Postmodernism translated: towards hybrid development research
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
October 1, 2004
End Date
July 31, 2005
Status
completed
Keywords
postmodernism
postdevelopment
postcolonialism
radicality
hybridity
Description
Exhibiting a highly divisive agenda postmodernism has created profound chasms across scientific communities. In development studies its radical impetus has translated into the postdevelopment perspective which violently repudiates the modernist development project. This project distils two distinct discourses of working upon the epistemological raw material postmodernism provides: an exclusivist discourse which reinforces the chasm by isolating postmodernism, and an inclusivist discourse which fosters mutual engagement between modernism and postmodernism. I contrast the trajectory of these discourses in the disciplines of development studies and geography, and find the hegemony of an inclusivist discourse in development studies to yield a higher radical potential and more incitements for enabling theory production than the recent preponderance of an exclusivist discourse in geography.
Based on five case studies I demonstrate how postmodern thought has percolated to development practice across a number of dimensions to produce what I call hybrid research. Drawing on this analysis I suggest to think of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism not as two competing paradigms, but rather as two poles of negotiation between which a future sustained engagement could occur to enrich the theoretical body of a discipline.
Based on five case studies I demonstrate how postmodern thought has percolated to development practice across a number of dimensions to produce what I call hybrid research. Drawing on this analysis I suggest to think of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism not as two competing paradigms, but rather as two poles of negotiation between which a future sustained engagement could occur to enrich the theoretical body of a discipline.
Leader contributor(s)
Mueller, Martin
Funder
Topic(s)
postmodernism
postdevelopment
postcolonialism
radicality
hybridity
Method(s)
discourse analysis
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Division(s)
Eprints ID
55843