development studies

1. Emerging Trends in
Development Studies
Dhan Singh,
PGDM (RM),
XIMB

2. 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)

3. 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

4. • 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

5. • 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).

6. 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)

7. • 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)

8. 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)

9. 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

10. • 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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”

14. 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.

15. 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.