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Slicing up ‘development’: Colonialism, political theory, ethics

Abstract In this paper I argue that ‘development’ was not devised to ‘develop’ the South; it was invented to advance Western development and Western hegemony. What its aficionados fail to grasp is that the failure of ‘development’ is not accidental: colonial mastery of the South was necessary achieve this end. I thus spell out the political theory and ethics driving development and its links with the colonial project. I conclude that, theoretically and practically, development as usual has proved to be disastrous, notwithstanding its limited successes.