“Development”: Over time

Shweta Verma
27.11.2010
 Development: an overview
• A far better world!
• Different definitions and theories
• Changes in Nomenclature: 1st-2nd-3rd world;
North-South, Developed-Developing
• Growing cynicism: several development
decades but results not as expected.

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 Development: an overview
• As a multidimensional process:
• Economic growth
• Just distribution
• Improvement in life chances
• Modern: industrialization and urbanization
• Liberation from dependency and exploitation
• Human rights and social justice
• Focus on the most marginalized
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 Development: an overview
• Complex and contradictory phenomenon:
reflects best of human aspirations but
manipulated in ways that defeat the original
purpose (Peet & Hartwick, 1999)
• Shift from…… “catching up with and imitating
the West” to…….. ‘alternative development’.

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 So…what constitutes Development?

• No standard answer!
• No grand theory to explain!
• Is there a crisis?
• Is it time to think of ‘beyond development’?
• But there have been failures and
achievements.
• So what! questioning, rethinking, and crisis
are intrinsic to development!
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 Shifts in meanings (Pieterse, 2010)
Period Perspectives Meanings of Development

1800s Classical Political Remedy for progress, catching up

Economy
1870> Latecomers Industrialization, catching up
1850> Colonial economics Resource Management, Trusteeship
1940> Development Economic growth-industrialization
economics
1950> Modernization Growth, political & social modernization
Theory
1960> Dependency theory Accumulation-national, autocentric
1970> Alternative Human Flourishing
development
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 Shifts in meanings (Pieterse, 2010)
Period Perspectives Meanings of Development
1980> Human Development Capacitation, enlargement of choices
1980> Neoliberalism Economic growth-structural reform,
deregulation, liberalization, privatization
1990> Post Development Authoritarian engineering, disaster
2000 Millennium Structural reforms
Development Goals

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 Development =Economic Growth
• Industrialization and economic growth
• Increased concern of the West for the ‘proper’
development of the new nation states
• Use of ‘authoritative intervention’
• IMF & World Bank established
• Greater production as key to prosperity and
success
• Greater prosperity: higher per capita income, with
benefits ‘trickling down’
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 DEVELOPMENT= MODERNIZATION
• Evolved in the context of bipolarity: ‘socialism’
vs. ‘free world’
• UDCs change to become like DCs in economic,
social, political as well as cultural spheres

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 DEVELOPMENT= MODERNIZATION
• Specialization of economic activities and occupational roles,
• Growth of markets,
• Urbanization,
• Mobility,
• Flexibility,
• Spread of education,
• Spread of democracy,
• Weakening of traditional influences,
• Differentiation between cultural and value systems,
• Secularization,
• Emergence of new intelligentsia,
• Outlook of individual self-advancement

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 DEVELOPMENT= MODERNIZATION
• Rostow’s (1960) 5 stages of economic growth
• Criticism: all societies display both
characteristics
• “development meant assuming the mental
models of the West (rationality), the institutions
of the West (the market), the goals of the West
(high mass consumption), and the culture of the
West (worship of the commodity).” (Peet &
Hartwick, 1999)

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 Development as Underdevelopment

• Raised the question of global inequality

• Placed a country into the larger world system
• External causes of underdevelopment
• Underdevelopment reattributed to capitalism.
Not traditionalism. Not as an original
condition.

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 Development as Underdevelopment
• Continued exploitation of Third World economies
(periphery) by western capitalism (center/core
position of social and technological development)
• Development by withdrawing from the world
capitalist system. Reconstruct economy on
socialism
• Development by separation and autonomy of the
dependent countries (periphery) from the global
capitalist system
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 Development as Underdevelopment

• In 5000 years: the core has moved- Asia

(China-Mongolia-India-Iran, Mesopotamia,
Egypt, & Turkey)- Southern and Western
Europe and Britain- North America- Japan-
China maybe. (Frank, 1996)
• Some proponents: Celso Furtado (1963), Teontonio
Dos Santos (1970), Andre Gunder Frank (1969, 1979,
1996), Fernando Cardoso and Enzo Falleto (1979)

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 Alternative development:
• ‘Redistribution with growth’ as benefits did not
seem to trickle down to masses.
• + Meeting ‘Basic needs’ : By Streeten (1981)
• + ‘Sustainable’ i.e. meeting the need of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs
(Brundtland commission, 1987). With
community participation
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 Development =Human development

• Enlargement of people’s choices and not just

income
• Expansion of people’s freedom, entitlements
and capabilities (A. Sen)
• Life sustenance, self-esteem and freedom
(Goulet, 1971)
• Equity, sustainability, productivity, and
empowerment (Ul Haq,1995)

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 Development =Human development

• Extends to gender, political rights,

environment, human security, global reform,
human social and cultural capital
• Alternative measures of Development: HDI,
HPI, GDI, GEM

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 Neoliberalism
• Market-led growth
• Became the standard following the debt crisis
in 1980s that brought in Structural
adjustments and economic recovery plans.
• Considered anti-development.

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 Neoliberalism

‘liberal’ in sense of lack of state control as well

as the concern for victims but ‘neo’ in the
sense that suffering was accepted as an
inevitable consequence of reform and
efficiency. (Sachs, 1991)

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 Post development approach
• Questions:
– Good and beneficial for whom?
– Who decides what is beneficial?
• Challenges goals, means & results of
development
• Development as a failure, disaster & outdated

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 Post development approach
Proposes
• Radical pluralism (i.e. think & act locally),
• Simple living, &
• Reappraises non-capitalist societies

Some proponents: Escobar, Sachs, Rist,

Latouche, Tucker, & Rahnema

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 MDGs
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
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 MDGs
• Adopted in September 2000.
• 2015 as the deadline.
• 21 quantifiable targets measured by 60
indicators.
• As social development, how much valid? ….if
previous indicators have not been met!

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 Conclusion
• Rethinking development has been an ongoing
process.
• Today, its plural, polycentric, and diversity-
focused
• “Development is a moving target situated
somewhere between underdevelopment and
post development.” (Pieterse, 2010)

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 References
• Desai, V., & Potter, R. B. (Eds.). (2002). The Companion to Development Studies. London:
Arnold Publishers.
• Dodds, K. (2002). The Third World, developing countries, the South, poor countries. In V.
Desai, & R. B. Potter (Eds.), The Companion to Development. London: Arnold Publishers.
• Frank, A. G. (1996). The Underdevelopment of Development. In S. C. Chew, & R. A. Denemark
(Eds.), The Underdevelopment of Development. Sage Publications.
• Hettne, B. (2002). Current trends and future options in development studies. In V. Desai, & R.
B. Potter (Eds.), The Companion to Development Studies. London: Arnold Publishers.
• Kumar, H. (1997). Social Work, Social Development and Sustainable Development. New Delhi:
Regency Publications.
• Peet, R., & Hartwick, E. (1999). Theories of Development. New York: The Guildford Press.
• Pieterse, J. N. (2010). Development Theory (Second ed.). New Delhi, India: Sage Publications.
• Preston, P. W. (1986). Making Sense of Development. London, New York: Routledge & Keegan
Paul.
• Thirwal, A. P. (2002). Development as economic Growth. In V. Desai, & R. B. Potter (Eds.), The
Companion to Development Studies. London: Arnold Publishers.
Websites: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ and http://www.undp.org/mdg/

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