Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
INTRODUCTION
This first section of
Key Concepts in Development Geography
seeks to
provide a basic overview of the key concepts that underpin the field. In
so doing, it deals with the basics, examining the concept of develop-
ment and the closely associated issue of the meanings that have been
attributed to development. One of the key themes of this section of the
topic is that, in both theoretical and practical terms, thinking about
development has changed markedly over time. A further lesson is that
at any given time concepts of development tend to be diverse, reflect-
ing the prevalence of different social, economic, political and even
moral viewpoints.
The meanings that have been attributed to development are specifi-
cally overviewed in Chapter 1.1 and at the outset it is stressed that,
however it is defined, development is something that has to be concep-
tualized at the global level. This is because development issues involve
both poor and rich countries as well as poor and rich people and groups,
and the need is to move the former in each case to a more advantageous
situation. This account stresses that the origins of international devel-
opment lie within what is known as the Enlightenment Period. This
transition in thought occurred from the eighteenth to nineteenth centu-
ries and emphasized a general belief in science, rational thinking and
ordered principles of progress and advancement. It is then explained
how the modern or contemporary conceptualization of development
came about in the late 1940s and that early approaches to development
were almost universally based on the quest for economic growth and
increasing prosperity. But starting from the 1960s onward, successive
critiques emphasized that wider conceptualizations of development
were required, involving attempts to enhance social well-being and to
promote self-esteem and basic human freedoms. In other words, it was
increasingly recognized that the qualitative aspects of peoples' lives are
as important as material issues and benefits.
There are, of course, pressing reasons to want to be able to measure
levels of development in order to compare places and to see whether
change and betterment have occurred over time. Thus, Chapter 1.2
demonstrates that the measures of development that have been
