Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Co-evolutionary Revisioning of the Future - Hardcover

Norgaard, Richard B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415068614 ISBN 13: 9780415068611

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

Modernity promised control over nature through science; material abundance through technology; and effective government through rational, social organization. Instead of leading to the promised land it has brought us to the brink of environmental and cultural disaster. Why has such a gap developed between modernity's aspirations and its achievements? Norgaard aims to provide an answer. Development with its unshakeable commitment to the idea of progress, is rooted in modernism and has been betrayed by each of its major tenets. Attempts to control nature have led towards environmental catastrophe. Western technologies have proved inappropriate for the needs of the rest of the world, and governments are unable to respond effectively to the crises that have resulted. Presenting a thorough critique of the ideas behind development, the author also offers an alternative co-evolutionary paradigm, in which development is portrayed as a co-evolution between cultural and ecological systems. Rather than a future where everyone converges upon one best way of knowing and doing things, he envisages a future patchwork quilt of cultures.

About this title

Review

Many critics have argued that modern society is hurtling down the wrong track, heedlessly destroying natural and cultural treasures en route, by basing its understanding of systems too narrowly on Newton's mechanics. Richard Norgaard, an activist scholar, extends this critique to elaborate on the implications for nature and society of a more biological understanding of systems as consisting of coevolved parts. Thus he challenges the reader with a fresh view of the past, present and future of humanity's tenure on Earth.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0415068614
• ISBN 13: 9780415068611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 296