This book uses a postcolonial lens to question development's dominant cultural representations and institutional practices, investigating the possibilities for a transformatory postcolonial politics.

Ilan Kapoor is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto. His research focuses on postcolonial theory, participatory development, and democracy, and has been published in several academic journals, including Third World Quarterly and Alternatives. He has worked with many development organizations, including the Canadian International Development Agency.

Introduction Part 1: Postcolonial Insights? 1. Capitalism, Culture, Agency: Dependency versus Postcolonial Theory 2. The Culture of Development Policy: Basic Needs, Structural Adjustment, Good Governance and Human Rights Part 2: Postcolonial Complicity and Self-Reflexivity? 3. Hyper-Self-Reflexive Development?: Spivak on Representing the Third World 'Other' 4. Participatory Development, Complicity and Desire 5. Foreign Aid as G(r)ift Part 3: Postcolonial Politics? 6. Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism?: The Relevance of the Habermas-Mouffe Debate for Third World Politics 7. Acting in a Tight Spot: Homi Bhabha's Postcolonial Politics 8. Bend it like Bhabha: Hybridity and Political Strategy. Conclusion