over marginalized groups of people (→  Power in Intergroup Settings ). Studies of development discourse tend to examine strategic communicative intervention of →  development institutions for social change in terms of the constructed problems and solutions designated ... log in or subscribe to read full text