Emerging Trends in Development Studies

Dhan Singh,

PGDM (RM),

XIMB

What is ‘development’?

• ‘Development’ means just ‘good change’ (Chambers, 1997)

• Development also implies increased living standards, improved health and well-being for all & achievement of whatever is regarded as a general good by society

• Meaning of term ‘development’ despite its widespread usage, remains vague, tending to refer to a set of beliefs and assumptions about the nature of social progress(Rist ,2004)

A brief history of ‘development’

2nd World Conference of

Communist International

President Truman’s plea for a “bold new program” of

tech. aid to backward areas

DS emerged ; ‘Development ‘

conceptualized as modernization

1st major journal of DS: ‘Economic

Development & Cultural Change’

1920 1949 1940s 1952

• Rostow’s account of ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’

There is common pathway to development which has to be trod by all countries intent on becoming modern (Rostow,1960)

Traditional society

Preconditions for take-off

Take-off

Drive to maturity

Age of high mass consumption

• Dependencia tradition

• Counter-revolution:

Main proponents:Friedman, Bhagwati, Deepak Lal

‘Trade not aid’, ‘privatization not nationalization’

Critiqued for simplistic account of nature of ‘real’ markets

• ‘Post-development’ school claims that, at best, development has failed, or at worst it was always a ‘hoax’, designed to cover-up violent damage being done to the so-called ‘developing’ world & its people (Thomas,2000).

What is‘Development Studies(DS) • DS: study of those countries that have a past in

common, if not a common past

• DS has expanded so much in past two-three decades that it is in danger of losing its claim to distinctiveness (catch-all DS)

• Greater need for interdisciplinary view of development, as opposed to development economics/sociology/geography

• Vision of DS based on a single principle(adapted from Max

Weber) that true function of social science is to render problematic that which is conventionally regarded as self-evident

• Source: Corbridge (2002)

• Shift away from metanarrative to current interest in institutions, feminism, democracy, empowerment, postmodernism, privatization

• Growing disenchantment

• ‘Irrelevance of DS’ (Edwards,1989,1994)

• Challenge the very idea of ‘development’

• Anti-development thinking: • Orientalism;

• West is a source of ‘disease’ which threatens to infect the more authentic & sustainable livelihood systems of ‘less-developed’ countries (Shucking & Anderson,1991)

General Trends in Development Theory

From To

Macro-structures Actor-orientation, agency, institutions

Structuralism Constructivism

Determinism Interpretative turn, contingency

Generalizing, homogenizing Differentiating

Singular Plural

Eurocentrism Polycentrism,multipolarity

Source: Pieterse (2010)

Trends in development theory • Shift in development thinking from structuralism to

constructivism

• Emphasis on agency Thinking becomes Spatialized ,Regional or Local

Concern for Differentiation & Diversity

• Trend in methodology is towards interdisciplinarity : Increasing awareness that development demands a multidimensional, holistic approach

• Greater role of discourse analysis

• Intersectoral Cooperation

• Unit of Development is changing (become multilevel, not simply at national level)

• Culture incorporated into DS but in a subsidiary fashion

‘add culture & stir’

World Decade on Culture & Development(UNESCO) spurred the growing concern for of development cultural dimensions

• DS needs good theory but it depends even more on the willingness to engage in reasoned argument & due consideration of other points of view

Trends in DS • Mainstream in DS & policy today is probably best

characterized by its commitment to making effective states & effective markets work in tandem by means of efficient local institutions

• People are generally empowered by development, by providing employment & satisfying basic needs (World Bank,1994)

• New DS emerging since 1990s concerned with infrastructure for development & the institutions through which this infrastructure is best provided (World Bank,1994)

• Greater emphasis on role of institutions & institutional incentives in promoting sustainable development (Ostrom, Schroeder & Wynne,1993)

Emerging Trends in a Nutshell

• Rise of the South

• Growth of south-south relations in trade, energy, & politics

• Growing role of leading emerging societies (including BRIC)

• Sovereign wealth funds from the global south

• Democratization of development politics

Concluding Thought

• Keynes dictum (slightly amended) emphasizes link between development theories & policies:

“the ideas of development workers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood”

References • Chambers, R. (1997) Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last,

Intermediate Technology Publications,London. • Corbridge,S.(2002). Development Studies : A Reader. Arnold.Hodder

Headline Group .London. • Edwards, M.(1989).The Irrelevance of Development Studies.Third World

Quarterly 11,116-35. • Edwards,M. (1994).Rethinking social development: the search for

‘relevance'. In Booth.(ed.),Rethinking social development: Theory, research and practice.Harlow:Longman,279-97.

• Meadows,D.H., Meadows,D.L., Randers,J. & Behrens,W. III (1972) The Limits to Growth, Earth Island Ltd, London.

• Ostrom, E.,Schroeder,L., & Wynne,S.(1993).Institutional Incentives and Sustainable Development: Infrastructure Policies in Perspective. Boulder:Westview.

• Pieterse,J.N. (2010). Development Theory. Second Edition. Sage.New Delhi. • Polanyi,K.(1994,1957) The Great Transformation: the political and

economic origins of our time,Beacon Press,Boston. • Rostow,W. (1960).The Stages of Economic Growth : A non-communist

Manifesto. London:CUP.

References • Sen,A.(1990) ‘Development as capability expansion’,in Griffin ,K. & Knight,J. (eds)

Human Development and the International Strategy for the 1990’s,Macmillan,London.

• Shucking, H. & Anderson, P.(1991). Voices heeded and unheeded. In Shiva, V.(ed.),Biodiversity: Social and ecological perspectives.London:Zed,13-41

• Sumner, A. (2006). ‘What is Development Studies?’ ,Development in Practice, Volume 16,Number 6,644-650.

• Sumner, A. (2010). International Development Studies: Theories & methods in Research & Practice. Sage.New Delhi.

• Thomas, A. (2000). Meanings and Views of Development. In: Allen,T. And Thomas, A. ed. (2000) Poverty and Development into the 21st Century. New Delhi: The Open University in association with Oxford University Press.

• World Bank (1994) World Development Report: Infrastructure for Development, World Bank, Washington, D.C.

• World Bank (2009) World Development Report: Reshaping Economic Geography, World Bank, Washington, D.C.