La extraña idea del desarrollo: Genealogía de un concepto

This paper carries out a genealogy of the concept of development. Originally stated out by R. Prebisch (1950), the concept suffers a number of translations, extension, and changes that end up with a quite different idea than it was originally thought. Both the meaning and framework end up being radically changed. Thus, development ends as an apology to capitalism. After a short historical and philosophical introduction, this paper develops four arguments, as follows: the model of economic development is a weird idea; such an idea is both extended and widened in terms of sustainability; a number of critiques merge, though, that are necessary and feasible; thereafter, an alternative model of development becomes at the same time possible and compulsory. Each one of the mentioned paragraphs are justified in due time. At the end some conclusions are drawn, and the paper ends with a string idea that links banking and citizen control.