Geography And Development

Arthur Morris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN: 9781135370879
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Geography

First published in 1998. Written in a highly accessible style, this book examines economic development processes across the world. The old certainties of what constitutes development and whether it is the same for all peoples, no longer exist. Goals once imposed by agencies like the World Bank are increasingly questioned, and the spatial development planning characteristics of the 1960s and 70s is increasingly seen as an intrusion into free and competitive markets. Indeed a question now being asked is: should development be promoted at all? This book examines these fundamental issues and presents and evaluates the different theoretical approaches to development. Each country has its own tale to tell and by using valuable case-study material, the author shows how different policies have impacted on the geography of regions. Processes of development in the newly industrialised countries (NICS) of South Korea and Singapore are examined as well as the flexible specialisation model characteristic of many Mediterranean countries and the post-industrial service economies based on high technology. The book argues convincingly that the fundamental spatial and temporal patterns of development in modern times are no longer the importance of physical resources, but the complex human resources and the determination to work. Anchored firmly in the needs of students this book will be widely welcomed by undergraduates taking courses in human geography and development studies.

CHAPTER 1
The nature of development

The drive for improvement in human conditions, in personal happiness and in social wellbeing, is innate in every society. It has been more openly expressed in the last 50 years, and that part of happiness which lies under social rather than individual control has been the object of endeavour by theorists and public agencies seeking to understand the processes involved and to control them. At the broadest level, these aspects of human improvement comprise what is involved in development.

Fifty years ago the term "development" was used largely in the context of economic change. Economic growth may be defined as the increase in production or consumption of a nation or a region, while economic development is the increase of such production or consumption by each person, putting growth onto a per capita basis. Economic growth may increase the weight of a nation in world affairs, but it may fail to make life any easier for its inhabitants. Economic development provides this increase in goods and services which may be felt by the population.

The geographic scale

As understanding of some of the complex links between economy and other human processes has increased, so the definition of development has been amplified from the purely economic to include other elements that lie within the scope of social action. The subject of development is also studied more widely, by economists still but also by sociologists, political scientists and geographers as well as other social scientists. In this work, we focus on the spatial aspects, and particularly at the regional, subnational level, although some of the observations concern whole countries, since these too may form geographical patterns. Regions that form large and economically, socially and culturally identifiable parts of a nation state are the obvious focus, because they have been the object of most analysis regarding spatial differences in development levels or wealth, and the object of policies which individual governments have put in place to modify these spatial differences. Differences within countries should be amenable to change through policy because this can be controlled by a single state; it is also seen as desirable to reduce these differences, for reasons of bringing common levels of equity to all of a country's people, and from the point of view of individual governments, to stem the possible rise of regionalist unrest which may otherwise grow into local nationalism and the move for separation from the mother state.

At certain points in the discussion it will be necessary, however, to look at a broader scale, that of whole nations. At this level, there are patterns, as for example in the case of East Asia, where a common thread of development processes seems to affect a whole set of countries following in the lead of Japan, and there is a perceptible spatial diffusion outwards from the Japanese core. Yet other kinds of regions, some no larger than the intra-national regions that are the usual object of study, can also be observed, as national boundaries are traversed in the development of some border regions, such as that between the USA and Mexico. Other regional groupings are those of key centres like Singapore and Hong Kong with industrial nodes at some distance from them, in mainland China or Indonesia. All these are economic regions that have defied the boundaries of the nation state, and in Chapter 3 we consider whether they are becoming more important than the regions within states.

The lost consensus on the development process

In the 1960s, it was seen as quite clear that economic development was a desirable aim for all countries, and that it was to be achieved by a set of standard measures, usually including a broad industrial plan to raise a country's level of production, its exports, and the diversity of products. It was also accepted that in the course of development, some regions of countries would lag behind, and that this was undesirable. Intervention by the state to assist in overcoming the differences that might build up was thought to be the best solution to this problem. A process of development was seen to include changes from economic activity concentrated in the primary sector (farming, fishing, forestry and mining) to a dominance of secondary activity (manufacturing), and then, in the later stages, to dominantly tertiary (services) or quaternary (research and development) activity. A spatial process was also identified, development (or at least technological change) starting in key cities and spreading out from them down the urban hierarchy and into rural areas. This process could be called a diffusion of development.

This diagnosis is no longer acceptable to many. On the one hand, the concept of economic development has itself broadened out to include people's social and environmental aims; different goals for different regions or countries are recognized; and the role of the state or of planners is questioned. On top of this the diffusionist model is doubted, and the accepted role of geographers in preparing the spatial diffusion models is undermined by the failure of these models in real life. It might be thought that these new uncertainties of the 1990s make it too dangerous or irrelevant to write about development from the geographer's point of view. But this book is intended to show that there are numerous aspects on which geographers have much to offer. For one thing, they are able, perhaps more than economists or ecologists or sociologists, to consider a large set of aims for development, including social and environmental aims alongside the economic ones. On the question of state involvement, geographers have a large range of examples from different countries to demonstrate the role of state versus individuals and other institutions. Finally, there remain important spatial aspects to development, even though the diffusionist model may be shown to be untenable or irrelevant to many specific cases.

The nature of development

In the 1940s and 1950s development was identified as a purely economic process. In fact, the term consistently used was "economic development", leaving aside any discussion of social, personal and other aspects. In the literature on the subject, most writings came from applied economists whose concern was for the betterment of production systems in the countries devastated by the Second World War, and thereafter in the world's poor countries, then identified often as the "developing countries" (indicating that they were moving forwards), the "underdeveloped countries" (with the idea of perhaps a more permanent state of affairs), or increasingly commonly, as the "Third World", referring to a political status outside the great power struggle between East and West, capitalism and communism, and identified by poverty.

In the late 1960s, development as a concept came increasingly to mean socioeconomic development, which meant that the old measure, gross national product (GNP) per capita, was inadequate to represent it. A complex of measures showing levels of education (more frequently of educational provision, which subtly alters the idea), medical aid, housing, and other goods and services which entered loosely into the concept of welfare, came into use. Since at that time, the height of the "welfare state", many of these elements were provided publicly in advanced countries, welfare measures inevitably emphasized the higher status of these countries, and at the same time made the case for more state involvement in development, to provide more welfare.

What might be termed a third phase of thinking in the 1980s has come with the further spread of the development concept, to include aspects of the environment such as freedom from pollution, whether atmospheric, noise, water, or visual landscape pollution. Access to countryside and the ability to enjoy a healthy lifestyle have been included in measures of quality of life, which also includes the older economic and social elements such as income levels, and welfare provision such as schooling and medical aid.

Many of these quality-of-life elements are of low importance to people in poor countries. First needs, or basic needs as they are termed in the literature, are for shelter, food and clothing. Beyond these, once they are satisfied, are the welfare elements; and beyond these again are the aspects of desirable environment, unpolluted air, or community spirit (Maslow 1954). What is observable is thus an evolution of needs, which matches the evolution of academic definitions of what development is about. For the advanced countries such as the USA, the environmental features and sense of community are likely to be valued very highly, as food and clothing are effectively taken for granted. In Brazil or Bangladesh, food and clothing are likely to feature as important aims for a significant segment of society. In the USA, states and cities could be and were compared in terms of their provision of a broad range of facilities which go to make up the quality of life (Cutter 1986). There are comparable studies of British cities done in the 1980s, where the numerous elements involved were weighted by consumer indications of their importance (Rogerson et al. 1989). Clearly the list of items here could be extended indefinitely, to include personal states of mind which also contribute to human happiness. In the geographical and sociological literature on the subject, however, attention has been confined to those elements that are available publicly, not individual matters which come into the realm of psychology. In common with the welfare geography emphasis, quality-of-life studies have generally concentrated on consumption aspects, which begs a question. It is always necessary, for city, region or country, to produce the conditions that allow consumption. Thus in recent decades, the attention of academics and planners may be said to have been somewhat diverted, by failing to concentrate sufficiently on the supply factors, resources, technology and human organization which allow development.

Processes

Apart from what is defined as part of development, briefly reviewed above, there is the question of what kinds of processes are involved. Most students would identify many interrelated processes, but the most important are likely to be: the growth of per capita income, whether measured as production or consumption; a series of demographic changes towards a modern society with small families and low death and birth rates; and a set of unbalancing features, including the concentration of population in a few cities, of industries, and rising inequalities between sectors of society and between regions of countries.

This view of the development process may be enlivened and given a time sequence by considering what Alonso (1980) identified as a collection of parallel evolutions, his "five bell shapes in development". In a period of development, he observed, there are several features which seem to move in the same way, rising to a peak and then subsiding. They are: (a) the economic growth rate; (b) the level of social inequality (between classes, occupations, races); (c) the level of regional inequality; (d) the level of geographic or spatial concentration (urban-industrial growth in a few big cities); and (e) the population growth rate, in demographic transition (from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates). It is important to note that these five bell shapes do not occur at the same time, and that they are closely related, although the relationships will vary between countries and regions. Alonso's impression was that geographic concentration is a first process, followed by economic growth and then by social and regional disparities over time.

In reality, the demographic transition may be posited as happening in radically different ways in advanced and poor countries, starting early in the poor countries because medical aid to death control arrived, from the exterior, before the rest of development, but finishing late as people failed to adopt Western cultural norms about family size. In the advanced countries, medical aid was only one of a number of technological improvements which occurred alongside one another, and this problem of separation did not occur.

On top of Alonso's bell shapes, there are the changing concerns of people mentioned earlier, shifting from such survival elements as food and clothing, to welfare and then to quality of life. Putting these into the frame, there is a broader picture of change. In traditional societies, the population and economy are dispersed, and dominant concerns are those of survival. In the next stage, of early development, there is the process of concentration of economic activity and population in towns and cities, accompanied by a shift to welfare concerns, since the new urban society does not provide mutual communal care as it did when people lived in small communities.

Awareness of social inequality and regional inequality grows over time as people become more educated and have the chance to observe other groups and other regions. Political parties, movements, and regionalisms or local nationalisms, may grow out of these concerns in a third stage. This will often provoke regional development policies as well as policies for the reduction of poverty or of differences between social groups.

In a later stage, the concerns move on to quality of life, and these concerns may be expressed in a reversal of the concentrations of industry and population, as technology permits decentralization and the movement of people out to more attractive rural surroundings. Counterurbanization, a move away from the big cities in a demographic and economic activity sense, is a feature of most West European countries, as it is of the USA. In some countries, such as the UK, this stage may be reached when there are still major concerns over regional or sectoral inequalities, so that the development drive exhibits a complex set of different aims for different groups in society. Thus Scotland, for example, presents strong local nationalism linked to cultural past as well as to the more recent industrial past. At the same time it is the recipient of inmigrants from England who are leaving the large cities and seeking better quality of life.

Space and time

Over the years, more sophistication has come to the understanding of the temporal and spatial processes of development. Two points may be made here which will be returned to again at various points in the discussion: development occurs in a lumpy, irregular form, first in time, and secondly in space. On the time dimension, W.W.Rostow (1960) set up a famous approximation to the development process by asserting that it could be compared to the take-off and ascending flight of an aeroplane. An even progression was portrayed, from preparation for take-off (among the poorest countries), taxiing for take-off, takeoff itself, and steep climb until cruising height (the mature, high-consumption economy) was reached. This idea, coming from an analyst of economic history and based largely on European experience, was soon questioned, and the dependency writers in particular claimed that development could not only be stalled, but even put into reverse, perhaps with a crash finish, although the aeroplane analogy was not pursued!

Another version of the irregularity over time has been in terms of waves. At various times, and more insistently in recent years, the concept has been advanced that development may be visualized in terms of waves of long duration, during which a particular technology is the lead and a number of products are associated with it. After the burst of development associated with one wave, there is a period of stagnation or retreat before the next. Kondratiev waves, as they are named, after the leading Russian exponent of the idea in the early twentieth century, contribute much to our understanding of development (Hall & Preston 1988). Another set of ideas which links in with this view is that of Schumpeter (1939), who showed how innovation linked to business. With a new technology, there is a rise in employment and income and a positive attitude towards ongoing research and innovation. As the products mature, there is less margin for improvement and competition reduces profitability, and many firms cease innovating. Replacing human labour with machines reduces incomes further and there are job losses. Finally, innovators perceive new opportunities, and people without jobs are very willing to take a risk and move on to a new technology. Each of the technologies uses new human and physical resources, so that development 'hits' on one or several regions, stays with it for a while, then moves, often quite quickly, to focus on a new region or regions with the best factor mix.

Regional development in Britain will be described in this book in terms of these waves (see Ch. 6), although it is shown in the same chapter that the equivalent process in Spain, while it is also an uneven process over space and time, does not correspond to this model. For the less developed countries, the process of development is so recent that the waves may be visualized as being virtually compressed into one. The general point, however, is the irregularity of development impulses over time and space.

A second point is that development is not a spaceless phenomenon, and it also occurs in lumpy form over geographic space. Specifically, it tends to be highly concentrated, especially, over the last 200 years, in urban-industrial nodes. Through a series of positive feedback loops, these nodes tend to be self-maintaining over a period. New industries are attracted to them because of a variety of advantages in provision of goods, information and services. In some cases, a diffusion outwards of their dynamism may occur, and in others the impulse of development is retained in a single centre, but the central fact is the clustering and cumulative nature of development changes: in geographic space, and in the abstract spaces of the financial and business worlds, allied to their clustering in time. This was the central point made by the studies of François Perroux, although his work was reinterpreted into a planning tool of dubious value by later workers (Perroux 1988). Concentration is thus a feature which is unavoidable, a point that needs to be borne in mind when we consider the various efforts of policy-makers to redistribute wealth or production in regional policies.

Another point which may be made about the spatial or regional effects of economic change is that each region, being smaller than the nation it belongs to, is liable to feel the effects of change more drastically, because in general it will have a narrower economy, relying perhaps on one important product, which itself comes from one or two major local resources. Each region has an economy, in the modern world, which is more fragile than the nation, and policies for helping development, if they are needed at all, are perhaps most needed at the local or regional level.

Anti-development

As economic change under capitalism has gone on since at least the time of the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, there have been a series of revolts against innovations. These varied from those attacking the introduction of machinery or new products (like the Luddites, a group of English workers who destroyed the textile machines that they rightly saw as destroying their own more primitive livelihoods, in a movement which ran from 1811 to 1814), to Utopians like Robert Owen, who sought the alleviation of poverty in the early nineteenth century through the creation of new communities on the frontier where they could reform society; and forward to the modern movements against standard development practice, such as the advocates of Development from Below, or the new environmental movements which ally protest against capitalism with concern for the environment.

At their most pessimistic, the protesters claim that modern changes, such as the liberalization of the economy being undertaken in Africa, bring negative development and impoverishment to large sectors of society, and particularly to the rural peasant groups. While these protest movements are well founded in reality for rural localities, they often bypass the main changes taking place in the economy to which they refer. Rural regression in Africa (Taylor & Mackenzie 1992) does not preclude u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The nature of development
• 2 Theories and models
• 3 Industries and firms
• 4 Social components of development
• 5 The service economy
• 6 Developed countries: the United Kingdom and Spain
• 7 Less developed countries: Argentina, India and the former Soviet Union
• 8 The newly industrialized countries: South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia
• 9 Regions in their own right
• 10 Geographers and development
• Bibliography
• Index