The Study of Development

What kind of discipline is development studies?

Introduction to Development Studies

18th January 2022
Solano Da Silva

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1. Academic Discipline >>
Discipline

▪ A corpus of knowledge (subject-matter)

▪ A system of rules
• Differentiate knowledge from non-knowledge
• Imparted by training

▪ Chastisement
• Correction intended to bring order
(Harriss 2002)

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CLASS OBJECTIVE >>

What kind of a discipline is development studies?

• How has development been inquired?
• How have we sought to theorise development?

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2. Three Broad Conceptualisations of Development >>
A) As social transformation
• Long-term, deep-rooted, sweeping, structural
change of a society(ies) as it(they) modernises

B) As deliberate planned social change

• Concerted, deliberate, structural/piecemeal policy-
oriented inquiries

C) As a dominant discourse
(Sumner & Tribe 2008)

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3. Inquiries into Social Transformation (Deep Social Change) >>
A) Adam Smith
• Moral Philosopher, founder liberal economics, and historian.

B) Karl Marx
• Philosopher, historian, economist and sociologist.

C) Max Weber
• Cultural sociologist

D) Karl Polyani
• Economic-anthropologist and economic-historian

E) Critics of development
• Humanities, literature, ecologists, geographers, etc.

(Sumner & Tribe 2008)

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4. Deliberate, planned social change >>
[Background] Contemporary origins policy-oriented social change

“…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’s 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)

Tension #1: conflicting models of industrial development

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5. Deliberate, planned social change and the dominance of economics
• Application of mainstream (western/industrialised)
economics to the developing economies

• Application of Keynesian & Reconstruction economics to

the developing economies

J M. Keynes (1930)
Photo by: Dorothea Lange (1936)

Tension #2: debates within economics about capitalist development

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5. Deliberate, planned social change and the dominance of economics

▪ Developing economies have their own specific conditions

• … which classical economics can neither grasp nor be
entirely applicable.

▪ Developing economies require different economic tools of

inquiry (c.f. Industrialised North)
• … and require different sets of solutions

Tension #3: debates within economics: mono-economics

v/s development economics

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6. Criticisms of Development Economics >>
▪ Tended to paint all developing economies with the same
brush… a new mono-economics!

▪ Examinations of studies on development successes/failures

suggested site or context-specific details.

Tension #4: the validity of development economic?

X New Mono

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6. Criticisms of Development Economics >> DEVELOPMENT v/s development

▪ Studies began to show that structural change or economic

growth does not mean better livelihoods

Tension #5: between large-scale Development and dealing with

specific problems of development

▪ Stress on basic human needs, livelihood issues, human

capital and strategies to deal with these.

▪ The question of causality

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7. The Qualitative Hardness of Anthropology >>
▪ [Goal] How do people understand the social world(s) they live in?

▪ [Methodological: Ethnography]

• Deep observation of people/societies in their contexts

• Understanding how people think (create meaning)

• Seeks to understand social processes (like development) in

terms of connections with social location, history and cultural
(belief) systems.

Tension #6: synthetic validity of economic theory v/s organic validity

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8. The Politics of Development >>

▪ [Insight] Differences in power and context often determine

distributive outcomes

• How is power distributed in society?

• Who are the main actors, institutions and interests?

• Who sets the agenda?

Tension #7: blindness to power configurations in

development theory

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8. The ecological turn >>

The Economy embedded in social institutions and the

ecosystem (Giuseppe Munda & J. Martinez-Alier) in
Munda (1997), p. 227.

Tension #8: abject failure to factor-in life support

systems in economic analysis

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9. Disciplinarity v/s multidisciplinarity >>
▪ Strong dominance of economics
• With internal tensions and contributions from Development
Economics, Heterodox economics and Ecological Economics.

▪ Strong contributions from:

• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Political studies
• Ecology
• Area studies
• Science & Technology Source: Tribe & Sumner 2004

Tension #9: disciplinarity (usually economics) and

multi-disciplinarity (contributions by social and natural sciences)

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9. DS and the Case for Cross-Disciplinarity >>

▪ Disciplines are productive:

• Repertoire of knowledge on development
• Set of rules to separate knowledge from opinion
▪ Disciplines are constraining:
• Rules can be restrictive
• Makers of the rules (rulers) can be repressive
• An obstacle to knowledge

▪ Rules of disciplines ought to be regularly brought under

critical inquiry and scrutiny.
▪ There is much to be gained from the tension between
discipline and healthy anti-discipline.
BIG LESSON: Disciplinary tension is good and productive when
understanding development. 15
10. What is Development Studies >>

▪ Normative commitment: to improve societies and human lives

▪ Intellectual commitment: to understanding social

transformations and more specifically – policy oriented – social
challenges

▪ Geographic scope: relative focus on global south but now

changing…

Source: Tribe & Sumner 2004

10. What is Development Studies >>

▪ Multi-disciplinary inquiry: Dominance of economics (of

various persuasions) but with strong contributions from
other social and natural sciences
• Seen as a subject rather than a discipline (debatable!)

▪ Theoretical shifts: from generalizability to heterogeneity

and context specific detail

▪ Meaning of development: different conceptualisations

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 REFERENCES

Williams, D. (2014) in Currie-Alder, B. et al (Eds.) International Development: Ideas, Experience, and

Prospects. New York, Oxford University Press. pp. 21-34.

Sumner, A. and Tribe, M. (2008) What Is The Purpose Of Development Studies? In Sumner,
A. and Tribe, M. International Development Studies: Theories and Methods in Research and Practice. New
Delhi: Sage. pp. 31-80.

Tribe, M. & Sumner, A. (2004) 'The Nature of Development Studies: An Exploration from the
Standpoint of the British-Irish Development Studies Association', paper prepared for DSA
Annual Conference, Church House, London, 6 November.

John Loxley (2004) What is Distinctive About International Development Studies?, Canadian
Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'études du développement, 25:1, 25-38, DOI:
10.1080/02255189.2004.9668958

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