A Bit Too Simple

Mette Fog Olwig

ISBN 10: 1009344919 / ISBN 13: 9781009344913

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2025

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - Narratives like those portraying development workers as heroes andlocal populations as victims needing to be saved from their own unsustainable practices have led to problematic policies andinterventions. Based on fieldwork across four continents,this Element critically analyzes such metanarratives. First, it demonstrates the ways their simplifying, universalistic narrative plots fail to capture more complex lived realities. Second, it argues that such metanarratives on development are converging with influential metanarratives on climate change and sustainability, thereby strengthening hierarchical geopolitical mindsets. Third, it uncovers how the emergence of for-profit sustainability superhero metanarratives reinforces universalistic development logics by combining these logics with global business management logics. The Element concludes that a multiplicity of locally grounded stories and related forms of agency must be mobilized and recognized so that policy and practice are premised upon lived realities, not abstract and unrealistic global imaginaries. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Seller Inventory # 9781009344913

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Bit Too Simple
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009344919
• ISBN 13: 9781009344913
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 6D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 6 millimeters depth
• Weight: 148 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Narratives like those portraying development workers as heroes and local populations as victims needing to be saved from their own unsustainable practices have led to problematic policies and interventions. Based on fieldwork across four continents, this Element critically analyzes such metanarratives. First, it demonstrates the ways their simplifying, universalistic narrative plots fail to capture more complex lived realities. Second, it argues that such metanarratives on development are converging with influential metanarratives on climate change and sustainability, thereby strengthening hierarchical geopolitical mindsets. Third, it uncovers how the emergence of for-profit sustainability superhero metanarratives reinforces universalistic development logics by combining these logics with global business management logics. The Element concludes that a multiplicity of locally grounded stories and related forms of agency must be mobilized and recognized so that policy and practice are premised upon lived realities, not abstract and unrealistic global imaginaries. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.