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Don't compromise your desire for development! A Lacanian/Deleuzian rethinking of the anti-politics machine

Abstract It is my aim in this article to engage with development and its promises at a time when many people are distancing themselves from the appalling reality of the development industry and the disastrous effects of its interventions. Rather than rejecting the notion of development, I contend that ‘engaging with development’ remains important in relating to Third World people's dreams and desires. In other words, people's desires for development must be taken seriously and its promises should not be forsaken. I elaborate on the political and ethical implications of the rejection of this notion of development and argue that, through the abandonment of the notion, the very ‘object’ of development is lost. In other words, the disavowal of development signifies the betrayal of its promise. To elaborate this position, I propose a Lacanian/Deleuzian perspective on development as a ‘desiring machine’—which produces endless desires—so as to explore the radical, constitutive disjunction between the ‘virtual’ world of the development machine and the ‘actual’ workings of development interventions.