This PowerPoint discusses how the "development apparatus" is used to create the prevailing development rhetoric. James Ferguson, an American anthropologist, published his book "Anti-politics Machine" in 1990. The Anti-Politics Machine is a pen-sharp, very inventive foray into the world of 'development.'

1. DECONSTRUCTING DEVELOPMENT
DISCOURSE

2. WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE?
• Foucault adopted the term ‘discourse’ to denote a historically contingent social
system that produces knowledge and meaning.
• Development discourse refers to the process of articulating knowledge and power
through which particular concepts, theories, and practices for social change are
created and reproduced (Escobar 1995; 1999; 2000).
• In other words, development discourse in the dominant group's narrative on what
characterizes development and how it is to be attained.

3. WHAT CONSTITUTES THE DISCOURSE OF
DEVELOPMENT?
• THE EMPHASIS ON "DEVELOPMENT" APPEARED AFTER THE SECOND
WORLD WAR AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF MASS POVERTY, POLITICAL
INSTABILITY, AND THE RISE OF FEW NATIONS, PARTICULARLY WESTERN
NATIONS, AS WORLD LEADERS.
• IN HIS HISTORIC SPEECH, THEN-US PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN RAISED
THE CONCERN OF AIDING "UNDERDEVELOPED" NATIONS TO DEVELOP
ON EQUAL GROUND. THIS ENHANCED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING NATIONS.
• ACCORDING TO THE DEVELOPED NATIONS, THE CHARACTERSICS OF
DEVELOPMENT WERE:
• HIGH LEVELS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION, URBANIZATION,
TECHNICALIZATION OF AGRICUTURE, RAPID MATERIAL GROWTH AND
ADOPTION OF “MODERN” EDUCATION AND CULTURAL VALUES.
• ANY NATION WITHOUT THESE DEFINED CHARACTERISTICS WAS
UNDERDEVELOPED AND REQUIRED WESTERN AID.

4. JAMES FERGUSON AND HIS DICONSTRUTION
OF DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE
• AN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST.
• SPECIALLY KNOWN FOR HIS WORKS ON POLITICS AND
ANTHROPOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL DEPEVEOPMENT.
• HIS BEST-KNOWN BOOK, ANTI-POLITICS MACHINE(1990) TRIES TO
LOOK AT THE DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS FROM A CRITICAL LENSE.
• IN HIS BOOK, FERGUSON DID A STUDY ON A SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT
INTERVENTION IN LESOTHO, A COUNTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA - THE
THABA-TSEKA PROJECT.
• HE WANTED TO KNOW WHY SO MANY COUNTRIES WERE FUNDING
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN LESOTHO, WHICH WAS NOT VERY
SIGNIFICANT, ECONOMICALLY OR STRATEGICALLY.

5. DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS
• WHILE CONDUCTING A STUDY ON THE THABA-TSEKA DISTRICT OF
LESOTHO, FERGUSON WAS INQUISITED AS TO THE PURPOSE OF SPENDING
SUCH MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY ON PROJECTS THAT WERE ALWAYS
FAILING TO ACHIEVE ITS GOAL.
• HE DEVELOPED THE JUSTIFICATION THAT THE WESTERN/EXPERTS
NATIONS DESIRED THE "3RD WORLD COUNTRIES" TO DEVELOP IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE DOMINANT MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT.
• DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS IS THE CREATION OF VARIOUS
"EXPERT"AGENCIES FOR APPLYING THE HOMOGEONOUS NOTION OF
DEVELOPMENT BY CONSTRUCTING A DOMINANT DISCOURSE.
• THE DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS FOCUSES ON THE THEORETICAL
CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEA OF WHAT DEVELOPMENT IS AND ALSO
SPECIFIES SOME CHARACTERISTICS.

6. DUALITY BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT
DISCOURSE AND REALITY
• WHILE CONDUCTING HIS STUDY, FERGUSON DISCOVERED GLARING
INACCURACIES IN THE WORLD BANK REPORT (A DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS),
WHICH PORTRAYED LESOTHO AS A 'DEVELOPING COUNTRY' WITH A
TRADITIONAL ECONOMY, WHICH WAS FAR FROM THE TRUTH.
• FERGUSON BASES HIS CLAIM ON THE FALSITIES THAT THEY WERE REQUIRED
TO SHOW THAT LESOTHO REQUIRED WESTERN ASSISTANCE FOR ITS
DEVELOPMENT AND MODERNIZATION.
• EVEN THOUGH THE THABA-TSEKA PROJECT WAS DEEMED A FAILURE BY 1979,
IT HAD SOME 'UNINTENDED OUTCOMES' SUCH AS COMMUNICATION
MODERNIZATION AND EXTENSION OF STATE CONTROL OVER THABA-TSEKA.
• FOR FERGUSON, THE DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS INTENDS TO STRENGTHEN
STATE CONTROL, NOT JUST MODERNIZE IT.

7. DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE IN CURRENT
GEOPOLITICS
• WITH CHINA'S INCREASING DOMINANCE, IT IS NO LONGER JUST THE WESTERN
NATIONS TRYING TO CREATE A HEGEMONY OVER THE DEVELOPING NATIONS.
• THE WESTERN COUNTIES TRIED TO ESTABLISH SOCIO-CULTURAL DOMINANCE,
WHILE THE CHINESE POLICY TRIED TO ESTABLISH ECONOMIC DOMINANCE.
• SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES INCLUDE THE
BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE, THE CHINA-PAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR, THE
CHINA-AFRICA PROJECT, AND SO ON.
• TO CHALLENGE THE CHINESE MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES, THE G7
NATIONS CAME UP WITH THE B3W FOR THE INFRASTRUCTURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ‘LOW-INCOME, DEVELOPING NATIONS’.
• THIS WAR FOR ESTABLISHING HEGEMONY OVER DEVELOPING NATIONS
IMPLICITS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE
DECONSTRUCTION FOR THE DEVELOPING NATIONS SO THAT THEY CAN SELECT
THEIR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR NEEDS.

8. THANK YOU.