Human flourishing as reflected in program and development
- 1. Human Flourishing as Reflected in Progress and Development 2019 FEBRUARY
- 3. How do we know that we are progressing? What are the indicators of development? 3 • We can see all around us are many infrastructure were build and more technology exist. This the indicators that humans are also progressing because progressing is start to our self before it reflects to our society. • More often than not, development is equated with growth and greater consumption. The more that a population is able to consume, the wealthier it is.
- 4. Jason Hickel 4 • An anthropologist at the London School of Economics the University of Virginia, and Goldsmiths, University of London, where he convenes the MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics. • Challenges us to rethink and reflect on a different paradigm of “de-development”
- 5. Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, it’s time to ‘de- develop’ rich countries - Jason Hickel 5 • Heads of state are gathering in New York to sign the UN’s new sustainable development goals (SDGs). The main objective is to eradicate poverty by 2030. • Given all the fanfare, one might think the SDGs are about to offer a fresh plan for how to save the world, but beneath all the hype, its business as usual.
- 6. 6 Growth has been the main object of development for the past 70 years, despite the fact that it is not working. Orthodox economist insists that all we need is yet more growth. In other words, growth isn’t an option any more – we’ve already grown too much.
- 7. 7 Right now, our planet only has enough resources for each of us to consume 1.8 “global hectares” annually – a standardized unit that measures resource use and waste. What does this mean for our theory of development? Economist Peter Edward argues that instead of pushing poorer countries to “catch up” with rich ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch down” to more appropriate levels of development.
- 8. 8 How much do we really need to live long and happy lives? In the US, life expectancy is 79 years and GDP per capita is $53,000. Yes, some of the excess income and consumption we see in the rich world yields improvements in quality of life that are not captured by life expectancy, or even literacy rates. In light of this, perhaps we should regard such countries not as underdeveloped, but rather as appropriately developed.
- 9. 9 The idea of “de-developing” rich countries might prove to be a strong rallying cry in the global south, but it will be tricky to sell to westerners. The problem is that the pundits promoting this kind of transition are using the wrong language. Negative formulations won’t get us anywhere.
- 10. 10 Perhaps we might take a cue from Latin Americans, who are organizing alternative visions around the indigenous concept of buen vivir, or good living. Either we slow down voluntarily or climate change will do it for us.
- 11. 11 This is not about giving anything up. And it’s certainly not about living a life of voluntary misery or composing harsh limits on human potential. On the contrary, it’s about reaching a higher level of understanding and consciousness about what we’re doing here and why.
- 12. THANK YOU!