An Introduction

What is Authentic
Development?
 • Development theories have their
roots in mid-20th century optimism
about the prospects that large parts
of the post-colonial world could
eventually “catch-up” and resemble
Western countries.
Development • After the last remains of European
Theories empires in Africa and Asia crumbled in
the 1950s and 1960s, a dominant
question in policy and academic
quarters was how to address the
abysmal disparities between the
developed and underdeveloped
worlds. 

from Waisbord, Silvio. 053001. "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication:
Converges and Differences"
 • Old
– Development originally meant the process
by which Third World societies could
become more like Western developed
societies as measured in terms of political
system, economic growth, and educational
levels (Inkeles & Smith 1974).
– Development was synonymous with
political democracy, rising levels of
productivity and industrialization, high
literacy rates, longer life expectancy, and
the like.
– The implicit assumption was that there was
one form of development as expressed in
developed countries that underdeveloped
societies needed to replicate.

from Waisbord, Silvio. 053001. "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication:
Converges and Differences"
 • New
• Sen’s “Capabilities” Approach: “The capability to
function is what really matters for status as a poor or
nonpoor person. Economic growth cannot be sensibly
treated as an end in itself. Development has to be more
concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the
freedoms we enjoy.” – Amartya Sen, 1998 Nobel laureate
in Economics
• Poverty cannot be properly measured by income or
even by utility as conventionally understood; what
matters is not the things a person has or the
feelings these provide—but what a person is, or can
be, and does, or can do.
• “Capabilities” – the freedom that a person has in
terms of the choice of functionings, given his/her
personal features (conversion of characteristics into
functionings) and his/her command over
commodities.
• 3 Core Values:
• Sustenance: to meet basic needs
• Self-Esteem: to be a person
• Freedom from servitude: to make free
choices

from Waisbord, Silvio. 053001. "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies and Strategies in Development Communication:
Converges and Differences"
Development Studies
• Deals with the way in which changes in how society works support or
obstruct the greater realization of human potential
• Concentrates mainly on issues that are particularly relevant to the
economically less developed countries and emphasises how
economic, environmental, social and political processes interact
• To make students aware of the local, regional, national and
international issues that affect development so that they can take a
more informed and positive role in shaping the societies in which
they live
Development Economics
Economics
• Concerned with the least-cost
allocation of scarce productive
resources & the optimal growth of
these resources over time
• Deals with an advanced capitalist
world of perfect markets,
consumer sovereignty, automatic
price adjustment, decisions made
on marginal basis, private-profit
and utility; equilibrium outcomes
in all product & resource markets
• Assumes “rationality”
Political Economy
• study of social & political
processes through which certain
groups of economic & political
elites influence the allocation of
scarce productive resources now
& in the future, either for their
own sole benefit or for the good
of all
• concerned with the relationship
between politics & economics and
the role of power in economic
decision-making
• viewing economic activity in a
political context
Development Economics
(last 50 years only)
• aside from being concerned with
the efficient allocation of scarce
resources, it is also concerned
with the economic, social,
political & institutional
mechanisms to bring about rapid
& large-scale improvements in
the levels of living of all peoples
• Requires larger government role
& coordinated economic decision-
making for economic, cultural,
political and social transformation
towards this end
What is Development?
• Based on traditional economic measures (before 1970s):
– The capacity of a national economy, whose initial economic condition has been
more or less static for a long time, to generate and sustain an annual increase in
its gross national product (GNP) at rates of around 5-7% or more. (A measure
similar to GNP, the GDP or gross domestic product, is also used.)
– Alternative economic index of development: income per capita or per capita GNP,
which takes into account the ability of a nation to expand its output at a rate faster
than its population growth
– Also seen in terms of the planned alteration of the structure of production and
employment so that agriculture’s share of both declines and that of the
manufacturing and service industries increase. Thus, development strategies have
focused on rapid industrialization, often at the expense of agriculture and rural
development.
• still on traditional economic measures:
– Also supplemented by casual reference to
noneconomic social indicators: gains in
literacy, schooling, health conditions and
services, and provision of housing, for
example. (see United Nations Human
Development Index or HDI)
– Generally seen as an economic phenomenon
in which rapid gains in overall and per
capital GNP growth would either “trickle
down” to the masses in the form of jobs or
other economic opportunities or create the
necessary conditions for the wider
distribution of the economic and social
benefits of growth. Problems of poverty,
discrimination, unemployment, and income
distribution were of secondary importance to
“getting the growth job done”.
 Development
as growth

Development as
growth
Development as a result of the “trickle-down”
approach
 But then, there’s
still hunger,
prostitution,
But then, there’s drug addiction...
still hunger,
prostitution,
drug addiction...
 ... hard, poorly-
paid labor;
vagrancy...
... hard, poorly-
POVERTY!
paid labor;
vagrancy...
POVERTY!
Full, Abundant Life
Jean Lee C. Patindol, c2011
• In the 1980s and 1990s the situation worsened as GNP growth rates
turned negative for many least-developed countries (LDCs) and
governments, facing mounting foreign-debt problems, were forced
to cut back on their already limited social and economic programs.
• Also, in the 1990s, nor can we count on high rates of growth in the
developed world to trickle down to the poor in developing countries.
When the US, the UK and other high-income countries enjoyed a
strong economic boom, average incomes declined in sub-Saharan
Africa, and the number living in the region in extreme poverty (at
less than $1 per day) rose by some 50 million people.
• New economic view:
– The experience of the 1950s and
1960s, where many developing nations
did realize their economic growth-
targets but the levels of living of the
masses of people remained unchanged
(underdevelopment) signalled that
something was very wrong with the
narrow traditional definition .
– In the 1970s, economic development
came to be redefined in terms of
reduction or elimination of poverty,
inequality and unemployment within
the context of a growing economy.
(“Redistribution from Growth” slogan)
• “The questions to ask about a country’s development are therefore:
• What has been happening to poverty?
• What has been happening to unemployment?
• What has been happening to inequality?

If all three of these have declined from high levels, then beyond doubt this has been
a period of development for the country concerned.
If one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially if all
three have, it would be strange to call the result ‘development’ even if per capital
income doubled.”

– Dudley Seers in Todaro’s Economic Development, 8th ed.

(Sustainable)Development
• Must be conceived of as a multidimensional process involving major
changes in social structures, popular attitudes and national
institutions, as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the
reduction of inequality, and the eradication of poverty.
• Must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social
system, tuned to the diverse basic needs and desires of individuals
and social groups within that system, moves away from a condition
of life widely perceived as unsatisfactory toward a situation or
condition of life regarded as materially and spiritually better.
Sen’s “Capabilities” Approach
“The capability to function is what really matters for status as a poor or nonpoor
person. Economic growth cannot be sensibly treated as an end in itself.
Development has to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the
freedoms we enjoy.” – Amartya Sen, 1998 Nobel laureate in Economics
Poverty cannot be properly measured by income or even by utility as
conventionally understood; what matters is not the things a person has or the
feelings these provide—but what a person is, or can be, and does, or can do.
To make any sense of the concept of human well-being in general, and poverty in
particular, we need to think beyond the availability of commodities and consider
their use or “functionalities”.
“Capabilities” – the freedom that a person has in terms of the choice of
functionings, given his/her personal features (conversion of characteristics into
functionings) and his/her command over commodities.
3 Core Values of Development
• Sustenance – the ability to meet basic needs; “to have enough in order to be more”

• Self-esteem – to be a person; a sense of worth and self-respect, of not being used as a

tool by others for their own ends
– the nature and form of this self-esteem may vary from society to society and from culture to culture.
However, with the proliferation of the “modernizing values” of developed nations, many societies in
developing countries that have a profound sense of their own worth suffer from serious cultural
confusion when they come in contact with economically and technologically advanced societies.

• Freedom from servitude – to be able to choose; emancipation from alienating material

conditions in life and from social servitude to nature, ignorance, other people, misery,
institutions, and dogmatic beliefs, especially that one’s poverty is one’s predestination.
3 Objectives of Sustainable Development
• To increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life-
sustaining goods such as food, shelter, health and protection
• To raise levels of living, including, in addition to higher incomes, the
provision of more jobs, better education, and greater attention to
cultural and human values, all of which serve not only to enhance
material well-being but also to generate greater individual and national
self-esteem
• To expand the range of economic and social choices available to
individuals and nations by freeing them from servitude and dependence
not only in relation to other people and nation-states but also to the
forces of ignorance and human misery
 Values play an important role in
development economics.

Seeing economies as social systems; there

Important are interdependent relationships between
economic and non-economic factors.
Paradigms • Social systems are the organizational and institutional
structure of a society, including its values, attitudes,
power structures and traditions.

The central role of women in development

7 Factors
Affecting
Average FAMILY
RELATIONSHIPS
FINANCIAL
SITUATION
WORK COMMUNITY
AND FRIENDS

National
Happiness
(Richard HEALTH PERSONAL PERSONAL

Layard)
FREEDOM VALUES
Basic Concepts

DEVELOPMENT – THE DEVELOPING TRADITIONAL DEVELOPMENT ABSOLUTE POVERTY – SUBSISTENCE GLOBALIZATION – THE
PROCESS OF COUNTRIES – ECONOMICS - ECONOMICS - STUDY A SITUATION OF BEING ECONOMY – AN INCREASING
IMPROVING THE COUNTRIES (USUALLY APPROACH TO OF HOW ECONOMIES UNABLE TO MEET THE ECONOMY IN WHICH INTEGRATION OF
QUALITY OF ALL FOUND IN ASIA, ECONOMICS THAT ARE TRANSFORMED MINIMUM LEVELS OF PRODUCTION IS NATIONAL
HUMAN LIVES AND AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST, EMPHASIZES UTILITY, FROM STAGNATION INCOME, FOOD, MAINLY FOR ECONOMIES INTO
CAPABILITIES BY LATIN AMERICA, PROFIT TO GROWTH, FROM CLOTHING, HEALTH PERSONAL RAPIDLY-EXPANDING
RAISING PEOPLE’S EASTERN EUROPE AND MAXIMIZATION, LOW-INCOME TO CARE, SHELTER AND CONSUMPTION AND INTERNATIONAL
LEVELS OF LIVING, THE FORMER SOVIET MARKET EFFI- CIENCY, HIGH-INCOME STATUS, OTHER ESSENTIALS THE STANDARD OF MARKETS
SELF-ESTEEM AND UNION) AND DETERMINATION AND TO OVERCOME LIVING YIELDS LITTLE
FREEDOM CHARACTERIZED BY OF EQUILIBRIUM. THE PROBLEMS OF MORE THAN BASIC
LOW LEVELS OF ABSOLUTE POVERTY NECESSITIES OF LIFE–
LIVING AND OTHER FOOD, SHELTER,
DEVELOPMENT CLOTHING
DEFICITS; A SYNONYM
FOR “LESS DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES”
Income per capita - Total gross national income of a country divided by its
total population.

GNI (Gross National Income) - The total domestic and foreign output claimed
by residents of a country. It comprises gross domestic product (GDP) plus
factor incomes accruing to residents from abroad, less the income earned in
the domestic economy accruing to persons abroad (formerly, GNP)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - The total final output of goods and services
produced by the country’s economy, within the country’s territory, by
residents and nonresidents, regardless of its allocation between domestic
and foreign claims.

Functionings - what people do or can do with the commodities of given

characteristics that they come to possess or control; they are an achievement
and are different from having goods and having utility

Sector - A subset (part) of an economy, with four usages in economic

development: technology (modern and traditional sectors); activity (industry
or product sectors); trade (export sector); and sphere (private and public
sectors)
“Human well-being is
being well.”
- Amartya
Sen