ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTS OF DEVELOPMENT: A CRITIQUE OF EURO‐CENTRIC THEORIZING

The Crisis of Development Studies There is little doubt that Development Studies are currently facing a crisis of relevance. This is true both at the practical level of policy as demonstrated by the crushing problems of Third World debt, structural adjustment, persistent poverty; and it is true at the plane of theory, both on the left and the right. One finds authors on the left of the ideological spectrum, such as Blomstrom and Hettne (1984) lamenting the state of gloom and cynicism in development studies. But, more surprizingly, one finds the same lament even among the more orthodox architects of postwar development, such as Hirschman who recently wrote confessionally about the “rise and decline of development economics” and who now recognizes the role of passions, as well as of interests, in economic development (Hirschman 1986).