The History of Development

From Western Origins to Global Faith

Gilbert Rist, Patrick Camiller

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781783600243
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: Economics

In this classic text, now in its fourth edition, Gilbert Rist provides a complete and powerful overview of what the idea of development has meant throughout history. He traces it from its origins in the Western view of history, through the early stages of the world system, the rise of US hegemony, and the supposed triumph of third-worldism, through to new concerns about the environment and globalization. In a new chapter on post-development models and ecological dimensions, written against a background of world crisis and ideological disarray, Rist considers possible ways forward and brings the book completely up to date. Throughout, he argues persuasively that development has been no more than a collective delusion, which in reality has resulted only in widening market relations, whatever the intentions of its advocates.

Table of contents

• Front cover
• About the Author
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface to the Fourth Edition
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Introduction
• 1 Definitions of Development
• 2 Metamorphoses of a Western Myth
• 3 The Making of a World System
• 4 The Invention of Development
• 5 The International Doctrine and Institutions Take Root
• 6 Modernization Poised between History and Prophecy
• 7 The Periphery and the Understanding of History
• 8 Self-reliance: The Communal Past as a Model for the Future
• 9 The Triumph of Third‑Worldism
• 10 The Environment, or the New Nature of ‘Development’
• 11 A Mixture of Realism and Fine Sentiments
• 12 Globalization as Simulacrum of ‘Development’
• 13 From the Struggle against Poverty to the Millennium Development Goals
• 14 The Great Turnaround?
• 15 Beyond ‘Development’: From Downscaling to a Change in the Economic Paradigm
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index
• Back cover