What is Development Flashcards
global development
global divisions between the rich an privileged and the poor and underprivileged and about the attempt to eliminate these divisions
development
the process by which societies change - a controversial term w diff writers having diff conceptions of what processes are involved and what the outcome should be
what is meant by ‘good change’
•many writers begin with the economy and ‘economic growth’
•means that the economy is getting bigger, providing more goods and goods of higher value
•economic development involves a change from an economy based on subsistence agriculture and small workshops to factory based mass production of goods, mass consumption and service industries e.g. financial banking
measuring development - economically
•look at country’s economic figures such as gross domestic product (gdp), gross national income (gni)
gross domestic product
market value of all final goods and services from a nation given in a year
advantages of gdp
•gives ball-park figure for development so easier to measure
•does generally sort the wealthier countries so is more accurate
disadvantages of gdp
•favours bigger countries as can sell more (india and china)
•doesn’t account for inequality - will have extreme rich areas and extreme poor areas
•doesn’t account for difference in population
•doesn’t account for differences in cost of living
•no account of social factors
•figures vary widely
gross national income
•measures the total value of goods and services produced by a country in a particular year
•usually given as a ‘per capita’ figure to allow for difference in size/populations between countries, given in us dollars
advantages of gni
•reveals dramatic scale of inequality between developed and developing worlds
•changes in gni from year to year give a measure for economic growth e.g. some countries in developing world are experience rapid growth (china, india) while others have suffered a fall in gni from already low levels in recent years
disadvantages of gni
•econ. growth does not show all aspects of social development that sociologists are interested in
•averages for whole pop, conceals inequality - high gni ≠ high standards of living for all members of pop, applies to developed countries too where high gni per c can conceal sig. minorities living in poverty
•only counts what happens in ‘official econ’ some important are outside the market and are not counted e.g growing food for one’s own consumption - more likely to be more important in developing countries rather than developed countries, are often activities carried out by women’s so can be viewed as gender biased
what is a solution to the population issue w gdp
•divide gdp by population
•an attempt to correct the imbalance between bigger and smaller counties
advantages of dividing gdp by population
•gives ball park figure for development
•seen as a measure of standard of living
•accounts for differences in population
disadvantages of dividing gdp by population
•doesn’t account for inequality, differences in cost of living, social factors
•bali judgments that gdp is primary factor in judging development
•says nothing ant individual income
purchasing power parity (ppp)
•economists look at a basket of goods in each economy and make a calculation that equalises what an individual can buy in each country
•an attempt to factor in cost of goods in each country, cost of living and inflation rates
advantages of ppp
•gives ball work figure for development
•accounts for cost of living
•accounts for diff in pop
disadvantages of ppp
•much less reliable ad estimations need to be used
•says nothing abt in. income
•no account of social factors
measuring development - social factors
common measurements
•education and literacy
•health
•democracy
•gender equality
•sustainability
education and literacy
•% of school aged children attending school
•% of those that can read and write
health
•child, infant and maternal mortality rates, mortality rates in general
•no. of doctors and hospitals in relation to population
democracy
•free and fair elections in which everyone can vote
•whether opposition parties are allowed to organise
gender equality
•diff between males and females in ed., health, politics and other measures
sustainability
•where smth can continue at the same level indefinitely
who popularised looking my into social factors
•sen (1999) - wrote abt how development should be abt freedom and removing unfreedoms in a whole host of social areas
•argued that development is ant overcoming poverty bcs it allows ppls to develop their potential - increases human freedom - looking at social factors are ways of achieving develop. and its goals
•work mainly focuses on measuring poverty as a means towards greater development
•his work helped inform the human development index
•overall popularised idea to use several measures of development and combine diff indicators of development to create a score for each country, countries then places in rank order and changes over time can be measured
human development index (hdi)
•produced by un every year
•a composite measure of social and economic indicators giving a statistical value to the level of development
•social factors include life expectancy, mean years of schooling
•each country given a hdi score which is calculated by considering what the united nations development programme takes to be the 3 most important aspects of development
hdi and gni
•countries much higher up on hdi than gni table are those where the wealth created is being used for social development (nz)
•countries lower on hdi table than gni suggest that wealth is not used for social development (uae, saudi arabia)
advantages of hdi
•useful in giving broader impression of development by covering human rights and political freedoms and sustainability
•takes into acc social factors
•does take into account some factors of inequality
disadvantages of hdi
•in developing countries, doubts ant accuracy of some of the statistics used bcs of the difficulty collecting the data, figures not always available for all countries
•not all important aspects can be measured quantitatively
•there are other ways of measuring the three measures and they are equally weighed
•figures are a social construction that someone has decided constitutes development - potential political bias
millennium development goals
•a set of 8 development goals adopted by un in 2000 to be achieved by 2015
•can also be seen as representing agreement by the worlds nations on how development can be defined on specific terms
•since 2015, have been replaced by sustainable development goals until 2030
sustainable development goals
•set of 17 development goals adopted by un in 2015 to be achieved by 2030
, replacing mdg
•now has much greater emphasis on environmental sustainability and issues w other goals being responses to criticism of mdg
what are the differences between mdg and sdg
•mdg halved ppls that lived in extreme poverty but it still left a billion, sdg aims to eliminate extreme poverty completely and hunger
what shows that while the mdg worked in some ways, it didn’t eradicate issues completely
•halved between 1990 and 2010 proportion of ppl whose income less than $1.25 a day - achieved by 2010 but left more than 1 billion still bellow income
•achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young ppls - fewer worker below pov line but there’s still a gender gap
•by 2015- some goals met but clear others weren’t - some targets unrealistically ambitious for some countries and commitment of richer countries to achieve them sometimes lacking
•however - do seem to have a use in focusing the world states, igo’s and ngo’s and we’re probs responsible in increase of aid which also doubled 2000-2005
