Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Such 'territorially-integrated development' should aim to provide the
full employment and involvement of regional human, natural and insti-
tutional resources. It was argued that intermediate technologies, small-
and medium-sized projects, locally designed and executed projects,
should be integral parts of the mix of development strategies from
below (Stohr and Taylor, 1981). For the next three decades, a mix of
alternative approaches, most seeking similar objectives for their
humanistic 'development paths', would be launched in academia or in
policy circles.
People-centred Approaches
The notion of people-centred development explicitly blends societal and
environmental sustainability in terms of its hoped-for futures. In its advo-
cacy to promote 'capacity building' and 'community empowerment' as
progressive means for the poor majority to achieve development,
people-centred approaches have grown to be the contemporary successor
to development from below alternatives (Eade, 1997). Saliently, civil soci-
ety, NGOs and other grassroots philanthropic organizations are embrac-
ing this notion. So too is the United Nations Development Programme,
and its Human Development Index (HDI) developed by Mahbub ul Haq
et al., 1995 (see Chapter 1.1 and 1.2 for more on the HDI).
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People-centred Development
People-centred approaches to development have an ethical position
which partners that found in Denis Goulet's (1996) 'development ethics'
(see Chapter 2.5), in which both wish to render the real-life economy of
people more human and humane, as well as ecologically sustainable
(Korten and Klauss, 1984; Korten, 1990). Both seek to keep hope alive
in the face of the seeming impossibility of achieving human develop-
ment for all, utilizing current paradigms. Both seek progressive change
and a path forward that builds self-reliance, empowers men and
women, and puts the 'first last' in terms of which people are the most
deserving: principally, the poor (mostly rural) majority who have been
left out of the 'development project' to date (Chambers, 1997). Both
approaches challenge conventional economic thinking and seek human-
istic solutions, in which development is conceived in terms of people's
