Abstract
Development planning presupposes that target areas are defined as underdeveloped. In planning an area development project, experts have therefore to conceptually create `underdevelopment' to legitimise their intervention in the social and economic processes of their target area. On the basis of field research in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, it is shown that a lack of information hides existing structures and institutions which in turn leads to the assumption that an area is underdeveloped. Furthermore, the planning process itself is defined as modern, while existing local procedures are seen as traditional. It is part of the culture of planning that an artificial contrast between planners and target populations is constructed. On the basis of interviews it is shown that the target population has its own culture of planning which is often long-term spanning several generations in contrast to the usual three- to five-year planning intervals of development projects. This culture gap between experts and target group is not a result of the personal inaptitude of experts or the unwillingness to help and assist but rather a systemic difference. Data from Indonesian as well as German development planning procedures are used to substantiate these points.
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