Week 1
Tuesday, 12 October 2021 12:17 PM
Conceptual understanding of social development
Social development
- Greatly influenced by ideological orientations
- A practical and necessary task
- Often not clearly definable
○ The word often creates confusion among people
§ Causes the term to be taken lightly
- Doesn’t mean the development of one individual / one aspect of an
entity
○ Economic growth and development
- Categories for defining social development
○ Emphasizing systemic planning and link between social and
economic development
○ Bringing structural change is the core element of social
development
○ Realizing human potential meeting needs and achieving a
satisfactory quality of life
- 8 characteristics of social development
○ 4 address the issue of process
○ 4 refer to interdisciplinary theoretical bases / ideological
orientated strategies / an inclusive or university scape and
welfare goals of social development
- Lack of practical aspect in social development implementation
Historical origins
- Early civilizations
○ Ancient Chinese / Greek and Indian
○ Not a new concept
- Biological change ideas
○ Social development is not due to natural causes but conscious
human efforts to deal with consequences of natural changes
- Social / economic change ideas
○ Social change often viewed as advancement followed by decline
- Planned social change
○ Planned intervention for peoples welfare
○ Social development was originally planned intervention
- Colonial period and social and community development
, - Social / economic change ideas
○ Social change often viewed as advancement followed by decline
- Planned social change
○ Planned intervention for peoples welfare
○ Social development was originally planned intervention
- Colonial period and social and community development
○ Social development in colonies
○ Colonizers contributed to infrastructure development in
colonies
§ To promote a market in the colonies
○ Provided a fertile ground for practicing social development in
some colonies
○ Unsure whether it was planned
○ Watching the developments in decolonized nations prompted
Britain to coin the term social development
- United nations
○ Developed countries continued to lag behind developing
countries
○ Caused the UN to change their strategy of social development
to emphasize social services not just economic development
○ The UN's progress on social development encouraged other
organization / countries to adopt social development
- Publications of social development
○ Scholars and UN organizations begun to publish social
development issues
- Ideologies
○ Individualist / liberal
§ Gives importance to individuals
§ Emergence of neoliberals
□ Free market capitalism
§ Mother of capitalism
§ Very powerful and cause and cure of many social
problems
○ Populist
§ Emphasized people and their communities at local levels
§ Encouraged to form communities
§ Brings neglected groups together
§ Community development
§ Core aspect is participation
○ Collectivist / socialist
§ Emphasized collectives of people, collective ownership
of property and collective decision making
§ Based on thought that state embodies interests of society
as a whole
§ Idealistic
§ The state has played a large role in initiating social
development
Tuesday, 12 October 2021 12:17 PM
Conceptual understanding of social development
Social development
- Greatly influenced by ideological orientations
- A practical and necessary task
- Often not clearly definable
○ The word often creates confusion among people
§ Causes the term to be taken lightly
- Doesn’t mean the development of one individual / one aspect of an
entity
○ Economic growth and development
- Categories for defining social development
○ Emphasizing systemic planning and link between social and
economic development
○ Bringing structural change is the core element of social
development
○ Realizing human potential meeting needs and achieving a
satisfactory quality of life
- 8 characteristics of social development
○ 4 address the issue of process
○ 4 refer to interdisciplinary theoretical bases / ideological
orientated strategies / an inclusive or university scape and
welfare goals of social development
- Lack of practical aspect in social development implementation
Historical origins
- Early civilizations
○ Ancient Chinese / Greek and Indian
○ Not a new concept
- Biological change ideas
○ Social development is not due to natural causes but conscious
human efforts to deal with consequences of natural changes
- Social / economic change ideas
○ Social change often viewed as advancement followed by decline
- Planned social change
○ Planned intervention for peoples welfare
○ Social development was originally planned intervention
- Colonial period and social and community development
, - Social / economic change ideas
○ Social change often viewed as advancement followed by decline
- Planned social change
○ Planned intervention for peoples welfare
○ Social development was originally planned intervention
- Colonial period and social and community development
○ Social development in colonies
○ Colonizers contributed to infrastructure development in
colonies
§ To promote a market in the colonies
○ Provided a fertile ground for practicing social development in
some colonies
○ Unsure whether it was planned
○ Watching the developments in decolonized nations prompted
Britain to coin the term social development
- United nations
○ Developed countries continued to lag behind developing
countries
○ Caused the UN to change their strategy of social development
to emphasize social services not just economic development
○ The UN's progress on social development encouraged other
organization / countries to adopt social development
- Publications of social development
○ Scholars and UN organizations begun to publish social
development issues
- Ideologies
○ Individualist / liberal
§ Gives importance to individuals
§ Emergence of neoliberals
□ Free market capitalism
§ Mother of capitalism
§ Very powerful and cause and cure of many social
problems
○ Populist
§ Emphasized people and their communities at local levels
§ Encouraged to form communities
§ Brings neglected groups together
§ Community development
§ Core aspect is participation
○ Collectivist / socialist
§ Emphasized collectives of people, collective ownership
of property and collective decision making
§ Based on thought that state embodies interests of society
as a whole
§ Idealistic
§ The state has played a large role in initiating social
development
