‘Epistemological dependency’—cognitive relativism in development thinking

Abstract

Nowadays fashionable postmodernism entered the realm of development studies as post-development. Although post-development has been widely criticised on account of its political and economic romanticism, many critics nevertheless wrongly praise the methodological 'challenge' posed by post-developmentalism. It will be argued that postmodernism's cognitive relativism cannot be a serious approach to investigate development problems. A closer look at the epistemological divide within the social sciences (Hegelianism vs. positivism) helps to understand why postmodernism's cognition attracts even many of its critics and why universal reason needs to be defended.

Modern theories of regional development – a review of some concepts

“…And since there is no objective truth which describes reality (every culture has its own sense of truth) one cannot talk about universal theories of economic development, which would be efficient both in highly developed regions of rich North and in poor South. Post-developmentalism is also characterized by, a specific to postmodernism, methodological eclecticism and criticism of contemporary social doctrines (Goncalves 2006(Goncalves , pp. 1151(Goncalves -1155.…”