NOT IN ISOLATION - THE NECESSITY OF SYSTEMIC HEURISTIC DEVICES IN ALLDEVELOPMENT PRACTICE

This brief essay is a response to the article by Cooke (Cooke, 1997) i n which he sets out the case for a clinical model of development pract ice. Developing the theme that any methodology taken in isolation will become self-fulfilling in its activity and taking up Cooke's 'challen ges for Development Studies' whilst building off the criticism set out by Blunt (Blunt, 1997) and upon an earlier work, I set out the impera tive for inclusive and systemic tools to aid our understanding of deve lopment contexts. Paradigms of scientific thought (the prisons of Blun t) and tyrannies of methodology are unwholesome and ultimately self-de structive devices. It is argued that only by adopting a holistic syste ms approach, including the wealth of potential tools for problems solv ing and developing our creative thinking in partnership, can developme nt studies achieve real understanding of what must otherwise always be seen as remaining an unknowable and mysterious context. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.