This article examines the nature and implications of the socalled Local Development (LD). To this end, in view of the also socalled Economic Development (ED), as well as of the structural transformations operated in contemporary capitalism, it converses with themes such as 'productive structures and spaces' and 'State and scalar praxis,' showing the appropriation the liberals have made of them geared to claim a certain perspective - with hegemonic pretensions -, namely the absence of paths for corporate development that could be alternative to LD. The author also argues that the proclaimed modesty of the LD supporters does not stand when submitted to more serious analyses, nor does its also proclaimed progressive nature, since this now resurgent practice, at the end of the day, is one of the faces of today's internationalization of capital. The author also argues that ED affirmed itself historically with the same exegetical and hegemonic pretensions, though from those supporting ED it gets just as much criticism for its virtues as actually for its defects. Finally, the article provocatively asks whether the old developmentalism would be the possible resistance (and not LD), or whether it would be appropriate to re-invoke some truly insurgent alternative (?).
local development; economic development; ideology, public policy and insurgent social projects