The many faces of Post-Development: alternatives to development in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti

Abstract

AbstractPost-Development, a body of transitional imaginaries, is not homogenous, neither in its critique, nor in the alternatives proposed. Given that the term ‘development’ is already highly contentious, the question of what ‘alternativestodevelopment’ might be, becomes difficult to respond to. In this article, we argue that Post-Development can assume many faces that are highly dependent upon their conceptual and geographical contexts. In analysing practices of resistance, contestation and subversion in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti we investigate in what ways various forms of peasant and community organising can be considered transformative and non-hegemonic. In exploring their common ground, we attempt to examine in what ways strategies of reciprocity, solidarity and commoning in different geographical locations and contexts can be understood as means of survival and/or as efforts to provide alternative pathways for societal and economic transformation.