Development studies: past and future. Frances Stewart

Transcription

1 Development studies: past and future Frances Stewart

2 What is development studies? Development studies is an inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary enquiry into change and social transformation in less developed parts of the world; attempts by states to define themselves...to regulate and control the shape and order of change; attempts by people and institutions to engage with, ignore or resist the processes of transformation.. their struggles to give purpose and meaning to the changes they experience; and the impact of forces of change on the economy, institutions and people at every level (Introduction to Oxford Development Studies, 1996). 2

3 Many tensions and questions What is development; what is progress? Geographical area covered; Tension between analysis and prescription; When do we start? Should development studies encompass development and analysis of change in 18 th and 19 th century Europe. Here start after second world war, when many colonies gained independence. 3

4 Early conscious efforts to promote development From North, Truman 1949: we must embark on a brave new programme for making the benefits of of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.the old imperialism is dead. From South, Malahalanobis (India); Prebisch (Latin America), planning for growth. United Nations: 1948 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. 4

5 A multidisciplinary enquiry? Early decades dominance of economics. Increasing role for political science, anthropology, sociology, history. Economics very prescriptive with a simplified view of human motives and behaviour; Anthropology observes and explains behaviour; not prescriptive and can oppose change; Political science helps explain why prescriptions are (or are not) put into effect. 5

6 Development studies dominated by North In University departments in North By World Bank And by people educated in northern universities. Notable and important exceptions: Raol Prebisch and dependencia theorists (LA) Arthur Lewis; Walter Rodney (West Indies; Guyana) Samir Amin; Mahmood Mamdani; Damiso Moyo (Africa) Many Indian economists, above all Amartya Sen 6

7 Major changes in thinking since 1950 In objectives of development: briefly from growth to human development And in process: from planning to free market Changes followed a cyclical logic: 7

8 Diagrammatic representation of the development thinking cycle External events The facts : situation in developing countries Advanced country thinking Policy impact Theories 8 Policies Interests and politics 8

9 Stages of analysis and policy (1) 1950s-1970s 1950s and 1960s: Catch up: Growth maximization; industrialisation; planning (Lewis; Nurkse, Ranis and Fei; Mahalanobis). 1970s in response to consequences of this strategy: dependencia (Frank; Furtado; Cardozo; Rodney; Amin) Basic Needs (ILO; Streeten; Stewart) Efficiency critique (Little, Scitovsky and Scott; Balassa; Krueger; Lal; Little). 9

10 Stages of analysis (2) 1980s and 1990s 1980s: debt crisis; stabilisation and adjustment; rising poverty; output falling. New consciousness of poverty: Adjustment with a Human Face (Cornia et al); Sen s capability approach Chambers participatory approach Human Development. 1990, first Human Development Report (UNDP) 1990 World Development Report on Poverty 10

11 Analytic contribution of capability approach: displaces income as measure of progress Pluralistic: many valuable and incommensurable goods Importance of agency Process important as well as end. New measures of progress, such as HDI; MPI. Pluralism reflected in MDGs (2000) and SDGs (post-2015). 11

12 Stages of analysis and policy (3): 2000s Consequence of MDGs: big focus on social objectives; economy neglected. Aid revived. But does aid help? (Sachs; Easterly) Randomised methods to assess efficiency of social interventions (Duflos; Kremer; Banerjee) Questionning of macro-economic orthodoxy (Stiglitz: Rodrick; O Campo). New structuralist macroeconomics (Bresser-Pereira ; Cornia) Importance of institutions (North; Acemoglu and Robinson) 12

13 Challenges for Development Studies posed by world of today 1. Rising inequality in many countries. Importance of horizontal inequality. 2. Rise of BRICS new models; new opportunities. 3. Overwhelming priority of environment: yet not incorporated fully in development studies. 4. Rising vulnerability through: Environment; natural disasters. Conflict and political instability. Globalisation, migration. Need prevention, protection and compensation 13

14 Political economy Understanding political determinants of policy Role of collective action Conditions for collective action Fragility of democracies 14

15 Development studies should encompass whole world Heterogeneity of developing countries some with higher income than developed Problems are in common inequality; vulnerability; migration; political economy. Yet departments are strictly segmented. Integration is major challenge for next decades. 15