Alternative Paradigms of Development in State Politics and Policy Making in the Global South: An Introduction

Abstract

The global recognition of local/indigenous alternatives In many parts of the Global South, locally rooted, indigenousor indigenisedcultural conceptualisations have become key denominators in state politics and policy-making processes. This is an interesting fact in itself, since many of these alternative concepts arising from grassroots social movements, indigenous activists and radical decolonisation scholars articulate a fundamental criticism at existing state structures, at the dominant economic systems, and at the notion of development. In all their multiplicity, they articulate profound questioning of continuities of coloniality and global capitalism. Against this background, this special issue discusses histories, discourses and practices of alternative paradigms of development in state politics and policy-making processes in the Global South. It focuses on cultural politics within state formation processes, including governmental discourses and such governing tools as legislation, policies, state programmes, and projects. The attempt to draw on local cultural traditions and indigenous practices as source of resistance has a long history. It was practised by colonised peoples in their struggle against their colonisers and colonial exploitation. In Latin America, the struggle of indigenous people against Spanish colonial rule andafter independenceagainst domestic elites of Spanish descent is well documented (Mamani Rámirez, 2012; Ranta, 2014). In different parts of Africa and Asia, decolonisation processes and independence movements drew their political rhetoric on locally rooted concepts, such as ujamaa in Tanzania and harambee in Kenya. The Indian independence movement built on the local concept of swaraj (self-rule). The reference to ubuntu played a decisive role in the post-Apartheid reconciliation process in South Africa in which it was used to build up a sense of common postcolonial identity, belonging and sovereignty. In the 1990s and 2000s, indigenous or indigenised types of organising in Latin America unfolded a specific dynamism and served as political and strategic resource for movements against neo-liberal state policies and economic globalisation (Ranta, 2018; Zibechi, 2010). Some of these movements, in alliance with other popular sectors,