Interventions in development : Towards a new moral understanding of our experiences and an agenda for the future

Abstract

The discourse and practice of development is at a critical juncture. The idea of development in its present interventionist mode originated at the end of the Second World War as a new vision of hope against the backdrop of the devastating experiences of the war and the rising process of decolonisation. The idea of development shaped new forms of political responsibility on a global scale. It gave rise to many applications. Now, after more than fifty years of application, for many, development has lost its appeal and vitality. We now face a crisis; a crisis which emerges from a series of disjunctures in development.