A Ziai
Biographic Data
| ID | 26114 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Ziai |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Ziai |
| SIGNATURE | ZIAI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kassel |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2579-5263 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 160 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Theorizing Postdevelopment
The paper seeks to define and situate postdevelopment (PD) theory within the social sciences by discussing its relation to other theoretical approaches. It concludes that PD can be seen to a rather limited extent as a development theory, but rather as a sociology of knowledge of this discipline and a critique of its foundation. PD shares the critique of capitalism with Marxism but also has a more negative view of industrial modernity, its relatio…
Resistance Against the World Bank-funded Kwabenya Landfill Project in Accra: The Battle of the Agyemankata Community for Environmental Justice and Against Eviction
The article reconstructs the successful struggle of the Agyemankata community against the Kwabenya landfill project in Accra, Ghana, which lasted from 2001 to 2010. Situating itself in the literature on displacement, it asks which factors led to this success. Investigating the correspondence and newspaper articles regarding the resistance, we conclude that the main factors include an uncompromising stance against relocation and compensation coupl…
Peripherie-Stichwort: Zivilisationsbruch
Bibliographie: Ziai, Aram: Zivilisationsbruch, PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 174-175 (2-2024), S. 371-374. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v44i2.18 ----- Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 11.12.2026 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (Namensnennung 4.0 International) verfügbar. Weitere Informationen zur Lizenz und den Nutzungsbedingungen finden Sie hier
Zapatismus und Neuer Internationalismus in Mexiko und Deutschland
Der Beitrag untersucht zentrale Stränge der Debatten in und zu gegenwärtigen internationalistischen Bewegungen in Mexiko und Deutschland. Den Ausgangpunkt bilden die Debatten zum Neuen Internationalismus, wie sie seit den 1970er Jahren in Praktiken und Ideen der Solidaritätsbewegungen zu sozialen, antikolonialen Bewegungen im globalen Süden angestoßen und schließlich im Kontext verschiedener sozialer Kämpfe diskutiert, ausgeweitet und transformie…
Sumi Madhok: Vernacular Rights Cultures. The Politics of Origins, Human Rights and Gendered Struggles for Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 216 Seiten (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108961844)
Bibliographie: Ziai, Aram: Sumi Madhok: Vernacular Rights Cultures. The Politics of Origins, Human Rights and Gendered Struggles for Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 216 Seiten (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108961844), PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 171+172 (2-2023), S. 428-430. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v43i2.18-----Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 26.02.2024 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz C…
Konflikte um Antisemitismus bei der documenta 15. Zum Abschlussbericht des Expert: Innen-Gremiums
Leseprobe ----- Bibliographie: Ziai, Aram: Konflikte um Antisemitismus bei der documenta 15. Zum Abschlussbericht des Expert:innen-Gremiums, PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 174-175 (2-2024), S. 288-305. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v44i2.11 ----- Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 11.12.2026 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (Namensnennung 4.0 International) verfügbar. Weitere Informationen …
Beyond the Sustainable Development Goals: Post-development Alternatives
This chapter argues that the Sustainable Development Goals are inadequate to solve the problems of global inequality and sustainability for several reasons. Going beyond the SDGs and the paradigm of ‘development’, Post-development alternatives are illustrated with exam ples of NGOs and social movements in Senegal, India and Mexico
Dietmar Friedhoff: Denken wir Afrika. Eine konservative Grundsatz-Strategie zur Selbstentwicklung unseres Nachbarkontintents. Bad Schussenried: Gerhard Hess Verlag 2021, 125 Seiten
Bibliographie: Ziai, Aram: Dietmar Friedhoff: Denken wir Afrika. Eine konservative Grundsatz-Strategie zur Selbstentwicklung unseres Nachbarkontintents. Bad Schussenried: Gerhard Hess Verlag 2021, 125 Seiten, PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 167+168 (2-2022), S. 445-447. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v42i2.19-----Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 24.01.2023 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (…
Christoph Neusiedl: Revolutions in Learning and Education from India. Pathways towards the Pluriverse. London: Routledge 2021. 206 Seiten (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003126744)
Bibliographie: Ziai, Aram: Christoph Neusiedl: Revolutions in Learning and Education from India. Pathways towards the Pluriverse. London: Routledge 2021. 206 Seiten (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003126744) PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 164 (3-2021), S. 519-521. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v41i4.13 ----- Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 05.04.2022 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (Namens…
The many faces of Post-Development: Alternatives to development in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti
Post-Development, a body of transitional imaginaries, is not homogenous, neither in its critique, nor in the alternatives proposed. Given that the term ‘development’ is already highly contentious, the question of what ‘alternatives to development’ might be, becomes difficult to respond to. In this article, we argue that Post-Development can assume many faces that are highly dependent upon their conceptual and geographical contexts. In analysing p…
Auswirkungen der globalisierungskritischen Protestbewegung: Institutionelle Reformen, ein neues Politikverständnis und postkoloniale Nachfragen
Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit der Protestbewegung gegen die neoliberale kapitalistische Weltordnung, die, inspiriert von den mexikanischen Zapatistas, in der zweiten Hälfte der 1990er Jahre entstand. Sie war stärker globalisiert und trotz unterschiedlicher Strömungen charakterisiert durch ein pluralitätsaffines und eher anarchistisches Politikverständnis. Ihr gelang es teilweise, weitere Liberalisierungen des Welthandels zu verhindern …
Our World is not for Sale!“: Was hat die globale Protestbewegung der 1990er Jahre erreicht – und was nicht? Rückblick auf ein virtuelles Kamingespräch im September 2020
Bibliographie: Banse, Frauke/Habermann, Friederike/Sen, Jai/Wahl, Peter/Ziai, Aram: „Our World is not for Sale!“ Was hat die globale Protestbewegung der 1990er Jahre erreicht – und was nicht? Rückblick auf ein virtuelles Kamingespräch im September 2020, PERIPHERIE – Politik • Ökonomie • Kultur, Nr. 161 (1-2021), S. 114-133. https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v41i1.06
Internationalism and Speaking for Others: What Struggling against Neoliberal Globalization Taught Me about Epistemology
Postdevelopment alternatives in the North
Postdevelopment questions the idea that the ‘developed’ societies provide an example for the Other to follow and that the Western models of the economy, politics, and knowledge have to be universalized. However, designating these models as ‘Western’ neglects that they have become hegemonic in Western Europe and North America only through conflictive historical processes – and that until today they are not uncontested. As researchers located in th…
Towards a More Critical Theory of 'Development' in the 21st Century
In response to the article by Horner and Hulme which opens this Debate section, this contribution argues that while the call for a shift from international to global development by Horner and Hulme is justified, their approach is confined to what has been called traditional or problem-solving theory. On the levels of concepts, theory and metatheory, it fails to transcend orthodox approaches in development theory. Concerning concepts, it employs t…
Internationalism and Speaking for Others What Struggling against Neoliberal Globalization Taught Me about Epistemology
‘I am not a Post-Developmentalist, but…’ The influence of Post-Development on development studies
During the course of the 1990s, the Post-Development school emerged as an innovative though controversial approach in development studies. The article examines its critical reception in the textbooks and the extent to which its authors and arguments have become influential. It argues that the relationship between development studies and Post-Development is characterised simultaneously by (sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit) rejection and inte…
Post-development 25 years afterThe Development Dictionary
Few books in the history of development studies have had an impact like The Development Dictionary - A Guide to Knowledge as Power, which was edited by Wolfgang Sachs and published by Zed Books in 1992, and which was crucial in establishing what has become known as the Post-Development (PD) school. This special issue is devoted to the legacy of this book and thus to discussing PD
Justice, not development
This conclusion presents an overview of closing thoughts covered in the previous chapters in this book. It deals with the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies by summing up and discussing frequent points of criticism towards discourse analysis in development studies and highlighting important points of selected texts of this research and articulates their contribution in the light of this critique. A common critique is that a…
Development discourse
Two different discourses, development and globalisation, can be identified as successively dominating global North-South relations in the past decades. A concise analysis of both discourses is relevant and insightful because notions of development and of globalisation are conceptualising social change in strikingly different ways and with different attitudes towards social engineering. Globalisation discourse in line with neoclassical economic th…
Millennium Development Goals
This chapter demonstrates some central discursive structures to be found in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) debate date back to the origins of development aid in the middle of the 20th century. The development discourse draws on elements familiar from the debates around global governance, sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first obvious shift in comparison to the MDGs concerns the formation of objects…
From ‘development’ to ‘globalisation’
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute more or less a normative consensus in the development community of the beginning of the 21st century. This chapter examines the MDGs from the perspective of poststructuralist discourse analysis and to situate them in their specific historical context It introduces the historic dimension by comparing the MDG documents to the United Nations (UN) declaration 2626 which spearheaded the Second Develop…
An archaeology of development knowledge 1
The discourse of development is appropriated by the Third World heads of state in the UN for three primary reasons: first, to reject international trusteeship; second, to demand social justice, equality and denounce prevailing disparities; and third, to devise a comprehensive program of planned intervention which would include the global economy. This chapter is concerned with the constitution, appropriation and contestation of this new discourse…
The transformation of development discourse
This chapter argues that the transformation of development discourse since the 1980s leading to the rise in significance of concepts like participation and civil society is also visible in the examples of development projects. Undoubtedly there has been a transformation in development discourse which includes the rise of neoliberalism, good governance, sustainable development, global governance, civil society, participation and partnership. Parti…
World Bank discourse and poverty reduction
This chapter discusses the merits and flaws of Amartya Sen&s;s Development as Freedom , highlights positive as well as negative aspects. It explains the problems identified in the capability approach to the discourse of development which constitutes the hegemonic framework for discussing questions of global inequality since the mid-20th century. The chapter points out which questions of global justice are neglected by adopting this hegemonic fram…
The discourse of "development" and why the concept should be abandoned
This paper discusses the discourse of "development" and its effects. It argues that there are good reasons for giving up the concept of development and replacing it with various other concepts. Practices that aim at improving the human condition need not be identified with the term "development". Numerous practices which have not improved the human condition have been carried out in the name of "development". These should not be seen as an abuse …
Post-Development: Premature Burials and Haunting Ghosts
While the Post-Development school in development theory tried to bury the concept of 'development', this attempt turned out to be unsuccessful. A closer investigation reveals that different post-development texts reproduce the polysemy of 'development' in their criticism of it, attacking different phenomena subsumed under this heading. Development theory, on the other hand, was also premature in declaring post-development obsolete fifteen years a…
Post-development 25 years afterThe Development Dictionary
Few books in the history of development studies have had an impact like The Development Dictionary - A Guide to Knowledge as Power, which was edited by Wolfgang Sachs and published by Zed Books in 1992, and which was crucial in establishing what has become known as the Post-Development (PD) school. This special issue is devoted to the legacy of this book and thus to discussing PD
The ambivalence of post‐development: Between reactionary populism and radical democracy
The post‐development critique of development discourse has by now been widely discussed and criticised. Post‐development texts have been interpreted as a cynical legitimation of neoliberalism or a futile romanticisation of premodern times; more sympathetic critics have at least acknowledged its potential to criticise the shortcomings of development theory and policy. There is, however, widespread agreement on the assumptions that post‐development…
The Millennium Development Goals: Back to the Future
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute a normative consensus in the development community at the beginning of the 21st century. This article examines that consensus from the perspective of post-structuralist discourse analysis by situating it in its historical context, comparing the Millennium Declaration with the UN International Development Strategy of 1970. The article illustrates the depoliticising bias of the main MDG documents a…
Development”: Projects, Power, and a Poststructuralist Perspective
The postdevelopment school has criticized development projects for their inherent power relations and their authoritarian implications. However, since the 1980s a transformation in development discourse can be observed that includes an emphasis on participation and civil society organizations. Through the analysis of several development projects, the article pursues the question of whether this transformation can also be observed on the level of …
Towards a More Critical Theory of 'Development' in the 21st Century
In response to the article by Horner and Hulme which opens this Debate section, this contribution argues that while the call for a shift from international to global development by Horner and Hulme is justified, their approach is confined to what has been called traditional or problem-solving theory. On the levels of concepts, theory and metatheory, it fails to transcend orthodox approaches in development theory. Concerning concepts, it employs t…
The many faces of Post-Development: Alternatives to development in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti
Post-Development, a body of transitional imaginaries, is not homogenous, neither in its critique, nor in the alternatives proposed. Given that the term ‘development’ is already highly contentious, the question of what ‘alternatives to development’ might be, becomes difficult to respond to. In this article, we argue that Post-Development can assume many faces that are highly dependent upon their conceptual and geographical contexts. In analysing p…
Theorizing Postdevelopment
The paper seeks to define and situate postdevelopment (PD) theory within the social sciences by discussing its relation to other theoretical approaches. It concludes that PD can be seen to a rather limited extent as a development theory, but rather as a sociology of knowledge of this discipline and a critique of its foundation. PD shares the critique of capitalism with Marxism but also has a more negative view of industrial modernity, its relatio…
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
This condition shows us that we all have a large debt to the territory that saw us be born, grow or that we have lived for long periods of time. We are all designers of policies that have possible controls and of greater influence in some societies and especially environmentalists. Many authors point out relationships with CTS important elements that must be taken into account: to indicate and specify the hierarchies of the objectives and the dif…
German development policy 1998–2005: The limits of normative global governance
Postcolonialism and Development: Disparate Tales Reconsidered
The ambivalence of post‐development: Between reactionary populism and radical democracy
The post‐development critique of development discourse has by now been widely discussed and criticised. Post‐development texts have been interpreted as a cynical legitimation of neoliberalism or a futile romanticisation of premodern times; more sympathetic critics have at least acknowledged its potential to criticise the shortcomings of development theory and policy. There is, however, widespread agreement on the assumptions that post‐development…
Exploring Post-Development
Aid and Power – The Next Generation
The Aid Effect. Giving and Governing in International Development David Mosse and David Lewis London: Pluto, 2005, pp. 232, £60 and £18.99, ISBN 0 725 32387 1 and 0 745 32386 3 The Will to Improve. Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics Tanya Murray Li Durham: Duke University Press, 2007, pp. 392, £70 and £18.99, ISBN 0 822 34008 9 and 0 822 34027 5 The Whiteness of Power. Racism in Third World Development and Aid Paulette Gou…
Development”: Projects, Power, and a Poststructuralist Perspective
The postdevelopment school has criticized development projects for their inherent power relations and their authoritarian implications. However, since the 1980s a transformation in development discourse can be observed that includes an emphasis on participation and civil society organizations. Through the analysis of several development projects, the article pursues the question of whether this transformation can also be observed on the level of …
German development policy 1998–2005: The limits of normative global governance
From Development Discourse to the Discourse of Globalisation - Changing Forms of Knowledge about Change in North-South Relations and their Political Repercussions
The article argues that in the field of North-South relations, predominant conceptions of social change have been transformed during the last decades. The discourse of ‘development’, which used to be dominant, has been gradually replaced by a discourse of ‘globalisation’. The article engages in a comparative analysis of the two discourses, their underlying principles and the political practices rendered possible by them. Zusammenfassung Vom Entwi…
The Millennium Development Goals: Back to the Future
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute a normative consensus in the development community at the beginning of the 21st century. This article examines that consensus from the perspective of post-structuralist discourse analysis by situating it in its historical context, comparing the Millennium Declaration with the UN International Development Strategy of 1970. The article illustrates the depoliticising bias of the main MDG documents a…
Postcolonialism and Development: Disparate Tales Reconsidered
Post-Development: Fundamentalkritik der „Entwicklung“
The article presents the post-development school in development theory and deals with its basic lines of argument as well as with criticisms raised against the approach. Encountering these criticisms leads to a differentiation between a neo-populist and a sceptical variant of Post-Development. Subsequently the article discusses the theoretical position of the approach. Finally, the "alternatives to development" promoted here are dealt with and th…
The discourse of "development" and why the concept should be abandoned
This paper discusses the discourse of "development" and its effects. It argues that there are good reasons for giving up the concept of development and replacing it with various other concepts. Practices that aim at improving the human condition need not be identified with the term "development". Numerous practices which have not improved the human condition have been carried out in the name of "development". These should not be seen as an abuse …
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
This condition shows us that we all have a large debt to the territory that saw us be born, grow or that we have lived for long periods of time. We are all designers of policies that have possible controls and of greater influence in some societies and especially environmentalists. Many authors point out relationships with CTS important elements that must be taken into account: to indicate and specify the hierarchies of the objectives and the dif…
Justice, not development
This conclusion presents an overview of closing thoughts covered in the previous chapters in this book. It deals with the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies by summing up and discussing frequent points of criticism towards discourse analysis in development studies and highlighting important points of selected texts of this research and articulates their contribution in the light of this critique. A common critique is that a…
Development discourse
Two different discourses, development and globalisation, can be identified as successively dominating global North-South relations in the past decades. A concise analysis of both discourses is relevant and insightful because notions of development and of globalisation are conceptualising social change in strikingly different ways and with different attitudes towards social engineering. Globalisation discourse in line with neoclassical economic th…
Millennium Development Goals
This chapter demonstrates some central discursive structures to be found in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) debate date back to the origins of development aid in the middle of the 20th century. The development discourse draws on elements familiar from the debates around global governance, sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first obvious shift in comparison to the MDGs concerns the formation of objects…
From ‘development’ to ‘globalisation’
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute more or less a normative consensus in the development community of the beginning of the 21st century. This chapter examines the MDGs from the perspective of poststructuralist discourse analysis and to situate them in their specific historical context It introduces the historic dimension by comparing the MDG documents to the United Nations (UN) declaration 2626 which spearheaded the Second Develop…
An archaeology of development knowledge 1
The discourse of development is appropriated by the Third World heads of state in the UN for three primary reasons: first, to reject international trusteeship; second, to demand social justice, equality and denounce prevailing disparities; and third, to devise a comprehensive program of planned intervention which would include the global economy. This chapter is concerned with the constitution, appropriation and contestation of this new discourse…
The transformation of development discourse
This chapter argues that the transformation of development discourse since the 1980s leading to the rise in significance of concepts like participation and civil society is also visible in the examples of development projects. Undoubtedly there has been a transformation in development discourse which includes the rise of neoliberalism, good governance, sustainable development, global governance, civil society, participation and partnership. Parti…
World Bank discourse and poverty reduction
This chapter discusses the merits and flaws of Amartya Sen&s;s Development as Freedom , highlights positive as well as negative aspects. It explains the problems identified in the capability approach to the discourse of development which constitutes the hegemonic framework for discussing questions of global inequality since the mid-20th century. The chapter points out which questions of global justice are neglected by adopting this hegemonic fram…
‘Development’
The convergence of migration policy and development policy in the new approach of promoting migration management as a new form of development aid therefore has to be analyzed as an element of neoliberal globalization. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has summoned an initiative aiming at the improved coordination of the areas of migration and development policy. The traditional patterns of development policy have gradually been p…
From ‘civilising mission’ to ‘development’
This chapter discusses the usage of the concept of development in development policy and research and its effects. It argues that development researchers need to abandon the concept of development because development has Eurocentric, depoliticising and authoritarian implications. The chapter explores the theoretical background of the argument and give reasons for the subsequent engagement with conceptual questions, establishing the relevance of d…
Migration management as development aid?
During the past two decades, traditional development aid has become quite unfashionable or at least lost considerable ground in the debate on North-South relations due to end of the Cold War and the distrust towards interventions in the market mechanisms (see chapter 8 ). Instead, increasingly prominent issues were (among others) global governance, sustainable development and market liberalisation. The latest trend consists of promoting migration…
The concept of ‘development’ and why it should be abandoned
This chapter reviews the transformations in development discourse which occurred as a reaction to the crisis of development theory in the 1980s and the corresponding rise of new concepts in development policy. The way the objects of development policy are discursively constructed and the rules according to which this is done are certainly relevant to scholars of development studies. Three of these discursive transformations, the rise of concepts …
The post-2015 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals
As the year 2015 drew nearer, the debate in development policy was increasingly dominated by the agenda which would follow up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Countless reports, proposals and statements were issued and conferences were held on the topic, and even within the UN there was a sometimes bewildering array of global reports on the post-2015 agenda: the Report of the Secretary-General ‘A life of dignity for all: accelerating prog…
Poststructuralism, discourse and power
The mission of civilising the uncivilised has been replaced by the global establishment of social institutions in a European fashion and the transformation of the people into performance-oriented individuals. The basic structure of colonial discourse is the division of the world into civilised peoples or nations and uncivilised tribes or masses. Colonial discourse turned into the discourse of development. The discourse of development which became…
Conclusion
Having followed the history of the term development through various decades and issues, it is now time to take stock of the analysis and contextualise it within the research on discourse in development studies. This research is relatively novel and has (except for a few early starters) emerged during the 1990s (see e.g. Escobar 1985 and 1995 , Sachs 1990 and 1992 , Manzo 1991 , Nederveen Pieterse 1991 , Ferguson 1994 , Crush 1995 , Moore/Schmitz …
Political science (29 works) · International Development and Aid (25 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Mathematics (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Economics (8 works) · Development (topology) (7 works)