Arturo Escobar’s central argument is that development turned out be a force so damaging to the Third World societies, ironically in the name of people's interests.
The author substantiate his claim by using qualitative data and historical data. Mass poverty in Asia, Africa, and Latin America was a discovery of the post-World War II period. The poor increasingly appeared as a social problem requiring new ways of intervention in society. Two-thirds of the world's peoples were transformed into poor subjects in 1948 when the World Bank defined as poor those countries with an annual per capita income below $100. The essential trait of the Third World was its poverty and that the solution was economic growth and development became necessary. In 1949,
The author substantiate his claim by using qualitative data and historical data. Mass poverty in Asia, Africa, and Latin America was a discovery of the post-World War II period. The poor increasingly appeared as a social problem requiring new ways of intervention in society. Two-thirds of the world's peoples were transformed into poor subjects in 1948 when the World Bank defined as poor those countries with an annual per capita income below $100. The essential trait of the Third World was its poverty and that the solution was economic growth and development became necessary. In 1949,