Dominating Knowledge: Development, Culture, And Resistance

This book addresses the role of knowledge in economic development. It questions the conventional view that developmentis the application of superior knowledge to the problems of poor countries, and that resistance to development comes out of ignorance and superstition. It argues instead that the basis of resistance is the fear that the material benefits of Western technologies can be enjoyed only at the price of giving up indigenous ways of knowing and valuing the world, an idea fostered as much by present-day elites, who have internalizedWestern knowledge and values, as by the colonial elites who ruled before them.

Investigating the ways development strategies have affected traditional cultural values and social practices, this scholarly and imaginative collection of essays critically examines the role of Western technology in development. The contributors include S. Marglin, A. Appadurai, A. Nandy, S. Viswanathan, F. Apffel Marglin, and T. Banuri.