No abstract

Like most other concepts in the social sciences, 'development' does not entail a commonly agreed upon meaning, context or programme of action. It is defined in different ways depending on the time, space, context, professional and organisational interests of the one who does the business of defining. The meaning of development has also undergone a remarkable transformation over the course of history from the Enlightenment concept of 'Progress' to encompass a great variety of human needs. This paper analyses how the contemporary discourse of development has reached a mature state and how it enables us to understand development in context-and culture-sensitive ways. It is now possible to determine what development means in different settings, and how to bring in material and non-material prosperity to people living in different contexts and cultures. After a theoretical discussion an empirical study in Sri Lanka is presented which attempts to arrive at a more refined context-and culture-sensitive definition of development. The paper argues that, in order to understand development at micro-settings, it is better to construct our own indexes of development rather than using global measures. It shows how the current state of the discourse of development can lend insights into construction of a development index.An interesting puzzle in the discourse of development centres on the genesis of the very idea of development. Some scholars locate the beginning of development as a modern enterprise, aimed at a conscious purpose, in the 1940s. A landmark in the discourse of development was 20 January 1949, when the then US president Harry S Truman made his famous inaugural speech to the Congress where he pinpointed the 'Southern Hemisphere' as 'underdeveloped' and underscored the need and commitment of 'advanced' countries to fight underdevelopment. 1 Yet many others contest the recent origin of the idea of development and trace its origin as far back as the era of European Enlightenment in the 18th century or even longer. The Enlightenment was essentially associated with a tendency for 'critical reasoning' and the application of 'reason'. It is argued that the idea of development originated from this tendency to 'form critical inquiries about the organization and structure of societies and to apply reason to these social scientific investigations'. Enlightenment also brought forth the idea of 'progress' and Dhammika Herath is at the

No abstract

It is widely recognized that corruption risks undermining state legitimacy, diminishing trust and reducing resources for reconstruction in the aftermath of war. This article aims to advance the understanding of corruption in post-war societies by examining how local experiences of corruption relate to ethnic and other divides in Sri Lanka, where a 26-year war was fought largely along ethnic lines. The article builds on 170 interviews carried out in 2009–2013, focusing on how ‘ordinary people’ perceive corruption and ethnic divides after the war. The article argues that ethnic grievances have less to do with local inter-ethnic relations than with relations between the state and minority groups. We find that state–citizen relations in the post-war period to a large extent have been shaped by practices and discourses of corruption. Although corrupt practices—or practices perceived to be corrupt—are prevalent in all parts of the country and affect all groups, they are often interpreted as instances of ethnic discrimination. However, it is not only ethnic identity that matters in relations between citizens and the (corrupt) state, but also socio-economic position, level of education, language skills, gender and social networks.

No abstract