GEOG 260 Topic 1 – Concepts and Measurements of Development
What is Development?
Definition of Development: “[g]radual unfolding, fuller working out; growth; evolution…; Development area, one suffering from or liable to severe unemployment”
Histories of development:
Enlightenment (18th C): believed science and rational thinking could progress human groups from barbarism to civilization; people who did not adopt science and rationalism = backward; development was seen directly linked to Western religion, science, rationality and principles of justice
Darwinism (19th C.): associate development with evolution which explains a change towards something for future survival
Industrial Revolution (late 19th C.): development was to represent Christian order, modernization and responsibility
Colonialism (19th-20th C.): equated development in the colonies with an ordered progress towards a set of standards laid down by the West but denied the colonized people to define the terms of their social life
Characteristics of Development (Thomas):
an all-encompassing change rather than just one element;
a continuous and cumulative process of change;
change at both social and individual levels;
change is not always positive.
Goals of Development
Economic growth: development is equivalent to increase in income and economic growth since 1950s
Components of Development (Goulet): life sustenance (basic needs), self-respect, freedom of choice
Development as Freedom (Sen): development entails the freedom from starvation, under-nourishment, premature mortality, illiteracy and innumeracy
Types of Development
Big D development – “intentional development” project usually overseen by large organizations (such as World Bank) to improve conditions for countries and people of the South;
Little D development – indigenous development which included a range of economic, political social and cultural processes that produces both improvement and set backs;
Issues of...