GY202 WEEK ONE: THE IDEA OF DEVELOPMENT
DEFINITION – WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT
An improvement in society, ‘good change’ (Chambers, 1997)
• Often implies increased living standards, improved health and well being for all and/or any betterment for the good of
society.
Development is both a means and a goal, the final outcome is routinely assumed to be present at the onset of development.
Staudt, 1991 argues that the goal of development is to ‘enlarge choice’ (yet this requires a desire and capacity to choose +
knowledge of possibilities)
• A process of enlarging people’s choices; of enhancing ‘participatory democratic processes’ and the ‘ability of people to
have a say in the decisions that shape their lives’.
Empowerment?
• Seers, 1969: creating the conditions for the ‘realization of the potential of human personality’.
Dimensions
• An all-encompassing change rather than just improvement in one aspect.
• Embodies competing political aims, social values and contrasting theories of social change.
• May not always be positive
• A dynamic process: social progress can go forwards and backwards. Avoid teleological thinking
o Undoing of social progress: Detriot, USA rust belt. De-industrialization.
A process, involving social change
• Development builds on itself, where change is continuous
• Social change that affects the individual human being and requires human beings to develop themselves (morals, values,
ideas etc.) (Berman, 1997)
o Empowerment of people (especially the poorest) entails redistributing power and transforming institutions.
o Aspects of democracy
BIG D, LITTLE D?
Development as intentional, not just a background process of social change
o An institutional system designed to produce change e.g. trusteeship
o With range of projects, programmes or policies specially designed
development as change predates the idea of Development (Smith)
o Processes of growth and change associated with capitalism or capitalist development (immanent development through
internal dynamics)
o Unplanned changed (not driven by policymakers)
o Transition from agricultural to industrial society
o Dynamic growth and change inherent to capitalism
▪ Inner, inherent dynamics of capitalist industrialization include capacity to change society (with
economic output, incomes, technology, welfare)
o Urbanization, modernization
o ‘Shocks’ – economic crisis, political upheaval
o ‘Rise of the middle class’ in the Global South
DEFINITION – WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT
An improvement in society, ‘good change’ (Chambers, 1997)
• Often implies increased living standards, improved health and well being for all and/or any betterment for the good of
society.
Development is both a means and a goal, the final outcome is routinely assumed to be present at the onset of development.
Staudt, 1991 argues that the goal of development is to ‘enlarge choice’ (yet this requires a desire and capacity to choose +
knowledge of possibilities)
• A process of enlarging people’s choices; of enhancing ‘participatory democratic processes’ and the ‘ability of people to
have a say in the decisions that shape their lives’.
Empowerment?
• Seers, 1969: creating the conditions for the ‘realization of the potential of human personality’.
Dimensions
• An all-encompassing change rather than just improvement in one aspect.
• Embodies competing political aims, social values and contrasting theories of social change.
• May not always be positive
• A dynamic process: social progress can go forwards and backwards. Avoid teleological thinking
o Undoing of social progress: Detriot, USA rust belt. De-industrialization.
A process, involving social change
• Development builds on itself, where change is continuous
• Social change that affects the individual human being and requires human beings to develop themselves (morals, values,
ideas etc.) (Berman, 1997)
o Empowerment of people (especially the poorest) entails redistributing power and transforming institutions.
o Aspects of democracy
BIG D, LITTLE D?
Development as intentional, not just a background process of social change
o An institutional system designed to produce change e.g. trusteeship
o With range of projects, programmes or policies specially designed
development as change predates the idea of Development (Smith)
o Processes of growth and change associated with capitalism or capitalist development (immanent development through
internal dynamics)
o Unplanned changed (not driven by policymakers)
o Transition from agricultural to industrial society
o Dynamic growth and change inherent to capitalism
▪ Inner, inherent dynamics of capitalist industrialization include capacity to change society (with
economic output, incomes, technology, welfare)
o Urbanization, modernization
o ‘Shocks’ – economic crisis, political upheaval
o ‘Rise of the middle class’ in the Global South
