The objective of Development Studies theory and practice is to uplift and empower the world's poor. Much Development theory, however, is based upon elite-led conceptions of social change. Whilst distinct from each other, such theories form a broader unity of Elite Development Theory (EDT). EDT conceptualizes 'the poor' as human inputs into, or at best, as junior partners within elite-led development projects and processes, rather than as development 'actors' in their own right. In this talk Benjamin Selwyn argues that this elitism contributes to a) the continual (re)framing of the poor as passive beneficiaries of elite policy, b) legitimating economic exploitation and political repression of the poor, especially when they act against the pre-conceived objectives of elite-led development, and c) naturalizing the hierarchical social relations which nourish EDT. He illustrates these claims by discussing a number of EDT traditions - The Washington/Post-Washington Consensus, Statist Political Economy and Modernisation Marxism. He argues that Elite Development Theory and practice contributes to a situation where the benefits of capitalism's immense economic dynamism are concentrated in the hands of a minority of the world's population. He concludes by proposing a non-elite comprehension of human development, conceived here as 'labour-centred development'.

Benjamin Selwyn is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and International Development and Director of the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex in the UK. He is author of Workers, State and Development in Brazil: Powers of Labour, Chains of Value (2012) and The Global Development Crisis (2014). His most recent publication is 'Elite Development Theory: A Labour-Centred Critique', in Third World Quarterly (2016).