Philosophy Dependency Critique Reading Response What is the “dependency critique”? Do you agree with it? Why or why not? There are two words guaranteed to get you escorted out of most development agencies, or sidelined in current development debates – they are: “dependency theory”.
Gone are the heydays of the 1970s when dependency theory was considered one of the most convincing critiques of dominant economic development strategies. Now, it is shunned by academics and practitioners, who find its pessimistic world view, and “outdated” language of “exploitation”, unbefitting of a world where we are all on course to “win” eventually. But there are two good reasons not to drop dependency theory from the development lexicon just yet.
