International Development in a Changing World

Theo Papaioannou, Melissa Butcher

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781780932378
• eBook ISBN: 9781780932354
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

International Development in a Changing World introduces key issues, debates and ideas about development in the 21st century. Uniquely interweaving international relations and development studies, the authorial team examines the contested concepts of poverty, inequality and livelihood, and the emergence of 'new powers' that will affect the architecture of international development. Themes of power and agency, history and scale integrate the many stories of development covered in the book, highlighting development as a complex process of change and interaction between people as well as between people and institutions, including governments and non-governmental organizations. Interdisciplinary in character, the book incorporates theories and tools from across the social sciences to provide a more holistic understanding of the social, economic and political transformations involved than most textbooks in the field can offer. Chapters are designed to inform policy and practice, moving from the theoretical to look closely, using a series of case studies, at the deliberate actions of people to improve their livelihoods, communities and societies. International Development in a Changing World is the first of two books in The Open University's International Development series. Whether used as a stand-alone text, or alongside its companion text: New Perspectives in International Development, this is an ideal introduction to the field for students of International Development, International Relations, Global Politics and Global Social Policy.

1 Introducing international development

William Brown and Rebecca Hanlin

Introduction

There are many reasons to study international development. You may have become interested in the subject because you want a better understanding of the changing world in which we live and the reasons behind the multiple problems or issues that we face. You may have come into this field through a career-related sideways step, from banking or working in agriculture or the healthcare sector, for instance. Or your motivations for studying international development could be a combination of these and other reasons. For many of us who study or work in the field of international development, the interest is also because we want to see change for the better in the world. For many people all over the world, if not all of us, ‘development’ is also part of everyday life.

From a long-term perspective, studying ‘development’ might mean studying what the historian Eric Hobsbawm called the ‘central historical question’ (Rosenberg, 2006). Given that humans have remained biologically much the same since the Stone Age:

[...] how did humanity get from caveman to space-traveller, from a time when we were scared by sabre-toothed tigers to a time when we are scared of nuclear explosions?

(Hobsbawm, 1997, p. 40)

Studying development in this sense means asking how we understand, explain and evaluate the huge economic and political transformations that societies have undergone, and the technological and cultural changes that form such an important part of those transformations.

Alternatively, with a somewhat more focused view, studying development might imply finding out about the efforts of people at national, international or local community level to make improvements in their own and others’ lives. This kind of ‘intentional’ change concerns the wish that many of us no doubt have about being part of something good, working with other members of our communities both locally and globally to promote change. Development here implies actions aimed at achieving something that is desirable or progressive.

This chapter, and this book, will address both views – the broad social transformations that development involves, and the more focused, deliberate actions to improve livelihoods, communities and societies. Indeed, as you will see in this chapter, the word ‘development’ has different and contested meanings. Certainly, ‘development’ relates to social change in some way, whether to an event (‘there’s been a new development’) or to cumulative change over time (‘this developed out of that’). In fact, it can be seen as both an ‘unplanned’ process of change as well as something that is intended, i.e. the outcome of deliberate collective decisions. In both forms, ‘development’ is acknowledged in day-to-day practice – in its own field of study, its own budget line in national accounts, in dedicated charities, state agencies and private companies and in areas of social action such as ‘international aid’ or ‘community development’.

A central aim of this chapter, then, is to explore some of the different meanings of the word ‘development’ and Section 1.1 will be returning to these ideas of ‘unplanned’ and ‘intentional’ change, where we will also be asking about the different, and equally contested, goals of development. However, we also want to explore the idea of international development, that is, asking why, and how, we should think about development as an inherently international issue and this is discussed in Section 1.2.

In summary, the aims of the chapter are to:

• explore some of the different meanings of the term ‘development’
• investigate the ways in which development is an international process.

While a fair amount of ground is covered in this chapter, we aim to introduce you to some ways of thinking about these issues rather than definitive accounts of them, while the following chapters in this book provide deeper explorations. Here we aim to offer a way of beginning to think about the subject of international development in a changing world and the debates and puzzles it presents us with today.

1.1 What is development?

In many accounts, the idea of development relates to the notion of human progress – of a betterment or improvement in society – and that development is inherently ‘good change’ (Chambers, 1997). However, as Thomas (2000) has pointed out, even this somewhat bland definition leads to a series of other questions. These relate to the goals of development: for example, what is the end point or direction of travel that is seen to be good? They also relate to the routes to get there: for example, what kinds of development practice will help us achieve those goals? This section sets out one way to think about the diverse meanings that development has. To do this we will make a broad working distinction between the ‘goals’ of development and the ‘routes’ to development. The term ‘development goals’ attempts to identify some of the very different ideas about what it means to become developed. The term ‘routes to development’ tries to differentiate some of the different ways in which societies, communities and people develop, i.e. what the ‘practice’ of development amounts to. First, though, look at Activity 1.1, which identifies different claims about what development ‘is’.

Activity 1.1

Read the statements below and identify which of them, for you, encapsulate what development means. (You can choose more than one.) You will return to this activity at the end of the chapter, so keep a note of your answers so you can compare what you think now and what you think at the end.

• Development means progress and good change.
• Development is about industrialization, adopting new technology and becoming a modern country.
• Development means reducing poverty and improving education, health and social welfare.
• Development is something that only concerns the poorer countries of the world.
• Development is about achieving higher economic growth.
• Development involves conflict, including violent conflict.
• Development is something that happens in each country individually.

Do not spend more than 15 minutes on this activity.

Show discussion

End of activity.

In fact, people disagree as to whether most processes of change in society are good or bad, not least because change will almost inevitably involve winners and losers, so development is an inherently contested process. One of the most important questions to ask of any process of change – especially where some people are claiming such change is ‘progress’ – is who benefits and who loses from this process.

Road building in Africa might be a case in point. In 2010 the Chinese government provided millions of pounds worth of investment into infrastructure projects in Africa, including the building of a new ring road around Nairobi in Kenya (see Figure 1.1).

This new road was designed to ease congestion in Nairobi, enhancing the productivity of Nairobi-based businesses. However, there was concern that this investment was part of a business deal that allowed China access to Kenya’s consumers through import of its own goods, and which therefore would have a detrimental impact on local manufacturers. Similar questions about winners, losers and progress arise in respect of other development projects. Large-scale dams in India and China, seen by their governments as essential to those countries’ development, have been opposed by others because of the displacement, environmental damage and loss of livelihoods that their construction has also involved. So when we say that development is ‘contested’ we do not mean (just) as an abstract set of debates – contested development means very serious, sometimes life and death, struggles for lives, livelihoods and prosperity.

Figure 1.1 ‘Good change’? China’s involvement in Africa creates winners and losers

Show description

Judging what kind of social change should be seen as ‘good’ and identifying the routes by which those goals might be reached, shape the different ways in which the term development is used. The rest of Section 1.1 outlines a way of thinking about those different uses. Table 1.1 summarizes our way of organising the discussion. Across the top there are ‘goals of development’, which are split into ‘broader’ and ‘narrower’ goals. Down the side there are ‘routes to development’ – the ways in which development comes about – which in turn are split into ‘unplanned’ and ‘intentional’ change. The content of each of the four cells are some of the examples of each category. You may well wish to think of more now and add more as you study this book. Read through Table 1.1 now. Subsections 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 will refer back to Table 1.1. and unpack each of the different goals and routes in more detail.

1.1.1 The goals of development

If development is seen as a goal, what is the destination, or direction of travel, that is desired or seen to be ‘good’? Activity 1.1 and Table 1.1 hinted at some of the wide range of possible answers that might be given to this question. However, goals of development may range from very broad aims to much more specific ones. We’ll take each in turn.

Broader goals: the structural transformation of society

At its broadest, development refers to a set of transformations of societies as a whole, and a cumulative process of change in the human condition, represented by the first column in Table 1.1. Hobsbawm’s quote at the start of the chapter, referring to the transformed conditions of human life, speaks to this notion of development over the long run. However, both in terms of the pace of change unleashed, and in terms of its importance for contemporary development, the key structural transformations of society that we are concerned with are the rise of capitalism and industrialization. These twin transformations became established originally in Britain by the late 18th century, spreading to Western Europe, the United States of America and Japan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to parts of the South, most notably China, more recently.

Table 1.1 Development goals and routes

		Goals of development
Broader goals: the structural transformation of society	Narrower goals: achieving specific social targets and improvements
Routes to development	Unplanned processes of social change	Transition from agricultural to industrial society Dynamic growth and change inherent to capitalism Urbanization Modernization Unintended impacts of warfare and conflict ‘Shocks’ – economic crisis, political upheaval or environmental disaster	Impact of economic growth on incomes Positive impacts of technological change on livelihoods
Intentional collective action in international, state and non-state forms	Macroeconomic and governance reforms State promotion of industrialization Promotion of technological change Promotion/regulation of urbanization	International and national efforts at poverty reduction National social policies to promote literacy, health, education, etc. State and non-governmental aid Rural and urban community improvement and fair trade schemes

You will study more about industrialization and different models of capitalism in Chapter 5, but for now it is useful to have a broad definition of each. Capitalism is a system of social relations in which owners of capital hire labour in return for wages; production is for sale in the market rather than direct consumption by producers; and profits are realized by owners of capital after payment of costs of production. Industrialization involves the mechanization of social productive activity with the use of inanimate sources of power (fossil fuels and electricity rather than horses and oxen); the invention and diffusion of new technical knowledge; and changes to how work is organized, especially the use of wage labour and large-scale factory production. In many cases, including Britain, these two transformations have been closely linked; Britain’s industrial revolution followed close on the heels of, and accelerated, the rise of capitalist social relations. However, historically there have been many different patterns of transformation. Indeed, there have been some non-capitalist routes to industrialization (such as the Soviet Union and the earlier stages of China’s industrialization, both of which were followed by transitions from communism to capitalism) as well as great variance in the kinds of capitalism that have emerged across the world.

So why do we talk about this as being ‘structural change’? Taken together, industrialization and capitalism imply large-scale changes in the patterns of social relationships in societies. Not least among these is what is produced in a society and how the economy grows. Capitalist industrialization, for example, typically involves the movement of large numbers of people from work on the land (characteristic of agricultural and non-capitalist societies) to urban areas and industrial employment as well as the rise of markets as a key mechanism through which economic activity is organized. Industrialization has therefore often been associated with processes of large-scale urbanization as seen in cities like Detroit in the 20th century and Shanghai in the 20th and 21st centuries. A host of other institutional changes can also occur, for example, to legal systems, forms of politics and government, levels of education and health provision, and so on. So overall, this kind of broad developmental change involves a transformation in the make-up of a country, what its economy is based on and how its people make a living.

As you will explore more in Chapter 4, part of the reason structural transformation in the form of industrialization and capitalism is seen as a desirable goal is because of the dynamic effect they have on economic growth and technological change. Transformation creates the ability to move society onto ‘a permanent different economic trajectory’ (Mokyr, 1999, p. 3). Industrial capitalism is perhaps one of the dominant goals of many development actors precisely because it is seen as being the ‘engine of ‘development’’ (Thomas, 2000). Industrialization enables sustained increases in productivity through the deployment of new technologies in production and new ways of organising production. Capitalist economies, driven on by competition between capitalist firms in the market, make such productive innovation a central dynamic of the economy. Although prone to periodic crises and characterized by large inequalities and environmental damage, capitalist industrialization has proved capable also of generating large increases in economic growth and wealth over the long term. In addition, the technological innovation central to capitalism also makes possible major improvements in standards of living, health and life span, even if it doesn’t always realize these for many people.

However, as well as introducing a new dynamism into processes of social change in the form of constant technological innovation and increasing productivity and output, such ‘gains’ come at a cost, including an environmental cost (Robbins, 2013). The ...

Table of contents

• International Development
• Introduction
• 1 Introducing international development
• 2 Contesting development in theory and practice
• 3 Rising powers
• 4 Change, politics and the international system
• 5 The rising powers as drivers of development
• 6 Spaces of development: cities, mobilities and ecologies
• 7 Transnational corporations: significance and impact
• 8 Thinking about poverty
• 9 Inequality – does it matter?
• 10 Culture, livelihoods and making a living
• 11 Interventions to promote livelihoods
• 12 International action to reduce poverty
• Epilogue
• International development in a changing world
• Glossary
• International development in a changing world
• Acknowledgements