Overview

What does post-colonial theory have to say to Development Studies? Using post-colonial theory this book investigates the similarities between mainstream development discourse and colonial discourse as theorized in the work of Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak and Edward Said. The author demonstrates that the attempted popularization of the mainstream liberal development narrative is a response to both the new international security environment and the voices that are not convinced by the inevitability of globalization under neo-liberal terms of trade. Biccum argues that a theatre of legitimation is emerging in response to growing critical voices and counter-hegemonic activity on the international stage. It is these discourses which are attempting to popularize a very narrow understanding of development which the book demonstrates bears a heavy resonance with colonial discourses.The book contends that these recent means and methods of narrating development, nation, globalization, history and citizenship have the political effect of producing a political and cultural amnesia which will actually facilitate the maintenance of power weighted towards neo-liberal globalization if the very ambivalences of a project for producing a 'global citizen' are not hijacked and contested. Featuring in depth analyses of the UK, cultural values, DFID, the commemoration of the slave trade and campaigns including Live8 and Make Poverty History, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, development, critical theory and globalization studies.

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9780415461788

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April Biccum is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Lancaster University. Her research focuses on bringing post-colonial theory into the domain of political theory and the politics of development.

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