Rethinking d/Development

Abstract

A dialectical relationship between ‘big D’ Development (broadly, the formal interventionist, international Development sector) and little ‘d’ development (the immanent structures and processes of capitalism) is a concept widely invoked in Geography and Development Studies. In this paper, we ask how the d/Development dialectic is evolving under current conjunctures of emergent state capitalism(s). We suggest that, going beyond ‘containment’, Development is ever more deeply inhabited by (capitalist) development; with implications for its palliative and restructuring roles, and for praxis, contestation and transformation.

Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector

“…Analytically, Hart's argument focuses on how the changing discourses, practices and ideologies of Development shed light on and often serve global capitalism. As Mawdsley and Taggart (2022: 3) argue: ‘going beyond “containment”, Development is ever more deeply inhabited by (capitalist) development’. We suggest that the role of for‐profit consultancies is an expression of a deeper entanglement of Development processes with prominent actors in global capitalist processes — as key intermediaries facilitating engagement with other important actors within global capitalism; and as interests in their own right, since they are critiqued as forming a growing ‘consultocracy’ with their own interests (Sturdy et al., 2020; Ylönen and Kuusela, 2019) and the tendency to produce homogenized global institutions (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2017).…”

“…We further argue that the shift in the role of for‐profit consultancies is part of a highly politicized re‐absorption of ‘Big‐D Development’ — as a distinct programme of intervention, often funded by ‘traditional’ donor agencies like DFID — into ‘little‐d development’ (Hart, 2010), that is, the broader processes of capitalism's global expansion, which, following Gillian Hart, we understand as ‘geographically uneven but spatially interconnected processes of creation and destruction, dialectically interconnected with discourses and practices of Development’ (Hart, 2010: 119). We suggest that the delivery of state‐managed aid funds by private sector consultancy firms — often multi‐sector firms with their own interests in global processes of capitalism — is both an example of the enfolding of the Development sector into capitalist progress and also an instrument for other articulations of that enfolding, particularly by fostering engagements with the private sector and with development finance (Mawdsley and Taggart, 2022).…”

Locating the Belt and Road Initiative's spatial trilectics

“…Infrastructure-led development uses spatial planning strategies from the post-war era to achieve neoliberal objectives and is rapidly becoming a hegemonic rationale for spatial planning and development policy. It has so far been driven by a global growth coalition, including multilateral development banks, bilateral aid agencies, multinational corporations, private consultancies, and some of the most powerful governments worldwide (Mawdsley & Taggart, 2022). The emergence of novel cross-scale, global growth coalitions that are both place-based and exceed beyond specific places creates particularly unfavorable conditions for those who are negatively affected by the spatial, social, and environmental reconfigurations that BRI infrastructures bring about.…”

Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China

“…Thus, this notion of development through cooperation led to specific approaches and principles to achieve the goal of development at home and abroad simultaneously (Shimomura, 2013). This is because Japan, China and South Korea ‘have long pursued commercial/capitalist development objectives [at home] through, within, and alongside what could be regarded as their (international) Development interventions [i.e., development abroad]’ (Mawdsley and Taggart, 2021: 12). Such approaches are showcased in the trinity ( sanmi-ittai ) model—in which development at home to catch up with advanced economies is inextricably intertwined with development abroad.…”