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Lecture GEOG 335 Fall 2007 Dec. 6, 2007. GEOG 335 Geographies of International Development. “You’ve come a long way, baby!”. Course Subtext: Dilemmas. Amidst critiques of development, in the face of “anti-development” arguments, what is our response?
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Lecture GEOG 335 Fall 2007 Dec. 6, 2007
GEOG 335Geographies of International Development “You’ve come a long way, baby!”
Course Subtext: Dilemmas Amidst critiques of development, in the face of “anti-development” arguments, what is our response? How dare we assume we should intervene? How dare we assume we shouldn’t?
“What is Development” Revisited • The Third World is hard to define in a manner that all can agree upon. • Development is also difficult, if not impossible, to define satisfactorily
Development/development “…‘big D’ Development [can be] defined as a post-second world war project of intervention in the ‘third world’ that emerged in the context of decolonization and the cold war, and ‘little d’ development [as] the development of capitalism as a geographically uneven, profoundly contradictory set of historical processes.” (Hart, 2001: 650, quoted in Lawson 2006: 3)
What is Development? We know it has to do with change, with improving people’s lives.
Who “does” Development? (Development Actors) • Who has Development “done” to them? (Development Subjects) Development actors/subjects
Colonial Imperialism • Slave trade • Resource extraction • Destruction of nations & communities • Political chaos • Impoverishment
Emergence of the Modern Development Project Truman’s 1949 Inaugural Address
Theoretical Underpinnings • Modernization Theory • Dependency Theory • Neo-liberalism • Keynesianism • Anti-development (Escobar) • Discourse
Other Issues • Measurements of Development • MDGs, • GDP, • Inequality, • Happiness • Debt Crisis, Debt Relief
Interventions, Scales, Approaches • Participatory Development • WID/WAD/GAD • Governance and Law • Single intervention (e.g., safe water) • Education • “Radical Politics” (Hickey & Mohan) • Social change, equity, empowerment, political participation for the marginalized
Your Response to the Guest Speakers? • Effectiveness of his/her work or scholarship? • Usefulness of his/her approach? • How many people can they reach? Can they scale up? Is their effect positive or negative? • Can you identify a theoretical position? • What are the major problems in their work? Are these outweighed by the benefits? • Would you a) donate to, or b) work for them?
Mirror, mirror… What do your responses to each guest speaker say about you?
There is much to be done… A balance-sheet of development and human well-being shows achievements and deficits. Power and poverty are polarized at the extremes, with a global overclass and a global underclass… …opportunities exist to make a difference for the better. The challenge is personal, professional and institutional, to frame a practical paradigm for knowing and acting, and changing how we know and act, in a flux of uncertainty and change. Chambers, Whose Reality Counts?, p.1.
Power of a Personal Response • It starts with your values, your approaches to life and to the world. • What will you do with your life? Will the world be a better place for your having been here? • What is your sense of the interconnectedness of things in the world? • Where does your responsibility lie?
My challenge to you:What will you do next? (I mean, after finals.)