Hardback
Rethinking Development Politics
In this innovative book, Ilan Kapoor and Gavin Fridell rethink development politics psychoanalytically, investigating its unconscious. Whereas mainstream development politics is organized around stability and rationality, psychoanalysis points to disharmony and irrationality, helping to explain the development subject’s often self-defeating behaviour.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
In this innovative book, Ilan Kapoor and Gavin Fridell rethink development politics psychoanalytically, investigating its unconscious. Whereas mainstream development politics is organized around stability and rationality, psychoanalysis points to disharmony and irrationality, helping to explain the development subject’s often self-defeating behaviour — for example being seduced by growth and shopping, despite being aware of the inherent perils of inequality and climate crisis.
Rethinking Development Politics reassesses development in relation to three significant schools of thought: Modernization; (neo)Marxist political economy; and Postdevelopment/Decoloniality. It exposes how all three disavow the unconscious temptations of development, resulting in the rationalization of the market, the undervaluation of fantasy and fetishism, and the advocacy of an uncritical politics of authenticity. The book distinguishes the psychoanalytic approach from its predecessors by focusing on contemporary case studies, including digital and green modernization, trade, neopopulism, anti-racist training, and radical politics in present-day Iran. Crucially, these case studies speak to the extent to which the unconscious may be a political resource for reconfiguring development politics to put the subaltern first.
Proposing a distinctive method of inquiry, Rethinking Development Politics will be of great interest to students, academics, and researchers in development studies, psychology, sociology, international relations, political science, and peace and conflict studies. Its critical analysis will also be of great use to global agency officials, corporate policy-makers, public policy institutions, and activist and advocacy organizations.
Rethinking Development Politics reassesses development in relation to three significant schools of thought: Modernization; (neo)Marxist political economy; and Postdevelopment/Decoloniality. It exposes how all three disavow the unconscious temptations of development, resulting in the rationalization of the market, the undervaluation of fantasy and fetishism, and the advocacy of an uncritical politics of authenticity. The book distinguishes the psychoanalytic approach from its predecessors by focusing on contemporary case studies, including digital and green modernization, trade, neopopulism, anti-racist training, and radical politics in present-day Iran. Crucially, these case studies speak to the extent to which the unconscious may be a political resource for reconfiguring development politics to put the subaltern first.
Proposing a distinctive method of inquiry, Rethinking Development Politics will be of great interest to students, academics, and researchers in development studies, psychology, sociology, international relations, political science, and peace and conflict studies. Its critical analysis will also be of great use to global agency officials, corporate policy-makers, public policy institutions, and activist and advocacy organizations.
Critical Acclaim
‘This highly original and provocative “(un)thought experiment” engages in a compelling, well-written and razor-sharp ideology critique of the modernization, Marxist, postdevelopment and decolonial approaches to development. Focusing on six contemporary case studies, the book also hints at how development could be radically transformed through a “politics of desire” and a “politics of drive”. One does not have to be a fan of psychoanalysis in order to appreciate this work and its far-reaching implications for anyone doing and studying development.''
– Jan Orbie, Ghent University, Belgium
‘This is a truly brave and thought-provoking book, written from a perspective that is too often rejected apriori by dismissive minds. Framed in an accessible language, it highlights the gaps and unconscious enjoyments of both mainstream and critical development. Importantly, it proposes routes ahead in which the unconscious constitutes not only a stumbling block, but also a political resource.’
– Maria Eriksson Baaz, Uppsala University, Sweden
‘Ilan Kapoor and Gavin Fridell confront the invisible but active unconscious in development politics and they deliver not just a “rethinking” of issues but an “unthinking” development politics - as they critique modernization, Marxist political economy, postdevelopment and decoloniality. Theirs is a refreshing take predicated on critical psychoanalysis, which explodes the seductive ideologies of development.’
– Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, University of Bayreuth, Germany
– Jan Orbie, Ghent University, Belgium
‘This is a truly brave and thought-provoking book, written from a perspective that is too often rejected apriori by dismissive minds. Framed in an accessible language, it highlights the gaps and unconscious enjoyments of both mainstream and critical development. Importantly, it proposes routes ahead in which the unconscious constitutes not only a stumbling block, but also a political resource.’
– Maria Eriksson Baaz, Uppsala University, Sweden
‘Ilan Kapoor and Gavin Fridell confront the invisible but active unconscious in development politics and they deliver not just a “rethinking” of issues but an “unthinking” development politics - as they critique modernization, Marxist political economy, postdevelopment and decoloniality. Theirs is a refreshing take predicated on critical psychoanalysis, which explodes the seductive ideologies of development.’
– Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Contents
Contents:
1 Introduction: rethinking development politics …
psychoanalytically
2 Modernization: ideological cover for capitalist development
3 (Neo)Marxist political economy: failure to take fetishism
seriously
4 Postdevelopment and Decoloniality: a politics of
authenticity and disavowal
5 Case studies in development politics: psychoanalytic inflections
6 Conclusion: reworking development politics
References
Index
1 Introduction: rethinking development politics …
psychoanalytically
2 Modernization: ideological cover for capitalist development
3 (Neo)Marxist political economy: failure to take fetishism
seriously
4 Postdevelopment and Decoloniality: a politics of
authenticity and disavowal
5 Case studies in development politics: psychoanalytic inflections
6 Conclusion: reworking development politics
References
Index
