Fossil-fuelled development and the legacy of Post-Development theory in twenty-first century Africa

Abstract

This article examines the legacy of Post-Development theory, in particular its relevance and applicability to debates about Africa’s future. It scrutinises Post-Development theory, and its claims about the end of development, through the prisms of Africa’s continued pursuit of development and its political economy of energy. It considers the impact of these aspects of Africa’s developmental efforts on the ability of Post-Development theory to remain relevant in light of recent developments. Revisiting basic claims of Post-Development theory provides insights into the enduring disconnect and incommensurability between Africa’s twenty-first century socio-economic trajectories and the core assumptions of Post-Development theory.

Keywords:

• Development
• Post-Development
• Africa
• fossil fuels
• renewable energy

Notes

1. Sachs, The Development Dictionary, 1.

2. Adesina, “Speech Delivered by President Akinwumi Adesina.”

3. Andreasson, “Elusive Agency.”

4. Andreasson, “Orientalism and African Development Studies.”

5. Matthews, “Post-Development Theory,” 377.

6. Ibid., 374.

7. Nederveen Pieterse, “After Post-Development”; Rist, History of Development; Simon, “Development Reconsidered”; Ziai, Exploring Post-Development.

8. Ziai, “The Ambivalence of Post-Development”; see also Andreasson, Africa’s Development Impasse, ch. 3.

9. Simon, “Development Reconsidered.”

10. Matthews, “Colonised Minds?”

11. Sachs, Development Dictionary.

12. Heilbroner, The Great Ascent.

13. Pritchett, “Divergence, Big Time.”

14. Andreasson, “Orientalism and African Development Studies.”

15. World Bank, Accelerated Development.

16. Michaels, “Retreat from Africa.”

17. Sandbrook, Politics of Africa’s Economic Stagnation.

18. van de Walle, African Economies and Politics.

19. Easterly and Levine, “Africa’s Growth Tragedy,” 1203.

20. Sachs, Development Dictionary, 1.

21. Rist, History of Development.

22. Bremmer, “End of the Free Market.”

23. Sheppard and Leitner, “Quo Vadis Neoliberalism?”

24. Rodrik, “Goodbye Washington Consensus.”

25. Leftwich, “Bringing Politics Back In”; Nederveen Pieterse, “Global Rebalancing”; Stephen, “Rising Powers.”

26. Coates Ulrichsen, “The GCC States.”

27. Simon, “Development Reconsidered,” 186.

28. Kanbur, “The New Partnership for Africa’s Development.”

29. Owusu, “Pragmatism and the Gradual Shift,” 1656.

30. African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, 8.

31. Andreasson, Africa’s Development Impasse; Vale and Maseko, “South Africa and the African Renaissance.”

32. Brooks, “Mass Movement and Public Policy,” 106.

33. African Union, Common African Position.

34. Matthews, “Colonised Minds?”

35. Ibid., 3–4.

36. Ibid.

37. Gyekye, Tradition and Modernity; Therborn, “Entangled Modernities.”

38. De Vries, “Don’t Compromise Your Desire.”

39. Sachs, Development Dictionary, 1.

40. Sachs, Development Dictionary, 1.

41. Easterly, “The Cartel of Good Intentions.”

42. Sachs, Development Dictionary, 4.

43. Corbridge, “Beneath the Pavement, Only Soil.”

44. World Bank, Africa’s Pulse, 9.

45. Bush and Harrison, “New African Development?”

46. Samba Sylla, “From a Marginalised to an Emerging Africa?”

47. EY Africa, Africa 2030, 3.

48. Yong, “Africa’s Decade of Industrialization.”

49. Taylor, “Dependency Redux.”

50. Rieff, “In Defense of Afro-Pessimism.”

51. Taylor, “Dependency Redux,” 22.

52. Rahnema, “Introduction,” x.

53. Young, “End of the Post-Colonial State.”

54. Andreasson, “Elusive Agency.”

55. Di Muzio, “Capitalising a Future Unsustainable.”

56. Di Muzio and Ovadia, Energy, Capitalism and World Order.

57. Di Muzio, Carbon Capitalism.

58. Di Muzio and Ovadia, Energy, Capitalism and World Order, 6.

59. Mitchell, Carbon Democracy.

60. Martínez and Ebenhack, “Understanding the Role of Energy Consumption.”

61. McDonald, Electric Capitalism, xv.

62. Kessides, “Powering Africa’s Sustainable Development,” S58.

63. Mohammed, Mustafa, and Bashir, “Status of Renewable Energy Consumption,” 453.

64. McDonald, Electric Capitalism, xv.

65. Ibid.

66. Baker, Newell, and Phillips, “The Political Economy of Energy Transitions”; Fine and Rustomjee, The Political Economy of South Africa; Scholvin, “South Africa’s Energy Policy.”

67. Adesina, “Speech Delivered by President Akinwumi Adesina.”

68. Morse and Bell, “Sustainable Development Indicators,” 225.

69. Andreasson, “Competition for Energy Resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

70. Collier, The Plundered Planet.

71. Ross, “Political Economy of the Resource Curse”; Ross, The Oil Curse.

72. Death, The Green State in Africa.

73. Linklaters, Renewable Energy in Africa, 6.

74. Munang and Mgendi, “The Paris Climate Deal and Africa.”

75. Dimitrov, “The Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” 8.

76. Death, “The Green Economy in South Africa,” 8.

77. Ibid., 6–7.

78. Ibid., 2.

79. Shen and Power, “Africa and the Export of China’s Clean Energy.”

80. Ibid., 12.

81. Schmitz, “Who Drives Climate-Relevant Policies?” 1–2.

82. Escobar, “Making and Unmaking of the Third World.”

83. Rostow, Stages of Economic Growth.

84. Storey, “Post-Development Theory.”

85. Kiely, “Last Refuge of the Noble Savage”; Corbridge, “Beneath the Pavement, Only Soil.”

86. Milanovic, Global Inequality.

87. Andrews and Bawa, “A Post-Development Hoax?” 926.

88. Sachs, quoted in Matthews, “Colonised Minds?” 1.

89. Ibid., 5.