Rethinking development

This book starts by analysing the concept of development and the way in which it has shaped development practice along the last half a century. We thus find that the mainstream discourse of development is rooted in a western political agenda delinked from people’s actual wellbeing, and rather focused on economic growth. At the same time, decades of neoliberal globalization have contributed to exacerbate the breach between the rich and the poor, resulting in increasing social inequalities. Rural areas and small-scale farmers are the most affected, being the 75% of the world’s poor living in rural areas. Through a comprehensive analysis of the reality of Norcasia, in the Andean region of Colombia, the research therefore aims at understanding the challenges of said ‘rural development’ from a socio-cultural perspective. In addition, by means of an ethnographic, human centred, method of research, campesinos become the speaking subjects, helping in the construction of a more democratic knowledge of the rural medium.