HC1: What is Development?
What is Development?
- ‘bringing to the dark places of the earth, the abode of barbarism and cruelty the
torch of culture and progress
- The manner in which people are able to live and die
- The modification of the biosphere to improve the quality of human life
- Good change
- The practice of development agencies
- Since depends on values and alternative conceptions of the good life, there is no
uniform or unique answer.
Who are we developing?
- The third world? In the cold war
- Underdeveloped? Negative term
- Less-developed?
- Developing? More positive term, but in some cases countries are not developing but
going backwards
- Low and middle income?
- The global south? But there are also places in the north that are developing and
developed places in the south.
- Everyone? Can not everyone develop more?
What are we developing
- Economic: GDP per capita
- Political: democracy
- Social
- Subjective
Development is mutual. All thing matter.
Modernization theory: a linear transition from the same traditional start to the same
modern end. Economic, political, social and subjective development come together. In the
world there is one starting point, from there there is a linear transition that shift from
tradition to modern. But some societies are capable of doing this faster than others.
Subjective development: idea of being poor (or developed) what does this mean for you?
- The rich are those who are able to save and sell part of their harvest when prices rise.
- What one should not lack is the sheep, what one cannot live without is food grain.
- The most important asset is an extended and well-placed family network from which
one can derive jobs, credit and financial assistance. this one is not about food but
about your network, poor when you do not have a network.
- Poverty is humiliation the sense of being dependent on them, and of being forced to
accept rudeness, insults and indifference when we seek help being poor is
humiliation.
Some cultural valuations. But also social context in when they ask question to the people.
,Development as freedom: capability approach
- Freedom to do what? If we have these freedoms, you are developed.
o Participate in politics
o Engage in economic transactions
o Social opportunities through education and healthcare
o Transparency during interactions
o Security of life
- What limits freedom:
o Poverty
o Violence and repression
o Poor public services
o State restrictions on activities
o Lack of opportunities (unemployment)
- Why does freedom matter?
o Intrinsic reason: freedom matters in itself
o Instrumental reason: freedoms promote other freedoms. For example see
the lecture.
- Development is about complementarities, not trade-offs. For example: democracy
maybe does not improve economic growth, maybe an authoritarian regime promotes
economic growth more.
- Freedom = capabilities (opportunities): the capability to live a long life of the
capability to become a teacher doing a lot of things, having a lot of choices.
o Capabilities depend on resources/commodities: and on needs. You need
resources to have capabilities.
Resources/commodities (needs) freedom/capabilities (choice) functionings.
- Not about which choices, but having chocies.
- Freedom vs income: income is not enough as not al ends can be bought
- Freedom vs utility: people who are easily pleased do not deserve less
- Freedom vs libertarianism: freedom from does not guarantee freedom to.
Sustainability development
‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.’
- Sustainability means renewable resources., like fishing, consumed slower than
replacement rate. Renewable resources do not collapse. If you take to many, so
before the stocks are replaced, the system collapses.
- Sustainability means non-renewable resources, like oil, are consumed slow enough
so we can discover alternatives. We have to consume oil slow enough, so we can
develop new technologies.
- Strong sustainability: natural capital does not fall
- Weak sustainability: the sum of natural and physical capital does not fail.
Are continued economic growth and environmental sustainability compatible?
1. The development route to sustainability:
, a. Rapid technological innovation will help us solve problems like climate
change.
b. Wealth and education reduce fertility, reducing environmental pressures.
c. How rich should you get? How richer you get how better it is for the climate,
because there are new technologies. But first getting richer is not good for the
climate Kuznets curve. First the growth and then the sustainability.
2. The sustainability route to development:
a. Tackling environmental challenges will stimulate new innovations and
investments.
b. Conserving assets improves their productivity.
c. So first sustainability and than development.
Prof.: it comes very blurred. People have different interest, in different times of
development, in different times and other values.
Post-development critiques
1. The discourse of development makes people think of themselves as underdeveloped:
the language made think people of themselves as poor. The West told people they
were poor and underdeveloped, this made them feel poor.
a. Rejecting modernization theory: we’re not alle traveling in the same
directions, more is not always better.
b. Poverty is a myth, a construct and the invention of a particular civilization. We
are not all the same, not every society wants the same.
2. Development is an imposition of power and hierarchy.
a. A weapon of the cold war and post-colonialism.
b. Development as planned poverty. A top down, ethnocentric and technocratic
approach.
c. Westernization and eradicating diversity.
3. Development has failed on its own terms.
a. Rising inequality. Delusions and disappointments, failures and crimes have
been steady companions of development and they tell a common story: it did
not work this goes really far, because there has been development, states
are richer, distribution is greater. Of course there are always failures.
4. Development is an Industry.
a. Governments, NGOs, BINGOs, for-profit companies, Foundations.
b. 152 biljoen dollar. People relying on their jobs and on people to be continuing
being poor, so they have a job.
c. Lobbying governments for new contracts.
d. Governments seeking markets for their companies.
HOW DO WE MEASURE DEVELOPMENT?
This is a hard problem because there are many dimensions to measure. And we need to
measure these dimensions frequently.
- Lack of data collection capacity on the countries that matter most
, - Representative data on the most vulnerable is challenging. Vulnerable groups, that
you want data from, are hard and difficult to reach. They cannot be found or do not
want to be interviewed.
- Hard to attribute progress to specific policies when many things change at the same
time.
Indicator on the slides.
HDI: does not look at poverty and inequality. Looks at income, health and education.
Multidimensional Poverty Index: electricity access, sanitation, drinking water. not three
averages and combining them, but this looks at the individual level. If you lack a third of this
at individual level, your poor.
- There are a number of levels of poverty. There are different dimensions.
MPI looks also to individual poverty.
The HDI and MPI ignore consequences for future generations: how more stuff you have how
better your life is, how more the better. But this can have a negative effect on the next
generations. not sustainable
Ecological footprint: how much biologically productive area it takes to provide for all the
competing demands of people (in Hectares). there is an amount available for us, we are
using more than we have.
- Global level: there are 1,75 earths required to support current activities.
o If we all lived like the USA 5 earths are required.
ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS IN DEVELOPMENT?
Millennium Development Goals: 17 targets are set for 15 years. 5 are achieved. The other 12
targets are failed or got worse.
- Target 1: share of the world population living in Absolute Poverty: target is achieved
and done even better. But in Africa the number of people living in poverty is going
up, in South Asia and East Asia the poverty has declined enormous.
- Child mortality rate: decreasing since 1970.
HC2: geography
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LEAST DEVELOPED?
- Mostly in Africa: North-Africa and South-Africa are less poor. Centre Africa is the
poorest.
- India/South Asia.
- Asia and Latin-America are more poor than North-America, Europe and Australia, but
are less poor than Africa.
