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Book Review: The moral economy of the state. Conservation, community development and state making in Zimbabwe

tric models have had the effect of silencing indigenous and organic methods for ordering human societies. Any attempt towards a critical theory of social life can measure its effectiveness by its ability to contribute towards a radical rethinking of the structures of society, its supporting narratives, and its inequitable relations of power. The contributions of Richard Douthwaite and G.H. Fagan provide practical examples of realizing the critical theory ideal. Fagan, in particular, emphasizes the need to transform the insights of a poststructuralist account of culture into an emancipatory cultural politics. Discursive analysis and deconstruction, for Fagan, gain their critical currency when employed for political purposes. To exemplify the efficacy of the cultural politics approach, Fagan interpolates her theoretical argument with an unedited transcription of a dialogue she had with Thembeli, a woman on the ‘receiving end’ of development practice in South Africa. This effort provides an exceptional context for theorizing development without simply appropriating the struggle of people in the South for the sake of developing an argument. Thembeli’s dialogue, instead, provides a serious rendering of the important challenges people face in real struggles for equity. This volume will provide insight both to scholars looking for alternative ways to analyze and assess governmental and NGO activities done in the name of development. For practitioners, the authors present a plethora of approaches towards ‘doing development’ that could contribute to conceiving projects that strive for material security while sustaining social diversity. As an edited collection, the authors present a common purpose: to open new ways of thinking about development that abandon the simplification of determination without understating the existence of material inequalities. For these authors, this process begins with an acknowledgement that a multiplicity of voices must be heard in order to make development equitable. This volume represents an important effort in promoting this process.