Just So Stories and Hanging Mechanisms

A pet peeve of mine, which you may have heard me mention once or twice (!), is the prevalence (hopefully not from DV409 though!) of 'just so stories.' Our insistence that for each stated relationship you also have an actual mechanism in mind is related to this (hence my other term for this practice - the 'hanging mechanism' in reference to 'hanging chads' from the infamous Bush election). Stephen Jay Gould has been on a campaign against Just So Stories in his own field for some time. If you just remove the biological references and replace them with development references, the description should sound familiar:

• "Evolutionary biology has been severely hampered by a speculative style of argument that records anatomy and ecology and then tries to construct historical or adaptive explanations for why this bone looked like that or why this creature lived here. These speculations have been charitably called "scenarios"; they are often more contemptuously, and rightly, labeled "stories" (or "just-so stories" if they rely on the fallacious assumption that everything exists for a purpose).

Here is another blog spot on the topic. Although these writers are referring to biology, not economics or development, it is an excellent analytical and critical thinking exercise to try to spot the Just So Stories and hanging mechanisms that abound around International Development...