Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
challenge to the market rules of capitalist society, are amongst these themes
(Hettne 1990). Much of the field had been covered within the Development from
Below ideas of the early 1980s, but it has resurfaced and has been reinvigorated
by the continued failure of standard efforts in development to reach some groups
of society, notably in the poorer countries.
Much of the work in this anti-development literature is concerned with rural,
peasant or indigenous groups, at one extreme, and with international relations,
especially the matter of power, at the other extreme. This does leave out some of
the main ground for discussion of modern development, which is very much
focused on urban and industrial themes. This point will be taken up in the next
chapter. It is also the case that much of the argument is not about the majority
groups of the population, but minorities: ethnic, regional, peripheral or in some
other way disadvantaged. It must be allowed that these groups are likely to be
opposed to development, because of their collective cultural differences, without
detracting from the arguments for a positive value for the main segment of the
population. Another 'minority' group, without a proper voice for itself in an
economically regulated world, is seen as the environment, and the environment
is seen as defended by the disadvantaged groups rather than by any
developmentalists.
Development and the environment
An important feature of some of the discussion regarding individual countries in
this topic will be that development may be either fostered or checked by the
attractions of resources, often located in large but remote peripheral regions. In
the next chapter, the old thesis of resource-led development, the staple or export
base theory, will be shown to have little relevance in the twentieth century. In a
world with globally available raw materials and power sources, the focus of
development has been on concentrated industrial processes and services in cities,
and those countries with the best development record over recent decades have
had little reliance on their own resources. The East Asian 'tiger' economies may
here be contrasted with those of South America.
The relationship of resources and large regions to development is, of course,
not a simple and direct one, but geographers should note the lack of a direct
relationship, and indeed the apparently perverse situation where one of the
classic factors of production, the land, fails to support strong development. As is
detailed with regard to Latin American countries, the secret of this failure relates
to government policies attempting economic autarchy, and policies promising the
development of particular regions with political or geopolitical importance.
Environmental deterioration is an important issue with respect to development
around the world. There is little question about the reality of this deterioration,
although rates of soil erosion and pollution are not wholly agreed. What is more
in doubt is the location of responsibility, and the different actors who are
supposed to be the culprits. From the previous paragraphs, it might be concluded
