Culture, Development and Social Theory: Towards an Integrated Social Development

by John Clammer

This important book places culture back at the centre of debates in development studies. It introduces new ways of conceptualizing culture in relation to development by linking development studies to cultural studies, studies of social movements, religion and the notion of 'social suffering'. The author expertly argues that in the current world crises it is necessary to recover a more holistic vision of development that creates a vocabulary linking more technical (and predominantly economic) aspects of development with more humanistic and ecological goals. Any conception of post-capitalist society, he argues, requires cultural, as well as economic and political, dimensions.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

John Clammer’s principle interests are in the sociology of development and the sociology of culture as applied to development issues. He has worked widely on these issues both in theoretical terms and in the field in Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, India and Latin America.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me a few weeks to get through, not because it was particularly heavy, but it was so rich in challenging ideas that needed time to explore and internalise. It is written as a challenge to mainstream development models - which seem to be rather too comfortable with neo liberal economics - and to the field of development studies, which needs to lift its gaze beyond the twentieth century to embrace more culturally and aesthetically aware, multi disciplinary methodologies, which take account of the range of human experience (not just utility and economics) and the creative ways the human imagination engages with suffering and change.

I hadn't really stopped to consider before that much development is experienced as a form of violence. It makes sense of many encounters I have had in this region. Those local Singaporeans who feel they have no ownership of the development of their country, that it has spun beyond their control and is driven more by GDP than the welfare of people. Personal stories of displacement in modern China - forced demolitions, urban migration and the destruction of the environment. Ordinary people in Siem Reap feeling lost and priced out of their rapidly growing town. It is most certainly a form of violence, with traumatic results. I see place after place where there are aid and development agencies in abundance, but still unending poverty and so many questions about how the local picture and the national and global pictures tie together. This book has helpful thoughts on this.

It seems that often development and 'progress' ride roughshod over the very resources that are needed to create a society that feels good for people to live in. Instead of seeing culture as an obstacle to be overcome or something to be understood in order to use it to further a development agenda decided elsewhere, culture should be engaged with an open heart, and human imagination given space to hope and dream and create what it needs to survive its suffering.