Development is a term which has been linked to widely diverging meanings. Predominantly, it has broadly referred to a process of positive social change which has been achieved in developed countries and is yet to be achieved in developing countries. A critical perspective on the enterprise of development is necessary in order to situate it within a context of political, economic and cultural power relations, but this perspective lacks awareness of its own contingency. A poststructuralist perspective is useful to trace the links between signifier and signified in development, and to denaturalise the concept, but lacks political commitment. Consequently, a synthesis of these perspectives is needed to analyse development in a way that is both theoretically adequate and politically meaningful.
