Development as Imperialism: Problematization of Poverty and the Rhetoric of Freedom

Abstract

This article problematizes the Westernized notion of development as a colonial concept that continues to organize postcolonial societies, with specific attention to poverty, freedom, and colonial epistemology. Development has often been presented as a universal path toward prosperity, justice, and freedom, yet its postwar history shows how poverty was produced as a problem requiring external intervention. This framing allowed Western powers and global institutions to continue colonial relations through the language of improvement. The article uses qualitative conceptual analysis, drawing on neoliberal critique, de-colonial theory, post development thought, and Indigenous philosophy. It recommends that development be examined beyond policy reform and economic growth, and argues that decolonizing development requires challenging the colonial epistemologies that separate humans from land, nature, and place based knowledge.