Western interest into the rest of the world have always come with rationalizations-may it be the ... more Western interest into the rest of the world have always come with rationalizations-may it be the enlightenment era focus of 'the rational pursuit of human freedoms', or the antiquated colonial responsibility of the 'white man's burden' or the contemporary concern for human development indicators. The development rhetoric of the late twentieth century represented massive social engineering undertakings to rewire the undermodernized east into the prototype of the ideal west. What was once understood as the ethical responsibility of the west to sanitize the savages of their barbarity has then became in moral responsibility to propagate the spirit of capitalism by capacity building for increasing output and state machinery, modelled by that of the 'ideal' west. This 'secular theory of salvation' (Ashis Nandy) was focused on creating a new reality devoid of the inherited problems of the east. In this process of social sanitization, postulations of development theory replaced evangelical Christianity as a new blind faith. However, consequences of these imposed paradigms of development, like growing wealth inequality, relational variations in affluence and other measures have created epitaphs for such dictums of development. Modernization Theory The development theories of past, in this essay referring to the Modernization and Dependency theory consequently offered a paradigm of development for the east, modelled on the west or on the mistakes of the western society. Modernization theory was developed during the post-world war period as an attempt to explain the disparities in development between the wealthy west and the impoverished 'east' (with the exception of Japan). This was seen as an alternative to the communist alternative of development already spreading through south east Asia, which threatened the western sphere of control
Western interest into the rest of the world have always come with rationalizations-may it be the ... more Western interest into the rest of the world have always come with rationalizations-may it be the enlightenment era focus of 'the rational pursuit of human freedoms', or the antiquated colonial responsibility of the 'white man's burden' or the contemporary concern for human development indicators. The development rhetoric of the late twentieth century represented massive social engineering undertakings to rewire the undermodernized east into the prototype of the ideal west. What was once understood as the ethical responsibility of the west to sanitize the savages of their barbarity has then became in moral responsibility to propagate the spirit of capitalism by capacity building for increasing output and state machinery, modelled by that of the 'ideal' west. This 'secular theory of salvation' (Ashis Nandy) was focused on creating a new reality devoid of the inherited problems of the east. In this process of social sanitization, postulations of development theory replaced evangelical Christianity as a new blind faith. However, consequences of these imposed paradigms of development, like growing wealth inequality, relational variations in affluence and other measures have created epitaphs for such dictums of development. Modernization Theory The development theories of past, in this essay referring to the Modernization and Dependency theory consequently offered a paradigm of development for the east, modelled on the west or on the mistakes of the western society. Modernization theory was developed during the post-world war period as an attempt to explain the disparities in development between the wealthy west and the impoverished 'east' (with the exception of Japan). This was seen as an alternative to the communist alternative of development already spreading through south east Asia, which threatened the western sphere of control
Uploads
Papers