Critiques: In Defence of Development

by Tom Brass

Overview

Critiques offers a compelling defence of development, showing that Marxist approaches to this contentious concept still have much to offer us today.

Tom Brass pushes back against claims that development is outdated, environmentally destructive and Eurocentric, arguing instead for the revival of a Marxist analysis focused on class struggle, economic production and redistribution. The book takes aim at two dominant interpretations of rural development: populism and postmodernism. Under the misleading guise of new paradigms, these approaches have sought to exorcise two ghosts: not just development itself, but also Marxist theory about development. The book includes a discussion of one aspect of the debate about racism – labour market competition – and asks why the reproduction of this ideology is more acute at some historical conjunctures but not others. This same question, Brass suggests, can also be asked about the “industrial reserve”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888905562
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Pages:	277
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Tom Brass (DPhil, 1982) formerly lectured in the SPS Faculty at Cambridge University and directed studies for Queens’ College. He edited The Journal of Peasant Studies for almost two decades, and has published extensively on agrarian issues and rural labour relations, including Transitions: Methods, Theory, Politics (Brill: 2022).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Last Rites for Development Studies?
  Are We the Masters Now?

  Dismantling Development

  Post-development?

  This Sense of Identity

  Climate, Class, Risk

  Themes


part 1
Questioning the Paradigm
1 Racism and Development: Blood, Sweat and Fears
 Introduction: More Lessons from History

 An Absent Nationality

 A Race against Time, a Time against Race

 Southern Myths

 No Ear to Hear

 Differences, Sameness

 Common Heirs to Its Impositions

 The Battle for Bread

 The Pinch of Hunger

 Conclusion


2 The Industrial Reserve and Development: A Vanishing Army?
 Introduction: Redefining the Industrial Reserve

 19th Century Marxist Views

 20th Century Liberal Views

 20th Century Marxist Views

 Border Wars

 Human Flourishing, but Whose?

 What Marx Really Said

 Travelling the Same Road?

 Conclusion


3 Sociology and Development: A Warning from The History Man
 Introduction: Publishing, Hierarchy, Power

 The Bleak End of Things

 Who Is The History Man Now?

 The Power of Hierarchy

 No One Is Listening?

 Conclusion


4 Critical Agrarian Studies and Development: A Populist Land Grab
 Introduction: The Sleep of Forgetfulness

 In the Academic Salon

 Deprivileging Marxism

 ‘Marxist’ Questions

 ‘Marxist’ Answers

 Reprivileging Agrarian Populism

 Conclusion


part 2
Alternative Agendas
5 Development: A Theory without a Past, Present, or Future?
 Introduction: Paradigms/Concepts That Disappear/Reappear

 Call a Friend

 Concepts, Origins

 Capitalism Everywhere, Capitalism Nowhere

 Development Theory?

 The Sharpest Weapon

 Conclusion


6 Liberalism and Development: Fukuyama’s Scylla and Charybdis
 Introduction: A Benign Capitalism?

 Floreat Classical Liberalism?

 I Am a Nice Shark …

 A Progressive Left?

 Political Corrections, Problematic History

 Conclusion


7 Anthropology and Development: Self in the World, World in the Self
 Introduction: What Do I Know?

 The Self (in the World)

 Self-help

 No Friends There

 The World (in the Self)

 Insufficiency

 Self-sufficiency

 Humanity’s Priority

 Restlessness

 Conclusion


8 Labour Regime and Development: Deproletarianisation and Neo-bondage Compared
 Introduction: Explaining Unfree Labour

 Deproletarianisation, Neo-bondage

 Unfreedom, Patronage, Politics

 Differences Explained?

 Misinterpreting Capitalism

 Conclusion


part 3
Beyond Capitalism?
9 Postmodernism and Development: Misremembering the Peasantry
 Introduction: Doing without Development?

 Methodology

 Sources

 Stories

 Theory

 Definitions

 Economy

 Politics

 Conclusion


10 On the Continuing Necessity of (Marxist) Critique
 Introduction: Paradigms, Polemics, Popularity

  A Return to Yesterday

  New Paradigms, Old Assumptions

  Class Dismissed

  Producing Curtains

  Urgent Need of Renewal

  Conversation, Collaboration, Cooperation?

  Hegemonic Formation, Populist Moments, Floating Signifiers?

  Taking People’s Beliefs Seriously?

  Conclusion


   Conclusion


Bibliography

Index