Definitions of Development

EDFD 208: Education & National Development

with Ms. Ana Maria Concepcion J. Macatangay
July 2022
Brief Background

“We often forget that there was a long period in

human history in which there was practically no
conception of progress at the social level. The
cosmological view was that of a static world, a
world in which one's life task was to adjust to
these unchanging conditions.
If there was any progress, it was in one's
progression beyond this world to other worlds and
other lives.” (Kent, 1982)
u Development ideas ( =the progress of human
communities) did not begin until after World War
I and did not flourish until after World War II.
u The first published long-term national
development plan was the Soviet Union's First
Five-Year Plan, adopted in 1929.
u Ivan Illich: the modern intellectual history of
development began on January 10, 1949, when
President Truman announced the Four Program.
“The starting point in discussing the challenges…is to
brush aside the web of fantasy we have woven
around “development” and decide more precisely
what we mean by it. Only then will we be able to
devise meaningful targets or measures of progress, to
judge the relative importance of various problems
which arise in the process of development, and thus to
help improve policy, national or international.” (Seers,
1969)
 Definitions

u A founding belief of the modern world

connoting progress, modernity, and
democratic values (Peet & Hartwick,
1999).
u It is used both descriptively, to explain
economic, socio-cultural and
environmental transformation, and
normatively, as a prescription for how
economies, societies and, environments
should be transformed (Adams, 2007)
Definitions
u “Refers to attempts to reduce poverty
and world inequalities in an effort to
guide the world to a situation of
betterment and improvement over time”
(Potter, Binns, Elliott & Smith, 2008).
u “A process in which increasingly more
members of a given area or environment
make and implement socially responsible
decisions, the probable consequence of
which is an increase in the life chances
of some people without a decrease in the
life chances of others” (Oberle, Stowers
& Darby, 1974).
(Salami, Tilakasiri & Ahamed 2017)
u (1) Development is a political term: it has a range of
meanings that depend on the context in which the term is
used, and it may also be used to reflect and to justify a
variety of different agendas held by different people or
organizations.
u E.g., The idea of development articulated by the World
Bank is very different from that promoted by Greenpeace
activists.
u (2) Development is a process rather than an outcome: it is
dynamic in that it involves a change from one state or
condition to another. Ideally, such a change is a positive one.
u Again, this shows that development is a political process,
because it raises questions about who has the power to do
what to whom.
Development = Economic Growth
u Misconceived the nature of the main challenge
of the second half of the 20th century…achieving
an increase in the national income of the
“developing” countries formalized in the 5%
growth rates…we have all been aware that
development consists of much else besides
economic growth. (Seers, 1969)
Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom (1999)
u Freedom is both the primary objective of development, and the
principal means of development. The human being is an engine
of change.
u According to Sen, development is enhanced by democracy and
the protection of human rights, especially freedom of the
press, speech, assembly, etc. because this increases the
likelihood of honest, clean,& good government.
u “the enhancement of freedoms that allow people to lead
lives that they have reason to live.”
u Hence “development requires the removal of major sources of
“unfreedom:” poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic
opportunities as well as systemic social deprivation, neglect of
public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of
repressive states”.
u ‘Development’ is a concept which is contested
both theoretically and politically, and is
inherently both complex and ambiguous … …
Recently it has taken on the limited meaning of
the practice of development agencies, especially
in aiming at reducing poverty and the Millennium
Development Goals. (Thomas, 2004)
Summary:
1. historical and long term,
development as a process of
change.
2. policy related and evaluative
or indicator-led, is based on
value judgements, and has
short- to medium-term time
horizons
3. post-modernist, drawing
attention to the ethnocentric
and ideologically loaded
Western conceptions of
‘development’ and raising the
possibilities of alternative
conceptions.
u If development means good change, questions arise
about what is good and what sort of change matters…
Any development agenda is value-laden… [however] not
to consider good things to do is a tacit surrender to…
fatalism.
u Perhaps the right course is for each of us to
reflect, articulate and share our own ideas…
accepting them as provisional and fallible.
(Chambers, 2004: iii)
u Since it depend on values and on conceptions of
the good life, there is no uniform or unique
answer. (Kanbur, 2006: 5)
References:

u Kent, G. (1982). Meanings of Development. Human Systems

Management 3, 188-194.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/MeaningsofDevelopment.pdf
u Seers, D. (1969). The Meaning of Development. IDS
Communication 44, Institute of Development Studies.
u Salami, A.A., Tilakasiri, S.L., & Ahamed, Y.A. (2017). The
indicators and indices of development. In S.L. Tilakasiri (Ed.),
Geography in development: Issues and perspectives (pp. 77-
102). Sri Lanka: Stamford Lake (Pvt) Ltd.
ICE BREAKER WAKER UPPER
Instructions
u 2 breakout rooms
u Each group will make a list of:
1. the things that they all have in common (try
to avoid obvious things, such as all being men
or women)
2. something unique to each participant.
u You can use a jamboard for easy sharing to the
rest of the class.