A BACKGROUND TO DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFERENTIAL PERSPECTIVES

The perception of development as a panacea to underdevelopment due to its prescription by rich and developed nations demands a rethink. Hence, this paper restates the development agenda in the 19th century to inspire the sense of self-reliance as a better option for developing countries. 1 There has emerged varieties of forms through which Third World people resist development interventions, and how they struggle to create alternative ways of being and doing.2 This has long signalled the disillusionment in the idea of development and its process which has provoked in this paper a background review to ‘development’ and differential perspectives, an explication of development, and its teleology. The theoretical formulations of Cowen and Shenton, and Escobar, and their disparate approaches are examined to clarify the implications, and impact on developing countries.