Trevor Parfitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 4051130 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Trevor Parfitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Trevor |
| FAMILY NAME | Parfitt |
| SIGNATURE | PARFITT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Huddersfield Polytechnic |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Inhuman development? Technics as enframing or poiesis
This paper will examine some of the ways in which development has been influenced by the body of ideas known as techne, or technics. This body of ideas focuses on a central theme that envisages technology broadly defined as developing its own impetus that removes it from the control of human agency and that begins to circumscribe and even control human agency. This can be seen as having various impacts on development, notably a subsumption of any…
Modalities of Violence in Development: Structural or contingent, mythic or divine
This paper examines the relationship between violence and development. It explores whether violence is an intrinsic (structural) part of development, or a contingent result of poor or mistaken policies and practices that might be corrected. The issue of how far an element of violence might be desirable for development is also considered. These two issues are debated in the context of a variety of approaches to development and in light of various …
Development ethics: Means of the means
The Meaning of Work in Neoliberal Globalisation: The Asian exception
This article argues that a central element of capitalist development, especially in its neo-liberal form, has been the configuration of a rationalised and individuated conception of work that helps to maximise capitalist efficiency. As the capitalist system has become globalised there has been an attempt to export this conception of work to the Global South by means of liberalisation programmes, many of them sponsored by the World Bank. These hav…
Post-Development and its Discontents
In the 1980s and 1990s the predominant metatheories in development analysis were cast into doubt by their apparent failure in practice. One response to this impasse in development theory was to turn to postmodern ideas to explain their failure. In particular many analysts utilized Foucauldian discourse theory to critique development as a discourse of power. Such analysis gave rise to a post-development school of thought that condemned development…
Towards a Post-Structuralist Development Ethics? Alterity or the same
The validity of development has been cast into doubt by postmodern critiques that have highlighted its failings. Attempts to rehabilitate the idea of development have brought ethics into play. This paper examines attempts to identify a viable basis for development based on post-structuralist ethical theories developed by analysts such as Levinas and Derrida that privilege the concept of alterity, or respect for the other. This approach is contras…
Neoliberalism, Civil Society and Security in Africa
Are the Third World Poor Homines Sacri? Biopolitics, Sovereignty, and Development
This article examines how the concept of biopolitics is applied in development studies, focusing especially on Giorgio Agamben's account of biopolitics as intrinsic to the analysis of sovereignty and a state of exception. Agamben analyzes sovereignty as a biopolitical enterprise of disciplinary control in which sovereign power is able to enforce its role by the most draconian means while remaining nominally within the law. Agamben further claims …
Countdown to Ecstasy: Development as eschatology
This paper examines the antinomies posed by a consideration of development as eschatology. Development is generally conceived as a grand narrative with humanity progressing inevitably to a redemptive goal, whether this be revolution or Rostovian consumerism. It is eschatological in structure. This opens development theory up to critique. Grand narratives premised on an end of history are open to criticism as utopian and exclusory through setting …
Hylomorphism, complexity and development: Planner, Artisan,or Modern Prince
This paper examines problems of development in the light of two opposed concepts identified in John Protevi's examination of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. It is argued that much development practice is informed by the concept of hylomorphism, which is 'the doctrine that production is the imposition of formal order on chaotic or passive matter'. This approach is contrasted with accounts premised on the concept of complexity, which assert…
The ambiguity of participation: A qualified defence of participatory development
This paper examines some of the critiques addressed to participatory development by critics such as Cooke and Kothari. It argues that criticisms of participation's theoretical coherence and of its lapse into a routinised praxis largely arise from an unavoidable ambiguity that is inherent in the concept of participation, this being the means/end ambiguity. Participation must function as a means because any development project must produce some out…
In memoriam Stephen Riley 1949–1999
Europe's Mediterranean designs: An analysis of the Euromed relationship with special reference to Egypt
(1997). Europe's Mediterranean designs: An analysis of the Euromed relationship with special reference to Egypt. Third World Quarterly: Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 865-882
The decline of Eurafrica? Lomé's mid‐term review
The last day of June 1995 saw the completion of the review of the Lomé Convention, a comprehensive trade and aid relationship between the European Union and 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. Given that the Lomé regime is one of the most long lived and comprehensive arrangements in North‐South relations it might have been expected that there would have been a considerable reaction by those interested in development issues. In fact, t…
Virtual adjustment: Whose reality
(1995). Virtual adjustment: whose reality? Review of African Political Economy: Vol. 22, No. 63, pp. 3-8
The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy
Journal Article The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy Get access The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy, by Peter Nunnenkamp. Wheatsheaf Books, London, 1986. 224 pp. £30. ISBN 7108 0752 X. TREVOR PARFITT TREVOR PARFITT The PolytechnicHuddersfield Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affai…
The International Politics of African Debt
This paper assesses the international politics of Africa's growing external indebtedness and the pressures for policy direction that it produces. After the scale and character of the problem has been assessed, the paper looks, first, at the increasingly significant rôle of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within Africa. The nature of external policy direction is then examined, particular attention being paid to the influential World Bank pol…
The ambiguity of participation: A qualified defence of participatory development
This paper examines some of the critiques addressed to participatory development by critics such as Cooke and Kothari. It argues that criticisms of participation's theoretical coherence and of its lapse into a routinised praxis largely arise from an unavoidable ambiguity that is inherent in the concept of participation, this being the means/end ambiguity. Participation must function as a means because any development project must produce some out…
Are the Third World Poor Homines Sacri? Biopolitics, Sovereignty, and Development
This article examines how the concept of biopolitics is applied in development studies, focusing especially on Giorgio Agamben's account of biopolitics as intrinsic to the analysis of sovereignty and a state of exception. Agamben analyzes sovereignty as a biopolitical enterprise of disciplinary control in which sovereign power is able to enforce its role by the most draconian means while remaining nominally within the law. Agamben further claims …
Hylomorphism, complexity and development: Planner, Artisan,or Modern Prince
This paper examines problems of development in the light of two opposed concepts identified in John Protevi's examination of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. It is argued that much development practice is informed by the concept of hylomorphism, which is 'the doctrine that production is the imposition of formal order on chaotic or passive matter'. This approach is contrasted with accounts premised on the concept of complexity, which assert…
Virtual adjustment: Whose reality
(1995). Virtual adjustment: whose reality? Review of African Political Economy: Vol. 22, No. 63, pp. 3-8
Modalities of Violence in Development: Structural or contingent, mythic or divine
This paper examines the relationship between violence and development. It explores whether violence is an intrinsic (structural) part of development, or a contingent result of poor or mistaken policies and practices that might be corrected. The issue of how far an element of violence might be desirable for development is also considered. These two issues are debated in the context of a variety of approaches to development and in light of various …
The decline of Eurafrica? Lomé's mid‐term review
The last day of June 1995 saw the completion of the review of the Lomé Convention, a comprehensive trade and aid relationship between the European Union and 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. Given that the Lomé regime is one of the most long lived and comprehensive arrangements in North‐South relations it might have been expected that there would have been a considerable reaction by those interested in development issues. In fact, t…
The International Politics of African Debt
This paper assesses the international politics of Africa's growing external indebtedness and the pressures for policy direction that it produces. After the scale and character of the problem has been assessed, the paper looks, first, at the increasingly significant rôle of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within Africa. The nature of external policy direction is then examined, particular attention being paid to the influential World Bank pol…
The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy
Journal Article The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy Get access The International Debt Crisis of the Third World: Causes and conse-quences for the world economy, by Peter Nunnenkamp. Wheatsheaf Books, London, 1986. 224 pp. £30. ISBN 7108 0752 X. TREVOR PARFITT TREVOR PARFITT The PolytechnicHuddersfield Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affai…
Virtual adjustment: Whose reality
(1995). Virtual adjustment: whose reality? Review of African Political Economy: Vol. 22, No. 63, pp. 3-8
The decline of Eurafrica? Lomé's mid‐term review
The last day of June 1995 saw the completion of the review of the Lomé Convention, a comprehensive trade and aid relationship between the European Union and 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. Given that the Lomé regime is one of the most long lived and comprehensive arrangements in North‐South relations it might have been expected that there would have been a considerable reaction by those interested in development issues. In fact, t…
Europe's Mediterranean designs: An analysis of the Euromed relationship with special reference to Egypt
(1997). Europe's Mediterranean designs: An analysis of the Euromed relationship with special reference to Egypt. Third World Quarterly: Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 865-882
In memoriam Stephen Riley 1949–1999
The ambiguity of participation: A qualified defence of participatory development
This paper examines some of the critiques addressed to participatory development by critics such as Cooke and Kothari. It argues that criticisms of participation's theoretical coherence and of its lapse into a routinised praxis largely arise from an unavoidable ambiguity that is inherent in the concept of participation, this being the means/end ambiguity. Participation must function as a means because any development project must produce some out…
Hylomorphism, complexity and development: Planner, Artisan,or Modern Prince
This paper examines problems of development in the light of two opposed concepts identified in John Protevi's examination of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. It is argued that much development practice is informed by the concept of hylomorphism, which is 'the doctrine that production is the imposition of formal order on chaotic or passive matter'. This approach is contrasted with accounts premised on the concept of complexity, which assert…
Neoliberalism, Civil Society and Security in Africa
Are the Third World Poor Homines Sacri? Biopolitics, Sovereignty, and Development
This article examines how the concept of biopolitics is applied in development studies, focusing especially on Giorgio Agamben's account of biopolitics as intrinsic to the analysis of sovereignty and a state of exception. Agamben analyzes sovereignty as a biopolitical enterprise of disciplinary control in which sovereign power is able to enforce its role by the most draconian means while remaining nominally within the law. Agamben further claims …
Countdown to Ecstasy: Development as eschatology
This paper examines the antinomies posed by a consideration of development as eschatology. Development is generally conceived as a grand narrative with humanity progressing inevitably to a redemptive goal, whether this be revolution or Rostovian consumerism. It is eschatological in structure. This opens development theory up to critique. Grand narratives premised on an end of history are open to criticism as utopian and exclusory through setting …
Towards a Post-Structuralist Development Ethics? Alterity or the same
The validity of development has been cast into doubt by postmodern critiques that have highlighted its failings. Attempts to rehabilitate the idea of development have brought ethics into play. This paper examines attempts to identify a viable basis for development based on post-structuralist ethical theories developed by analysts such as Levinas and Derrida that privilege the concept of alterity, or respect for the other. This approach is contras…
Post-Development and its Discontents
In the 1980s and 1990s the predominant metatheories in development analysis were cast into doubt by their apparent failure in practice. One response to this impasse in development theory was to turn to postmodern ideas to explain their failure. In particular many analysts utilized Foucauldian discourse theory to critique development as a discourse of power. Such analysis gave rise to a post-development school of thought that condemned development…
Development ethics: Means of the means
The Meaning of Work in Neoliberal Globalisation: The Asian exception
This article argues that a central element of capitalist development, especially in its neo-liberal form, has been the configuration of a rationalised and individuated conception of work that helps to maximise capitalist efficiency. As the capitalist system has become globalised there has been an attempt to export this conception of work to the Global South by means of liberalisation programmes, many of them sponsored by the World Bank. These hav…
Modalities of Violence in Development: Structural or contingent, mythic or divine
This paper examines the relationship between violence and development. It explores whether violence is an intrinsic (structural) part of development, or a contingent result of poor or mistaken policies and practices that might be corrected. The issue of how far an element of violence might be desirable for development is also considered. These two issues are debated in the context of a variety of approaches to development and in light of various …
Inhuman development? Technics as enframing or poiesis
This paper will examine some of the ways in which development has been influenced by the body of ideas known as techne, or technics. This body of ideas focuses on a central theme that envisages technology broadly defined as developing its own impetus that removes it from the control of human agency and that begins to circumscribe and even control human agency. This can be seen as having various impacts on development, notably a subsumption of any…
Political science (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Economics (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (5 works)