Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ecodevelopment for example, there is a stress on the need for local control over
resources in order to conserve them and not deplete them. In Development from
Below (Stöhr & Taylor 1981), the emphasis is on the use of local resources by
the local population, and this concept is stressed further in the agropolitan
development model of Friedmann (Stöhr & Taylor 1981). In all versions of this
kind of writing, local control over human and physical resources is advocated,
through decentralization of power to the local level. Local initiative is also
promoted, with the associated ideas that local initiatives will lead to local
entrepreneurship in projects and programmes for development. Local initiative
will also link to the use of local, perhaps intermediate, technology, as well as
local resources rather than those that have to be imported. In general, integration
of the different sectors of the economy will be fostered by such an approach. For
example, a local crop, say sugar cane, might be processed into local industrial
goods, such as sugar or cane alcohol, and the waste bagasse might be sold as fuel
for other local industries.
Some of the ideas were generalized by Friedmann & Weaver, in their topic on
Territory and function
(1979). Here the contrast was drawn between one kind of
development of regions, territorial development by and for the region itself, and
another kind, functional development, which is development of the region for the
nation. Using the case of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) it was shown
how this agency was set up by central federal power in the USA, but was run
very much in the Tennessee Valley in the interests of the local, regional
economy. Alongside efforts to improve river navigation and to increase electric
power output in the valley, a major effort was made to improve the lot of small
farmers, those producing maize on steeply sloping land as a monoculture, and
therefore responsible for the central problem of soil erosion and river flow
instability. Extension work on improvement of farm management techniques,
diversification of production, farmer education, and infrastructure improvements
such as farm-to-market roads, were all part of the programme in the 1930s. In the
post-war era this changed, as the federal government saw the possibility of using
the region as a major power generator. Alongside the older hydroelectric
schemes there came into production nuclear generators, and the region became a
source of cheap power for the nation. In every country there is the possibility for
this kind of functional approach to replace territorial concerns in regional
development.
Within the endogenous school of thought there is an obvious extension of the
aims of economic development, to include aspects of welfare such as provision of
housing and education, and the quality-of-life elements, such as maintenance of
an attractive environment, freedom from pollution, and existence of a strong
community life. These were not previously counted alongside the economic
production aims. However, once local concerns and priorities are placed first, or
at least included alongside others, then various non-economic interests will come
to the fore.
