Arbues, Azalea Patrisse C.

BSDM 2-1
MODULE 1: PERSPECTIVE TO DEVELOPMENT
1. Give at least 5 definitions of development (cite your reference)

Based on what I understood last year in the Introduction to Development Management

under Mr. Ruperto Sanggalang, development means growth, progress, and can be a linear
movement from simple to greater complexity. In the context of development management,
development should be an all-through, interdisciplinary approach that aims to develop social,
cultural, political, and economic sectors to achieve human potential. Development should not
ignore the larger circle of influences.

Firstly, in regards to economy, the term development can be proportional to gross domestic
product or net capita income. This can mean that a state that produces an abundant monetary
valued product and services can indicate development; a state whose families or individuals that
receive high net capita income may mean that families or individuals can sustain themselves
and afford social services and housing. A stable GDP growth rate can also indicate
development – how a country can sustain a high growth rate for long periods of time and
resilient in global economic turmoil. Secondly, touching on politics, development can simply
mean the participation of the people effectively in political affairs. A large proportion of a
country’s population that participates in election, aware in their political climate, active criticisms
and voice for social and political change may mean development. Finally, social and cultural
idea of development can be signified by strong justice systems, eradication of injustices and
discrimination, the achievement and realization of a person’s individual and collective success
and purpose. Freedom and a full realization of human rights and the essence of individual
differences signify development.
Development can also be defined as the improvement of quality and quantity of life. Quality
may mean the access of individuals to education, health and social services provided by the
state. This means that an individual that can freely access these rights can help them achieve
their aspirations without setbacks. A chunk of a country’s population that can access quality
education can strengthen academic and corporate spaces. Higher life expectancy and low
mortality rate stipulates competent and accessible health systems.
According to https://ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_9_No_9_September_2018/12.pdf, The term
“development” has various meanings to different people and can be explained in different
contexts. For example, the development needs of a starving population must be different from
those where there is sufficient nutrition (Matowanyka, 1991). Development has often been
confused with “economic growth as measured solely in terms of annual increases in pre-capita
income or gross national product, regardless of its distribution and the degree of people’s
participation in effective growth” (Mahmoud, 1991). Seers (1972) asserted that “development
means the conditions for realisation of the human personality. Its evaluation must therefore take
into account three linked criteria: where there has been a reduction in (1) poverty, (2)
unemployment, (3) inequality”.

Development is a long-term process of structural societal transformation. It is also a short-to-

medium-term outcome of the desirable targets. Development is also a dominant discourse of
western modernity. This entry was posted on July 8, 2010.
(https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/18296_5070_Sumner_Ch01.pdf).

2. Concepts of Development: Discuss the HISTORIC DETERMINANTS OF

DEVELOPMENT: FROM THE FROM THE 17 TH TO 19TH CENTURY.

According to what I’ve read in the module that Mrs. De Mesa sent to us, the concept of
development is almost as old as that of civilization. Its extensive use in Western societies dates
from the Greco-Roman civilizations to the end of the 19th century. For the purposes of this
study, a temporal intersection of the Illuminist ideas of the seventeenth century and their
metamorphoses to the present day was chosen. 

The prevalent idea of evolution at the turn of the century was based on natural and
positive events, and its spread was restricted only by the awareness of the limit (1). Leibniz
(1646-1716) created the concept of unlimited progress after a long debate between modernity
and antiquity, which concluded with modernity's victory. Other modern thinkers, including as
Condorcet, Kant, Hegel, and Marx, have defined and interpreted progress in a different way
than that which derives from the concept of limit consciousness, i.e., development that is
potentially limitless. These authors' works also bear a certain resemblance to Augustinian
thought, which seeks to interpret history as a whole, as a continuous march of civilization, a
continuous process, albeit inconsistent and non-linear, toward a common good.

"Continuous evolution founded on the conviction in human perfection and motivated by

the unceasing pursuit for well-being," as Rist puts it (Rist, 2001, p. 70). Buffon (17071788)
maintained Rousseaun's image of the good savage (2) and the theory that all species in nature
have a generic prototype that is based on climate and conditions, habits. of the society in which
he is inserted in the mid-eighteenth century. The author argues the premise that civilisation will
reach Europeans in his work Natural History, asserting: "Because of their superiority, civilized
peoples are responsible for the world to come" (Buffon cited in Duchet, 1984, p. 54).

Also in the 18th century, the Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) presented the bases of
thought, which in the second half of the 20th should then contribute through the civilization of his
people (3) (Rist, 2001, p. 68). However, another paradigm of development had already reached
its climax in the 19th century with social evolutionism.

In this new paradigm, terms like modernization and liberation were referred to as
development. The need for a bigger notion that reflects the numerous elements required for
humanity's well-being appears to be the source of such superiority. In the sense of a perception
of social groups as unique species and, thus, the portrayal of identical developmental pathways,
an apparent direction of modernity theories can now be underlined. The repeated parallel with
natural growth processes, on the other hand, has the potential to limit the cultural diversity that
exists in societies, particularly in the twentieth century.

3. Discuss the 20TH CENTURY DEVELOPMENT: THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONAL

AGENCIES

The growing diffusion of development concepts and policies makes it possible to refer to
the last decades as the development era. The origin of this era in which we are supposedly still
living is in the late first half of the 20th century, possibly in the international policy of US
President Harry S to expand technical assistance offered to some Latin American nations and
other disadvantaged nations: I believe that we must give peace-loving peoples the benefits of
our wealth of technical knowledge to help them pursue their quest for a better life. And in
collaboration with other nations, we should encourage capital investment in areas that need
development (Truman, 1949).

The ideas of the Concert Marquis mentioned above can therefore be compared to a new
international situation. 1960 is considered the year of decolonization, a process that until then
was only legitimized as a generous pact to give an opportunity to societies considered the
slowest on the road to civilization. Several countries became independent from that moment
and the supposed process of decolonization toured the world. This even changed the balance of
power in the plenary session of the United Nations and evidently placed the problems of global
inequality and the need for development in the Third World at that time at a higher level.

A little later, in December 1964, with the establishment of the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development [UNCTAD], the development issue took new forms and directions.
This organization was created with the goal of filling the void that was not filled by the
organizations that emerged after World War II. Another international milestone on the issue of
development took place in 1968 with the creation of the Club of Rome. It brought together
experts from different fields and countries to form a free association of scientists, technocrats
and politicians, whose objective was to reflect on the different problems of the world and seek
solutions.

This new forum published a report in 1972, titled Limits to Growth, recognizing the
finiteness of natural resources and the seriousness of the problems that were already
devastating the environment and threatening human survival on earth. Some of the new
dimensions of the development phenomenon thus gained space and legitimacy. Also, this year,
at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development [UNCED] in Stockholm, the
growing international movement on this issue highlighted the problem of the planet's possible
lack of continuous energy supply. In the following decade, the actions of the central countries
expanded the dominance of financial issues on the international development agenda by
promoting neoliberal ideas and practices of increasing the market and reducing the state. As a
result, the Third World no longer gained a place on the world political agenda, and its
development controversies no longer found the same echo in the priorities of the economically
more developed countries.

In general, the Bretton Woods institutions, the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization gained importance in relation to
UNCTAD. This organization was to be the most important negotiating forum for a new
international economic order in the 1970s (Almeida, 1994). The World Commission on
Environment and Development published a report in 1987 called Our Common Future, also
known as the Bruntland Report, which was a tool to spread the recently created concept of
sustainable development. In the 1990s, the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (Eco92) in Rio de Janeiro put the issue back on the international political agenda.
Now treats progress as a much broader concept of development, adding environmental
protection and the rational use of natural resources as imperatives to solve problems of
economic and social growth. Despite the conflicts of interest in this conference, a long-term
action program was drawn up that had great potential for international impact: Agenda 21. With
this agenda, some principles to be practiced were launched worldwide and the new concept of
sustainable development. Eco92 results were developed in relation to measurement
instruments since August 1994 when the Conference and Workshop on Sustainability Indicators
[CWIS] was held.

According to Hart (1994), although there are already some methodological design
initiatives for the use of measurement tools, the CWIS has allowed some progress, of which the
following stand out: a) recognition of various definitions of sustainability; b) the need for an
adequate methodology for the effective use of sustainability indicators and c) monitoring of
government and private interests in this matter. Also in this decade, institutions such as the
World Resources Institute and the World Bank promoted the expansion of a green economy
(green national accounts). Methodological changes are proposed that include variables related
to the use of natural resources (forests, rivers, lakes, etc.) in the system of national accounts,
and therefore in the calculation of GDP. To measure the "green economy", the World Bank
conducted an assessment of 192 countries in 1995 and concluded that physical capital, also
measured by conventional GDP, averaged only 16% of the total wealth of these countries.
However, human capital reached 64% and natural capital averaged 20% of total capital.

According to Marzall and Almeida (1998), from this perspective, the GDP of some
European countries began to reflect a decrease in natural resources and the costs of pollution.
Between the end of the decade and the beginning of the new millennium, globalization became
the most important phenomenon in the debates and reflections on international political,
economic, social, cultural and ecological problems. As a hegemonic and determining rod of the
so-called Information and Knowledge Society (Castells, 2000), among other things, the
extraordinary expansion of information content in the daily lives of many societies came into
force. This favored the diffusion of the western idea of development, which assumed a new
complexity and posed challenges for researchers in this area. In order to clarify some current
questions about the concept of development, the next point offers some relevant definitions and
then presents a structured analysis of the really predominant trends in the approach to
development.

4. Discuss the CONTEMPORARY SENSES OF DEVELOPMENT

The pioneering work of Rostov (1971) indicates social Darwinism to explain

development as a gradual process of evolutionary succession in which human societies
abandon a rudimentary model to reach a model of consumption of Western industrialized
civilization that is considered unique and universal.

In Ribeiro's approach (2005, p. 11) the meaning of the word development converges in
various areas of knowledge to “state, process, well-being, progress, economic and human
growth or ecological balance”. The South Commission [SUD] (1990, p. 10) defines the term as
“a process of maturation and development of the self that frees the population from fear and
exploitation”. Both understandings seem to diverge and advance in relation to the idea of the
more traditional scholars of the subject, which is why development is often seen as a
phenomenon of fundamental interest to developed countries (Ribeiro, 2005).

An international institutional vision such as that of the United Nations Development

Program [UNDP] (1991, p. 77), on the other hand, also suggests an interpretation of what
development is: "Expanding options for the population that enables the development", become
more democratic and participatory. (...) access to (sic) income ... participation in decisions and
enjoyment of human, economic and political freedoms”. The three definitions presented so far
are linked to models that, when addressing the concept of development, were identified from
three predominant currents.

The first, and most common, treats the term as a synonym for economic growth. Economic
growth is an increase in the production of economic goods and services compared to a period of
time. Traditionally, macroeconomic growth is measured in terms of gross national product
(GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP), although alternative measures are sometimes used.
Economic growth increases the capacity of government and the provision of public goods. As
economies grow, governments can tax this income and gain the capacity and resources
necessary to provide the public goods and services that their citizens need, such as care
medical, education, social protection and similar basic public services. In addition to government
services, inclusive growth brings greater material benefits. Growth creates wealth, some of
which goes directly into the pockets of employers and employees and enhances their well-
being. As people earn higher incomes and spend more money, people can overcome poverty
and achieve better standards of living. While we argue that economic growth should be a means
rather than an end of development, we do not want it to appear that we do not support it. If you
look at the global level, you will find that most of the countries that have shown success in
reducing poverty and improving access to public goods base that progress on strong economic
growth.

The second denies that the term is appropriate, saying that its use does not go beyond
mere illusion, ideological manipulation, belief or myth. The third and most difficult and
challenging way, however, “tries to explain that development is not chimerical and cannot be
devalued as economic growth” (Veiga, 2005, p.

REFERENCES:
https://ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_9_No_9_September_2018/12.pdf
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/18296_5070_Sumner_Ch01.pdf
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economicgrowth.asp
https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/why-should-i-care-about-economic-growth
https://www.scielo.br/j/bar/a/5SHFxh5cBhrQtBM6GXWy3tp/?lang=en&format=pdf