Zehn Thesen über die Stärken und Schwächen des soziokulturellen Ansatzes in der Entwicklungspolitik[Ten theses on the strengths and weaknesses of the socio-cultural approach in development policy]

Giving priority to the socio-cultural approach in development planning would increase rather than alleviate poverty and exploitation in Third World countries. Poverty is mainly due to a lack of resources (class specific) and to unequal power relations, not to imposed western consumption patterns. Value systems can only be understood in terms of their historical development, i.e. they have grown in response to and in interaction with material processes of civilisation and social differentiation. It is only by analysing this process of socio-structural differentiation that the real needs of the poor in the Third World can be identified and taken into account.