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Summary Resume Key Concept in Development Geography
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Auteur: Rob Potter Dennis Conway Co-auteur: Robert B. Potter Sally Lloyd-Evans Ruth Evans Uitgever: Sage Publications Ltd
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Resume Key Concept in Development GeographySection 1: Understanding Development
1.1 Meanings of development
1.1.1 The Modern Origins of the Process of Development
The ‘modern era’ of development lies its origins in the late 1940s: speech made by Harry
Truman in 1947, President of the USA.
- ‘Underdeveloped areas’ to describe the Third World. Express the duty of the developed
world to bring ‘development’ to such relatively underdeveloped countries.
- Truman emphasized a new colonial - neo colonial - role for the USA within the newly
independent countries that were emerging from the process of decolonization. He was
encouraging the underdeveloped nations to turn to the USA and the West for long-term
assistance rather than the East (USSR).
Colonialism: the exercise of direct political control and the administration of an
overseas territory by a foreign state.
Modernism: the belief that development is about transforming ‘traditional’ countries into
‘modern, Westernised nations’.
Trusteeship: the holding of property on behalf of another person or group, with the
belief that the latter will better be able to look after it themselves at some time in the
future.
1.1.2 The Origins of Development in the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment: the period of European intellectual history that continued through most of
the eighteenth century. The period during which it came to be increasingly believed that by
applying rational, scientific thought to the world, change would become more ordered,
predictable and meaningful. It was thus an European view of progress.
Threads:
- Primacy of reason/rationalism
- The belief in empiricism (gaining knowledge through observation)
- The concept of universal science and reason
- The idea of orderly progress
- The championing of new freedoms
- The ethic of secularism
- The notion that all human beings are essentially the same
Those who did not conform to such views were regarded as ‘traditional’ and ‘backward’.
Development was seen as being directly linked to Western religion, science, rationality and
principles of justice.
Progress vs. Development: (19th century)
- Progress: the unregulated chaos of pure capitalist industrialization
- Development: Christian order, modernization and responsibility
‘Robbing people of different cultures of the opportunity to define the terms of their social life’.
Little recognition was given to the fact that ‘traditional’ societies had always been responsible to
,new and more productive types of development. The continued economic exploitation of the
colonies made it impossible for such development towards Western standards and values to be
achieved. Underdevelopment was the creation of development.
1.1.3 Conventional Development: ‘Authoritative Intervention’ and Economic Growth
Enlightenment values were combined with 19th century humanism to justify the new trusteeship
of the neocolonial mission, a mission that was to be accomplished by authoritative intervention,
primarily through the provision of advice and aid programmes suggesting how development
should occur.
-> 1950s development as economic growth.
-> Arthur Lewis: “it should be noted that our subject matter is growth, and not distribution”.
Increasing incomes and material wealth were more important than to make sure that such
income was fairly or equitably spread within society. -> development debate by economists.
1.1.4 Wider definitions of Development: Social Well-being and Freedoms.
Economic-inspired approaches dominated development in the 1940s and 1950s: modernization
theory, and top-down development.
1960s: Vietnam War
- Argument if the development of the West had acted as an inhibitor of development in
emerging developing world.
1970s: development should be based on local resources rather than economic efficiency, rise to
development from below, rural-based development, and eco-development -> later: sustainable
development.
1970s/80s: social indicators of development (health, education and nutrition).
Even with growth and the provision of more goods and services, it depends on how these are
distributed between different members and groups of the society.
- Human Development Index (HDI): income is still included as a measure of standard of
living, but as one of three major variables (health and knowledge)
- Social indicators were broadened to incorporate measures of environmental quality,
political and human rights and gender inequality.
- Amartya Sen (1999) Development as Freedom: ‘Development consists of the removal of
various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little opportunity of exercising their
reasoned agency’. Freedom: human and civil rights that must be guaranteed for all.
- Sen’s emphasis on Development: the removal of various types of unfreedoms
that leave people little choice and few real opportunities.
- Goulet, ‘The Cruel Choice; a New Concept on the Theory of Development (1971)
Three components of development:
- Life sustenance: provision of basic needs. No nation can be regarded as
developed if it cannot provide its people with housing, clothing, food and
education.
- Self-esteem: feelings of self-respect and independence. Being developed means
not being exploited/controlled by others.
, - Freedom: the ability of people to determine their own destiny. People are not free
if they are imprisoned on the margins of subsistence, with no education and no
skills.
1.1.5 Anti-development stances
Anti-development (= post-development and beyond-development): based on the criticism that
development is a Eurocentric Western construction in which the economic, social and political
parameters of development are set by the West and are imposed on other countries in a
neocolonial mission to normalize and develop them in the image of the West.
Nederveen Pieterse (2000): “Development is rejected because it is the ‘new’ religion of the
west”.
Escobar (1995) argues development has created abnormalities such as poverty,
underdevelopment, backwardness, landlessness and has proceeded to address them through a
normalized program that denies the value of local cultures.
1.2 Measuring development
1.2.1 Measuring Development as Economic Growth: GDP and GNP per
capita.
This approach uses ‘income’ per head of the population as a measure of development. The
higher the income of a country or territory, the greater its development.
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: measures the value of all goods and
services produced by a nation or a territory, whether by national or foreign companies.
When calculated, the national total is divided by the total population, to give the value of
goods and services produced per head of the population.
- Gross National Product (GNP) per capita: Gross Domestic Product to which net
income derived from overseas is added. Income which is generated abroad is added,
and payments made overseas are subtracted. This total is also then divided by the total
population.
The GDP, GNP/GNI have been used as measurement of development. Employing such an
approach, the basic causes of poverty of any given nation are seen as the low productivity of
labour that is associated with low levels of physical capital (natural resources) and human
capital (for example, education) accumulation and low levels of technology. The economic
growth of countries is measured by the increase in output of goods and services (GDP/GNP)
that occurs over a given time period, normally a year.
1.2.2 Measuring Development as Human Development: the HDI
The HDI was developed by the UN in the late 1980s, to reflect three major dimensions of
human development (longevity, knowledge and standard of living). The HDI can be adapted and
rendered as a strongly gendered measure of development.
GDP/GNP take no account of the distribution of national wealth and output between different
groups of the population, or regions. Such income-based measures do not take into account the
wider well-being of people, including more than goods and money.
, 1989 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Human Development Index (HDI)
- 1990, first publication in the inaugural Human Development Report 1990.
- The emphasis was placed on assessing human development as a more rounded
phenomenon, based on three principal dimensions:
1. A long and healthy life (longevity): originally measured by life expectancy at birth
in years
2. Education and knowledge: initially measured by the adult literacy rate and the
gross enrolment ratio (the combined percentage of the population in primary,
secondary and tertiary education).
3. A decent standard of living: measured by Gross Domestic Product per capita in
US dollars.
HDR 2010: the three dimensions of health, education and living standards are translated into
four indicates, summed to give a single Human Development Index. The measures are then
transformed into an index ranging from 0 to 1, to allow equal weighting between each of the
three dimensions.
- Published every year by the UNDP, the HDI has been used to divide nations into what
have come to be referred to as high-, middle-, and low-levels of human development.
- Recently, the classification has been extended to also include a ‘very high’ human
development category.
- HDI is a summary and not a comprehensive measure of development. For example:
- 2010, Gender Inequality Index (GII): disparities existing between males and females
over the dimensions of reproductive health, empowerment and participation in the labour
force.
Argument that is quite often put forward is that countries which show relatively high incomes
along with marked inequalities in income distribution often show lower levels of life expectancy
and a range of social problems.
1.2.3 Measuring development in Wider terms, including Human Rights and
Freedoms
Wider sets of dimensions, including those involved in the MDGs, can be used to measure the
multidimensional nature of development, including social welfare issues and human rights - as
in the Gender Inequality Index.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), covering issues such as:
- Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger - measured by the percentage of the population
living on less than $1 or $2 per day.
- Achieving universal primary education
- Promoting gender equality and empowering women
- Reducing child mortality
- Improving maternal welfare
- Combating diseases
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