What is development?

1. What is development? JMS3 JDD 2006 From: Servaes

2. Common sense notions? • We hope it will overcome poverty, misery, powerlessness and disease and help put people in reach of a better “standard of living”.

3. Is development about economics? • Modernisation - development must be about growth and improved productive capacity (the power to produce more goods and services). • One could measure development in terms of health and education, but some argue that what has to underpin these things is a society’s ability to become more and more productive.

4. Is development about human needs? • Some argue that development cannot simply be measured by the amount of money we earn. • To what extent are basic human needs being met by society as a whole. • Eg. We are richer than Cuba, but we import their doctors and teachers.

5. How is development distributed? • Who determines how the increased profits of the global economy are being distributed? • Why is our economy losing jobs when we have a 3.5% growth rate? • Are the goods we produce (eg. armaments) appropriate or useful?

6. Is economic development linked to political development? • What is the relationship between democracy and development?

7. Underdeveloped vs. undeveloped? • Underdeveloped is mostly used to imply that some countries, regions or people have been actively ripped off by outside agencies and forces. Eg. Colonialism and neo-colonialism, globalisation. • In SA a systematic process of underdevelopment – dispossession, deskilling, denial of opportunities and capital and the economic effect of political, cultural and linguistic domination. • Undeveloped implies pristine situation.

8. Modernisation theory • Paradigm. Supported the transferring of technology and the sociopolitical culture of the developed societies to the ‘traditional’ societies. • Development = economic growth. • Developed Western societies are the ultimate models, which LDC or underdeveloped countries aspire to • Attitudes of ‘backward’ people (traditionalism, bad taste, superstition, fatalism) are obstacles • Bridging the gap, catching up. • Did not look at fundamental differences between countries (just the degree of development on a Western continuum)

9. Barriers to be removed in traditional society, in 5 ways: • ‘Demonstration’ – developing world adopts more advanced methods and techniques; • ‘Fusion’ – combination and integration of distinct modern methods; • ‘Compression’ – developing countries attempt to develop in less time than it took the developed world; • ‘Prevention’ – learn from errors made by developed world; • ‘Adaptation’ – adapt modern practices to the local environment and culture.

10. Massive transfer of capital, ideology, technology – worldwide Marshall Plan and Green Revolution. • Measures of progress – GNP, literacy, industrial base, urbanization. All quantifiable. • Modernisation accelerated the Westernisation of developing countries without much regard for the needs of the local peoples. • Widespread failure and discontent, especially in Africa. • Increased inequality, increased tension.

11. Dependency theory • Latin American roots. • Development and underdevelopment seen as two sides of the same coin. • Post-colonial dependence ensured by the reproduction of socioeconomic and political structures at the periphery in accordance with the interests of the centre of power. • Main interest of Western monopoly capitalism is to prevent, slow down, or control the economic development of underdeveloped countries.

12. Dos Santos 1970: • “Dependence is a conditioning situation in which the economies of one group of countries are conditioned by the development and expansion of others. A relationship of interdependence between two or more economies or between such economies and the world trading system becomes a dependent relationship when some cou tries can expand through self-impulsion while others, being in a dependent position, can only expand as a reflection of the expansion of the dominant countries, which may have positive or negative effects on their immediate development.” • Dependency: most important hindrance to development is not shortage of capital or management, but the present international system.

13. External, not internal obstacles. Development in the centre determines and maintains the underdevelopment in the periphery. 2 poles structurally connected to each other. • Peripheral countries should dissociate themselves from the world market and opt for self-reliant development strategy. • Need a revolutionary political transformation for this. • But, unlinking from the global information or economic system is not easy. • Indebtedness, too weak economically. • AU, SADC don’t provide regional economic communities like EU.

14. Multiplicity: another development • No universal path to development. • Development as an integral, multidimensional, and dialectic process which can differ from society to society. • But, a multi-perspective ‘another’ development still has core components:

15. 6 criteria: • Basic needs: meet human, material and non-material needs; • Endogenous: stemming from each society, which defines in sovereignty, its values and future vision; • Self-reliance: each society relies primarily on its own strength and resources; • Ecology: rationally utilizing resources – aware of potential of local ecosystems as well as the global outer limits imposed on present and future; • Participatory democracy: not merely government of the people and for the people, but also, by the people at all levels of society; • Structural changes: in social relations, in economic activities and their spatial distribution, as well as the power structure, so as to realise the conditions of self management and participation in decision-making.