What is Development, and how is it

achieved?

Introduction to Development Studies

25th January 2023
Solano Da Silva

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CLASS OBJECTIVE >>

What is development?

Development suggests that something is changing and

getting better, but what exactly is changing, and what is
desirable change?

Adapted from Viner, C (2014)

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CLASS OUTLINE >>

A chronological treatment of the topic:

• How has development been understood over time?

• What are the pathways to realise it?

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1. A framework >>

Intellectual
underpinning & Development
Time period Context
conceptualisation of Strategy
development
Intellectual tradition
Notion of development

Adapted from Stewart, F (2018)

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2. The evolution of an idea >> social transformation

Intellectual tradition Development

Time period Context
Goal of development Strategy
Hedonia
Politics as a
Ancient Greek City States Eudaimonia vehicle to
Greece Polises achieve such
Oikos social values
(House & Habitat)

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2. The evolution of an idea >> the idea of progress
Time period Context Intellectual tradition Development
Goal of development Strategy
Secularism Use of secular
Renaissance Humanism science and reason
1600 – 1800 Scientific-Rationalism to understand and
Reformation
progress improve society

Nature, and nature's laws lay hid in night

God said, let Newton be! and all was light
- Alexander Pope
“The sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle,
the order as a foundation, and progress as a goal.”
- Auguste Comte

Hegel's division of civilisation into: people's without history; 'rule

by one'; 'rule by the few' and 'rule by the many'.
(quoted in Gillen & Ghosh, 2007)

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2. The evolution of an idea >> social transformation
Time Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
period Goal of development
• Industrial development
(Social) Scientific Method in a laissez-faire political-
economy
Early Capital accumulation
1800s • Proletariat-led industrial
capitalism Smith: IRS under laissez-faire;
development
Marx: capitalist critique; science and
socialist development
• Culture (value systems
Weber: cultural change and capitalism
matter)
“...any increase in capital stock in a country generally leads to more than proportionate
increase in output on account of continually growing division of labour” - Adam Smith

[capital is not a thing but a definite social relations] “The means of production become capital...
only insofar as they have become separated from the laborer and confront labor as an
independent power” - Karl Marx

“Calvinist believers were psychologically isolated. Their distance from God could only be
precariously bridged, and their inner tensions only partially relieved, by unstinting, purposeful
labor.” – Max Weber (1864-1920)
2. The evolution of an idea >> social transformation

Intellectual tradition Development

Time period Context
Goal of development Strategy
Progressive Liberalism International aid
and global
End of WW-I
economic
1919 Est. of League of Global economic integration and integration via a
Nations (Western) assistance set of
institutions

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2. The evolution of an idea >> development economics revolution

Post-WWII Recovery (various countries)

John Maynard Keynes

Data Source: http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/historical_statistics/horizontal-

file_03-2007.xls

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2. The evolution of an idea >> early post-WWII
Time Context Intellectual tradition Development
period Goal of development Strategy
Keynesianism & Keynesian capitalism
Reconstruction economics
Early Socialist-Communism Foreign Aid &
1940s
Post-WWII Assistance
Material wellbeing via…
Socialist/Communist
“For the mere existence of an insufficiency of effective demand may, and often will, bring the
increase of employment to a standstill before a level of full employment has been reached”
– J. M. Keynes
“…we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific
advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of
underdeveloped areas…” - Truman four-point speech, 20th Jan 1949

“…the transition from capitalism to Socialism and the liberation of the working class from the
yoke of capitalism cannot be effected by slow changes, by reforms, but only by a qualitative
change of the capitalist system, by revolution. Hence, in order not to err in policy, one must be
a revolutionary, not a reformist.” - J. Stalin (1941)
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2. The evolution of an idea >> development economics revolution
Time Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
period Goal of development
Modernisation
Modernisation theory
Following linear
Weberian
(Western) trajectories of
Western capitalist economic
development
history
Decolonisation
Internal Structural Economic Transformation
1950s & Cold War rivalry Dual-sector Transfer of surplus
1960s Balanced and Unbalanced labour from primary to
Development investments secondary sectors
Economics
The Development of Underdevelopment
International Structuralism
Deteriorating Terms of Industrialisation under
Trade protection (ISI)
Dependencia
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3. The evolution of an idea >> critics of development economics
Time period Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
Goal of development

Mixed results of Neo-liberalism

Neo-classical economics State-failure replaced by
state-led
Market-led
industrialisation Global and National laissez- development
Oil shocks faire capitalism
Human-centric development development more
1970s Basic Needs Approach important than
Growth and
Development
industrialisation
w/o
Targeted investments in
improvements in Meeting people’s basic needs
and improving livelihoods health, education,
human lives
sanitation, etc.

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3. The evolution of an idea >> neo-liberal counter revolution
Time period Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
Goal of development
Mixed results of Counter revolution in
state-led growth development economics;
and monetarism & neo-classical
Market Liberalisation
industrialisation economics
Deregulation
Privatisation
Debt crisis
Development as (private Global integration
Washington capitalist) market-led growth
consensus
Late 1980s
Critical Theory Appreciation of
indigenous ways of life

Mixed results of Withdrawal from

all Development Development as a discourse development
initiatives which can be deeply
problematic Multiple values (other
than economic) and
pathways
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3. The evolution of an idea > Human Development & Anti-Development
Time period Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
Goal of development
Human Development &
Mixed results of Capabilities Development as
neo-classical
freedom (capability
models of Development as enhancing enhancement)
development human capabilities
1990s Continuation of Critical theory
exploitation, Post development
environmental future where other (non
degradation and Anti-development / post- development)
inequalities with development objectives are valued
development

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3. The evolution of an idea > Human Development & Anti-Development
Time period Context Intellectual tradition Development Strategy
Goal of development
Ecological studies with
Environmental economics Development without
affecting the lives of
Ecological crisis Sustainable development future generations

2000s Global warming

Deep ecology & ecological Ecological and social
Climate change economics nurture over efficiency
De-growth
Development as ecologically Prosperity without
and socially regenerative growth

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 REFERENCES

Gillen, P & Ghosh, D (2007) Colonialism and Modernity, Sydney: University of New South Wales
Press.

Rapley, J. (2007) Understanding Development: Theory and Practice in the Third World, New Delhi, Viva
Books. pp. 1-12.

Stewart, F (2018) in F. Stewart, G. Ranis and E. Samman, Advancing Human Development:

Theory and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-25.

Sumner, A. and Tribe, M. (2008) International Development Studies: Theories and Methods in Research
and Practice. New Delhi, Sage. pp. 9-30.

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