8.

2 The programme of development

Quantitative change

Increasing incomes Increasing material goods

Economic growth Modernization Increasing consumption

Increasing human wellbeing

Development

Providing basic needs

Expanding human capabilities Empowerment Expanding choices Enhancing human rights

Redistribution Increasing participation

Enhancing freedoms

Qualitative change

Figure 8.2 Changing conceptions of development

Source: Geographies of Development, 2nd edn, Potter, R.B., Binns, T., Elliott, J.A. and Smith, D., 2004, p.16. Pearson Education Limited.

encompassing broader social and political goals such as quality of life, choice, empowerment and human rights (Potter et al., 2008, pp.1617). The work of the Nobel Prize-winning, Indian-born economist, Amartya Sen, has been particularly important in advancing the idea of development as freedom. Through factors such as better education, increased political participation and free speech, working alongside the process of economic

growth, people are liberated from unfreedoms such as starvation, undernourishment, oppression, disease and illiteracy. This broader conception of development is reflected in the evolution of development indicators with more emphasis now focused on assessing social and political aspects of development alongside the economic dimension (Box 8.2).

Box 8.2
Measuring development
As indicated above, the main economic measures of development are GDP and GNP, usually expressed on a per capita basis. GDP is a measure of the total value of goods and a service produced within a country, while GNP also includes income generated from investments abroad, but excludes profits repatriated by foreign MNCs to their home countries. GDP and GNP were the key measures employed by international development agencies in the post-war era, but began to attract criticism from development activists and analysts in the late 1960s and

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Geographies of development

Box 8.2 (continued)

1970s for neglecting social aspects of development. They remain important, however, providing a useful summary measure of development, emphasizing the divide between the global north and south, and growing divergence between the regions of the south (Section 8.4). A wide range of social indicators of development was published in the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on issues such as poverty, education, health and gender. The proliferation of these social indicators threatened to generate considerable confusion, however, as different measures could be used to show different things, and it was almost always possible to find some statistics to prove a particular argument (Potter et al., 2008, p.9). What seemed to be required was some kind of summary measure constructed out of key economic and social indicators. The development of the Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations Development Programme

Dimension Indicator

A long and healthy life Life expectancy at birth

Knowledge Adult literacy rate Gross enrolment ratio (GER) Adult literacy index GER index Education index

A decent standard of living GDP per capita (PPP US$)

Dimension index

Life expectancy index

GDP index

Human development index (HDI) Figure 8.3 Calculating the Human Development Index (HDI)
Source: Calculating the Human Development Indices, p.340 from International cooperation at a crossroads: aids, trade and security in an unequal world, by Human Development Report. By permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

High Medium Low

Figure 8.4 The UNDP Human Development Index

Source: UNDP, 2005, pp.21921.

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8.3 Theories of development

Box 8.2 (continued)

(UNDP) published annually since 1990 in the Human Development Report has met this need, becoming widely used and adopted. The HDI measures the overall achievement of a country in three basic dimensions of human development longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living (UNDP, 2001, p.14). The specific measures used are life expectancy, educational attainment (adult literacy and combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment) and GDP per capita in US dollars (Figure 8.3). A separate ratio is calculated for each of the three dimensions, where the actual value is divided by the maximum possible one (for life expectancy, 85; for GDP per capita US$40,000), giving a value between 0 and 1. The HDI is then calculated as the simple average of the three dimension indices (UNDP, 2004). In recent years, is has been supplemented by the development of other related indexes, including the Human Poverty Index, the Gender Related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). Countries with HDI scores above 0.8 are classified as high human development; ones with scores between 0.5 and 0.8 as medium human development; and ones with scores below 0.5 as low human development (Figure 8.4).

Reflect
To what extent should development be led by
external northern agencies such as the World Bank, IMF and NGOs?

8.3 Theories of development

8.3.1 The modernization school
The modernization school approach was dominant in 1950s and 1960s, shaping and informing the efforts
5 Age of high mass consumption

Savings and investment in industry

Drive to maturity

Take-off

2 1 Traditional society Preconditions for take-off

Time
Figure 8.5 Rostows stages of economic development
Source: Geographies of Development, 2nd edn, Potter, R.B., Binns, T., Elliott, J.A. and Smith, D., 2004, p.91. Pearson Education Limited.

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