Using an analysis of development discourse in and about São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), this article aims to trace the relationship between sociocultural constructions of difference and socio-economic structures of exclusion in the global development project. Using ethnographic data from a rural fishing village and from development professionals, I show how development discourse constructs STP as a place that is perpetually marginal and assigns essentialist traits to the islands and their people. In response, Santomeans imagine their society as one that is isolated and insular from global processes, even though they have historically always been incorporated into global networks of capital, labour, culture and commodities. I argue that this process, whereby Santomeans imagine and reproduce their own marginality, has an under-appreciated impact not only on their collective identity but also on their action and potentiality. I reflect on how the construction of marginality serves the global political, economic and social inequalities upon which the development project depends.

中文翻译：

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被世界排斥的生活：发展话语中的本质主义及其对圣多美自我认知的渗透

本文使用对圣多美和普林西比（STP）以及有关圣多美和普林西比（STP）的发展话语的分析，旨在追溯差异的社会文化建构与全球发展项目中排斥的社会经济结构之间的关系。我使用来自农村渔村和发展专业人士的人种学数据，展示了发展话语如何将STP构造为一个永久边缘的地方，并赋予岛屿及其人民以本质主义特征。作为回应，桑托米亚人将他们的社会视为与全球进程隔绝和孤立的社会，即使他们在历史上一直被纳入资本，劳动力，文化和商品的全球网络。我认为，这个过程是Santomeans想象并复制自己的边缘性的过程，不仅对他们的集体身份，而且对他们的行动和潜力都没有得到足够的重视。我反思了边际建设如何解决发展项目所依赖的全球政治，经济和社会不平等问题。