Investigating Developmentalism: Notions of Development in the Social Sphere

Compiling various strands of the dis/enchantment with development discourse in contemporary South Asia, with specific focus on the cases from India, this edited book brings together anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians to refresh the understanding of development. It introduces ways of thinking “otherwise” about development discourse and what the contributors term “developmentalism”—the social enchantment with development. The cultural discourse of development in contemporary South Asia manifests not only in the official programs of state agencies, but in cinema, television, and mass media. Dear to various stakeholders—from government leaders and manufacturers to consumers and the electorate—is the axiom of a “development(al) society.” Organized to bridge familiar understandings of development with radical ways of thinking through developmentalism, this book holds value for those engaged in the anthropology and sociology of development, development studies, South Asian studies, as well as for development professionals working for state and non-governmental organizations.

Dev Nath Pathak is Assistant Professor of Sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi, India. He is the author of Living and Dying: Meanings in Maithili Folklore (2018), the editor of Another South Asia! (2017), and, most recently, co-editor of Intersections of Contemporary Art, Anthropology and Art History in South Asia: Decoding Visual Worlds (with Sasanka Perera, 2019). 

Amiya Kumar Das teaches sociology at Tezpur University, Assam, India, and is the assistant editor of Explorations: the E-Journal of the Indian Sociological Society. His main research is broadly in the areas of sociology of governance, development sociology and sociology of health and illness.