Development initiatives often result in degradation, rather than improvement, in the well-being of recipient communities. In part, this is because development agents lack adequate perceptions of indigenous priorities, and fail to appreciate the holistic nature of traditional rural communities. In this paper we outline, then critique, four prominent theoretical approaches to development: modernization, dependency, intermediate technology and sustainable development. We demonstrate that these theories, theories from which initiatives derive, neglect the social reality of recipient communities.
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