Development Project and Theories Essay

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1. What is the difference between talking about theories of development versus talking about the development project? How did ideas about modernization and poverty enable powerful countries to intervene in the affairs of less powerful countries during the development project? In what sense did both theories of development and the development project create underdevelopment?

In essence, theories of development have got to do with social change. They are multidimensional in that one could, therefore, think of learning and human growth and not merely focus on the economic phenomenon in isolation. Development project focuses on the improvement and bettering of the quality and standard of living amongst human beings. Urbanization, according to McMichael (7), is seen as one of the defining consequences of development. One of development project’s most outstanding aspects was the perception of development as destiny (McMichael 7).

A new era of development was ushered in by “the extension of political sovereignty to millions of non-Europeans (more than half of humanity)” (McMichael 15). According to the author, it was during the era that idealism soared, and governments from both third word and first world countries became united towards not only the promotion of economic growth, but also the enhancement of social wellbeing, and promotion of political citizenship (McMichael 15). In essence, therefore, development was reinvented through decolonization, with ideals of nation building largely guided (originally) by the revolutionary ideologies of the U.S. and French, being embodied via national currencies, languages, systems of education, etc. (McMichael 47). The Third World, as Chapt. 2 (30) points out, was presented as a child who badly needed the guidance of an adult. Following the decolonization of Africa and Asia, powerful countries such as the U.S. were able to plant the ideas of modernization and poverty eradication in decolonized nations as they gained greater sway in the affairs of the said independent nations. The U.S., for instance, “led an international project, inspired by a vision of development as a national enterprise to be repeated across the world of sovereign states” (McMichael 43). There are some who are of the opinion that differential growth rates brought about underdevelopment, with third world countries being unable to replicate the “European experience of developing by exploiting the labor and resources of other societies” (McMichael 47).

Whereas, as has been stated elsewhere in this text, development focuses on the improvement and bettering of the quality and standard of living amongst human beings, underdevelopment does the exact opposite.

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There are some who, as McMichael (45) points out, believe the underdevelopment was a consequence of colonialism. Thanks to the commodification of social relations, “villagers lost their means of livelihood and were forced to work for wages” (McMichael 15). This was, in essence, social engineering by specifically the European political elites, with the end results being “the displacement of rural populations by land enclosures for cash cropping, a process that generated ‘undesirables,’ such as menacing paupers, restless proletarians, and unhealthy factory towns” (McMichael 3).

2. Recent scholarly studies emphasize the value of incorporating different perspectives and knowledge systems that were typically ignored in the planning of development projects (such as those of women, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and other populations). First explain how such populations can be silenced or marginalized through development practices. Then explain what can be learned or achieved when such populations are invited to participate in development.

It is important to note that failure to incorporate various perspectives as well as understanding of local scenarios in the planning of development projects could lead to the taking away of fundamental and basic rights of women and indigenous people, amongst other marginalized formations or groups. We could learn from history, as this has happened in the past. For instance, patriarchal gender divisions were disrupted by the entry….....

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