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Development and Invisible Worlds

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Development and Politics from Below

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Abstract

A notion of development, however vague, is implicit in the proposition that ‘human beings can act, collectively, to improve their lot’ (Leys, 1996, p. 3). Some writers believe that the concept that human beings are capable of collective self-improvement was held even in antiquity (Rist, 2002), while others suggest that it was the rise of industrial capitalism that brought the fact of human development forcibly to people’s attention for the ?rst time, enabling Hegel and Marx to see world history as a process of development (Leys, 1996, p. 4).

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© 2010 Stephen Ellis

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Ellis, S. (2010). Development and Invisible Worlds. In: Bompani, B., Frahm-Arp, M. (eds) Development and Politics from Below. Non-Governmental Public Action. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283206_2

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