Devlopment
- Submitted by: adanx009
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- Category: Politics: Economics
- Date Submitted: 12/09/2010 01:08 PM
- Pages: 7
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Understanding Development
For much of the world beyond the United States and Europe, the promise of economic prosperity post-war was revealed in one world: development. It was development that categorized nations into hierarchies in locating Third World countries at the bottom. Third world countries lack of development was attributed to inadequate technology, cultural backwardness, and undeveloped political and economic institutions. Development is seen as a process of transition from poor to rich, backwards to modern, uncivilized to civilized (Escobar, 38). This essay does not argue for what is the appropriate strategy for deployment; rather it challenges the concept of development. The first section discusses the birth of the theory of development, beginning with the discovery of global poverty after the Second World War. The second part explores development has been constructed in institutional practice. The third section turns to discussing the discourse of development.
Invention of Poverty
Most western concepts relating to economics or governance roots in the European renaissance during the enlightenment age when many scholars exchanged ideas. However, as Escobar mentions development is a recent phenomenon that was constructs post World War II (Escobar, 23). This birth of development started with the discovery of poverty. Poverty on a global scale was invented after World War II; before 1940 it was not an issue. This invention was recorded in the first World Bank reports. In the book, Planet Dialectics it states “according to the UN bureau of Statistics, average income per head in the United States in 1947 was over $1400, and in another 14 countries ranged between $400 and $900. For more than half of the world's population, however, the average income was less - and sometimes much less - than $100 per person” (Sachs, 1999). Poverty in this report was defined as any nation that was incredibly below the US economic standard and categorized Third...
For much of the world beyond the United States and Europe, the promise of economic prosperity post-war was revealed in one world: development. It was development that categorized nations into hierarchies in locating Third World countries at the bottom. Third world countries lack of development was attributed to inadequate technology, cultural backwardness, and undeveloped political and economic institutions. Development is seen as a process of transition from poor to rich, backwards to modern, uncivilized to civilized (Escobar, 38). This essay does not argue for what is the appropriate strategy for deployment; rather it challenges the concept of development. The first section discusses the birth of the theory of development, beginning with the discovery of global poverty after the Second World War. The second part explores development has been constructed in institutional practice. The third section turns to discussing the discourse of development.
Invention of Poverty
Most western concepts relating to economics or governance roots in the European renaissance during the enlightenment age when many scholars exchanged ideas. However, as Escobar mentions development is a recent phenomenon that was constructs post World War II (Escobar, 23). This birth of development started with the discovery of poverty. Poverty on a global scale was invented after World War II; before 1940 it was not an issue. This invention was recorded in the first World Bank reports. In the book, Planet Dialectics it states “according to the UN bureau of Statistics, average income per head in the United States in 1947 was over $1400, and in another 14 countries ranged between $400 and $900. For more than half of the world's population, however, the average income was less - and sometimes much less - than $100 per person” (Sachs, 1999). Poverty in this report was defined as any nation that was incredibly below the US economic standard and categorized Third...