New vistas for development management: examining radical-reformist possibilities and potential

This article provides an overview of contemporary development management scholarship, suggesting that a longstanding division between radical and reformist development management research continues to exist. The article offers a closer examination of critical development management (CDM), the most recent example of radical development management thought that is connecting scholars in critical management studies to those identifying with post-development theory. CDM's suggestion that all development management is perniciously managerial is scrutinised and challenged on both theoretical and normative grounds. Overall, an argument is sketched out to support a future for development management that is neither defined nor destined for failure. The future of development management scholarship can and should concern itself with a non-managerial development practice that bridges the divide between radicals and reformers.