The developed/underdeveloped dichotomy is the starting point of mainstream theories of development. Based on a theoretical framework inherited from modernisation theories, they represent development as the process through which productive structures in the Global South are transformed following the footsteps of the Global North. Dependency theories productively challenged this linear conception of development, but failed to provide a consistent alternative because of their incapacity to move beyond the developed/underdeveloped dichotomy. In this article, I claim that Trotsky’s concept of uneven and combined development finally indicates a way to think of development beyond the developed/underdeveloped dichotomy. Through analogies with the work of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, I contrast the concept of uneven and combined development with competing views of development to show both that it makes better sense of particular development trajectories and that it offers a better theoretical base for political action. By stressing the necessarily perspectived character of development, the concept of uneven and combined development makes it possible to ask a crucial question often overlooked: development for whom?

中文翻译：

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为谁开发？超越发达/不发达的二分法

发达与不发达的二分法是主流发展理论的出发点。基于继承自现代化理论的理论框架，它们将发展描述为全球南方的生产结构跟随全球北方的脚步而转变的过程。依赖理论富有成效地挑战了这种线性发展概念，但未能提供一致的替代方案，因为它们无法超越发达/不发达的二分法。在这篇文章中，我声称托洛茨基的不平衡和联合发展的概念最终表明了一种超越发达/不发达二分法来思考发展的方式。通过类比荷兰艺术家 MC Escher 的作品，我将不平衡和联合发展的概念与竞争性发展观进行对比，以表明它更能理解特定的发展轨迹，并为政治行动提供更好的理论基础。通过强调发展的必然性，不平衡和综合发展的概念使得提出一个经常被忽视的关键问题成为可能：为谁发展？