Core Module 1: Learning Journal on Development Studies Analysis

This learning journal, a student's contribution to Desklib, meticulously explores key concepts and debates within development studies. The journal comprises entries for multiple weeks, each structured to summarize two assigned readings and answer a related question. Week 1 delves into the definition of development and poverty, summarizing texts by Stewart (2015) and Sachs (2012) on Sustainable Development Goals, and addressing their relevance to developmental policy, practice, and research. Subsequent weeks cover topics like modernization, neo-liberalism, and their impact on development, analyzing texts by Jaquette (1982), Bergeron (2004), and Fine (2012). The journal critically examines the role of various theories, including modernization, Marxism, and neoliberalism, and their impact on global inequality, women's roles, and national development policies. Each entry includes accurate summaries, critical analysis, and comprehensive bibliographies, reflecting a deep engagement with the course material and a nuanced understanding of complex developmental challenges. The journal also explores the relationship between these theories and practical applications in the real world, offering a comprehensive overview of the subject.

Running head: LEARNING JOURNAL
Learning Journal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1LEARNING JOURNAL
Week 1: Defining Development and Poverty
1. Accurately summarize two texts
Text 1
Stewart, F., 2015. The sustainable development goals: A comment. Journal of Global
Ethics, 11(3), pp.288-293.
According to Stewart (2015), the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) are
important milestones that show great improvements from the Millennium Developmental
Goals (MDGs). While the MDGs aimed to reduce poverty by half, the new SDGs have put
elimination of poverty into their agenda. The strengths of the new SGDs include the
universality of the goals as they apply both the developing and the developed nation. The
goals also recognize the need for promoting individual as well as group equality, ensure
access to smart energy and promotes inclusive societies. The most unique and necessary
factor that marks the difference between the MDGs and SDGs is that the SDGs align the
sustainable agenda with the developmental agenda. Thus, by following the SGDs, it is
believed that true sustainable development is possible.
Despite all the efforts to include equality and sustainability, three issues still remains
to be addressed. The first issue is the national ownership and commitment and how that can
prove to be a problematic area. The SDGs need national interpretation and commitment in
order to become truly successful. The second issue is that the goals though noble does not
address the underlying financial needs and infrastructure for the realization of the goals. The
third issue is that there is a lack of integration between the goals related to sustainability and
economic goals. The authors suggest two alternative methods for the realization of the
SDGs. First, that promotion of economic goals are only done when sustainability goals are a
surety and second, that the growth itself is reshaped as ‘green growth’ so that both
economic and sustainability goals goes hand in hand.

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Text 2
Sachs, J.D., 2012. From millennium development goals to sustainable development
goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), pp.2206-2211.
According to the author, the Millennium Developmental Goals, since its inception has
served its purpose of reducing environmental and social issues and challenges. Later when
the Sustainable developmental goals were introduced, they aimed to eliminate poverty and
promote social inclusion in order to ensure equality over the world. The SDGs are
improvements on MDGs and are focused on addressing the shortcomings that the earlier
goals had. The most important among them are financial goals that the developing countries
were struggling to achieve. The article focuses on the triple bottom line approach. The
challenges that the SDGs still face are the depletion of the ozone layer, threats on the
nitrogen, water and carbon cycles, global warming, over-population, and world hunger. The
authors believe that by revising the existing MDGs and SDGs these problems can be
addressed. Social inclusion and equality in different aspects have also been proved difficult
to achieve. The authors recommend three broad approaches for successful SDGs,
economic development, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. They also argue
that the policies should be made in such a way that achievement of any of the goals will
automatically support the other two. The revised SDGs that the authors propose are more
inclusive, approachable and focuses on good governance rather that few set standards. The
article also recommends best practice methods that will ensure that the SDGs become
achievable.
2. Answer the Question: How do you think this week’s topic related
to a) developmental policy, b) practice or c) research?
Both the MDGs and SDGs are at the core of developmental policy and practice
(Sachs 2012). The policy development have differed depending on the financial condition

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and governmental policy. The statistics of global inequality in the acquired wealth shows that
the distribution of wealth all over the world is extremely unequal. The richest 65 people in the
world more money than the poorest half (Hickel 2017). This scenario is becoming dire day
by day and the SDGs that has been proposed in the United Nations have been created in
order to eliminate poverty and create a balance between the developments of the countries.
The SDGs are based on hands on practice and real application of the goals. The goals that
the SDGs set are focused on creating policies for the developing nations where the financial
conditions of the people are lagging behind. The SDGs demand that the governmental
policies made after the goals are set are based on these goals.
The relationship of the topic is also related to research as much discussion is still
going on about the limitations of the MDGs and the SDGs. The main challenge that the goals
face is the financial disparity around the world and the non-compliance of the developed
countries with their commitment to help the developing nation in realizing their SDGs
(Stewart 2015). According to Hickel (2017), the gap between the per capital income between
the richest and the poorest country has been increasing since 1870s. The Pritchett approach
to inequality has not been given much importance as its focus remains on the extremities of
the richest and the poorest while ignoring the actual causes that are causing the inequality.
The structural adjustment that the World Bank and the IMF has proposed are more widely
adopted as they focus on the neoclassical approach on market liberalization to facilitate
growth in the poor countries.

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3. Write up the week’s Bibliography
Hickel, J., 2017. Is global inequality getting better or worse? A critique of the World Bank’s
convergence narrative. Third World Quarterly, 38(10), pp.2208-2222.
Sachs, J.D., 2012. From millennium development goals to sustainable development
goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), pp.2206-2211.
Stewart, F., 2015. The sustainable development goals: A comment. Journal of Global
Ethics, 11(3), pp.288-293.

5LEARNING JOURNAL
Week 5: Modernization and Development
1. Accurately summarize two texts
Text 1
Jaquette, J. (1982) ‘Women and modernisation theory: a decade of feminist criticism’,World
Politics, Vol.XXXIV,No.2,pp.267-84
The author reviews the emerging feminist theories such as liberal modernization
theory and arguments related to it, socialist or Marxist theory and arguments related to it and
the third perspective named “Female Sphere” and its critiques. The liberal and the socialist
theories have many similarities and differences. The “female sphere” theory on the other
hand is in contrast with both the theories as it is non-egalitarian while proving the direction
for further restructuring for change. The liberal modernization theory suggests that
development is linear and cumulative process where the role that women play are route to
traditional practices of the development. The change of development status of women are
rarely considered as significant with only few critiques such as McClelland who theorize that
the women’s desire of autonomy is an important factor for future family development. He
opines that women who were not able to achieve their desire of autonomy are likely to instill
‘need achievement’ in their children.
Feminist critiques of liberal modernization does not consider the common factors of
modernization such as urbanization, mobility and cash economy as contributing factor to
women’s growth. The Marxist theory too, assumes that the position of women in the society
are derivative of the production structure. Marx had opined that the relationship between
man and woman was similar to proletariat and bourgeoisie and the women’s status in the
society indicates the level of advancement. The socialist feminist critiques assert that the
position of women in the society is not determined by revolution itself and there is a
possibility that higher levels of participation of women without sanction might lead to women

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becoming virtual slaves. The ‘female sphere’ critique states that the power and satisfaction
of women are derived from their separate roles and their interaction with their kins and
groups. The female sphere theory puts both the earlier theorists into difficult position where
they need to prove their theory further.
Text 2
Bergeron, S. (2004) Fragments of Development: Nation, Gender and the Space of
Modernity, University of Michigan Press. 2nd Chapter
The second chapter of the book the author introduces the idea of political map
making as developed by Scott. The states, in their attempt to development, creates
landscapes and facilitates scientific and technological progress which started from
industrialization since the 19th century. The idea of progress that the author describes is
linear where state is responsible for making all the changes in every aspect of society. It is
argued that the outcome might be varied and people might have different opinion of the
development done by the state, it is to be understood that the state generally has the best of
interest in making those developmental provisions.
Scott conceptualizes the idea of seeing like a state which helps in transformation of
places through development. In facilitating development, the state often alienate and
disregard certain population, ethnicity and environment which creates the subsequent
confusion. These utopian engineering projects in the name of development were later
criticized by theorists like Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek though the relationship that Scott
was able to draw between development and legibility is the key contribution of is work. The
legibility is related to the economic activities of people which is an attempt to state
simplification. The chapter states that the developmental adaptability is taken as a given and
the people who are not being able to adapt to the changes are either ignored or rejected by
the state in their attempt to intelligibility.

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2. Answer the Question: How do you think this week’s topic related
to a) developmental policy, b) practice or c) research?
The weeks readings and discussion is related to developmental policy directly as
they are focused on the idea of development and the nation’s role in developmental
engineering. The philosophy and rationale that facilitates national developmental projects
like Soviet Planning, Tanzanian Villagization or managed forestry in Germany gives insight
into the practice of development as well (Bergeron 2004). World developmental institutions
like World Bank and IMF helps the developing nations to develop the national landscape.
The practice of modernization and urbanization leads to an illusion of financial advancement
of the developing state as well as their sovereignty and independence for that matter. The
role of women in the developmental policies are also an area of further research. The liberal
theory and the Marxist theory illustrates the position of women and their contribution to
development.
As Rostow argues development leaves behind or creates larger poverty and
marginality which is generally overlooked by the states in order to promote advancement at
all costs. This needs further research on how national policies and practicing could serve the
developing nations. The United Nations engaged in the developmental goals throughout the
nation for many decades now and the second decade of modernization looked into the
creation of human potential and employment thus, attempting to eradicate poverty. The role
and participation of women in development needs to be reassessed and their access to jobs
and credit needs to be normalized (Jaquette 1982).

8LEARNING JOURNAL
3. Write up the week’s Bibliography
Bergeron, S., 2004. Fragments of development: Nation, gender, and the space of modernity.
University of Michigan Press.
Jaquette, J.S., 1982. Women and modernization theory: A decade of feminist
criticism. World politics, 34(2), pp.267-284.
Rostow, W.W., 1960 ‘The stages of economic growth: a non-communist manifesto’ in
Roberts and Hite (eds), 2007 The globalisation and development reader (Oxford: Blackwell)

9LEARNING JOURNAL
Week 6: Neo-liberalism and Development
1. Accurately summarize two texts
Text 1
Fine, B., 2012. Neoliberalism in retrospect? It’s financialisation, stupid. In Developmental
politics in transition (pp. 51-69). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Neo-liberalism has received many criticisms since the Bush era and the extent to
which neo-liberalism allows state intervention is astonishing to note. The theory has received
both ideological and material blow and thus people believing this ideology are either
negligible or are literally lying low. The problem with neo-liberalism is its diverse nature and
complexity with changing time and place while being indistinctive in its approach locally.
Financialization on the other hand is a newer term and is rooted in the Marxist theory and
the heterodox theory. Financialization is more about mobilization of investment rather than
actual activity. It is also associated with expansion and growth of services and instruments
related to finance.
Due to neo-liberal practices of the states there has been many financial crises that
even the most developed of nations have faced. The IMF has identified 124 systemic
banking crises, which includes United States, United Kingdom and hundreds of developing
countries. Thus, it is indicated the state intervention and neo-liberalization goes hand in hand
and affects the growing economies the most. As the impact and practice of neo-liberalism
decreases, the whole of the financial crisis history is being rewritten especially as it was
earlier played as key for IMF policy and practice. The article divides the neo-liberal period
into two parts, the first phase is till 1990s and the second continues till present day. In this
regard, the post neo-liberal era sees the consumer politics and the practice is including the
ethics and sustainability issues related to consumption. This leads to an increased warrant
for public provisions rather than privatization.

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Text 2
Khan, S.R. and Christiansen, J., 2010. Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark: How
development has disappeared from today’s “development” discourse. In Towards new
developmentalism (pp. 65-76). Routledge.
Income level has been considered as the most common measure of developmental
standards. Recently more and more people are in agreement that non-financial factors are
the more important factors that needs to be incorporated into the definition of development.
It is the self-realization and dignity of the individuals that determine the level of development
if a nation. Besides the humanistic approach of development, another factor that was
present before in the idea of development has taken a backseat, which is production. The
pre neo-liberalism phase saw production as the most important factor of developmental
measurement which became obsolete during the neo-liberal era. Along with production
came the resultant factors such as urbanization, labor movements, changes in the dynamics
of gender relationships and dissolution of traditional family.
In determining the key aspects of development, the MDGs play a vital role. The eight
goals of MDGs as described by UN focus on eradicating poverty, hunger, child mortality,
develop education, gender equality, women empowerment, maternal health, environmental
stability and so on. Though these goals have been followed by most developing nations, the
problems persist and for that UN has introduced SDGs to combat the recurrent issues.
Recent studies show that developmental discourse is determined mostly through individual
betterment rather than collective good. The achievement of collective good has proved to be
impossible without individual betterment and thus, the importance of entrepreneurship is
rising. Despite the emerging importance to entrepreneurship, the theorists argue that it alone
cannot improve the situation of a country. Thus, ideas of New Developmentalism has been
proposed by the author where he claims that giving importance to productionist point of view
and paying attention to the developmental economists like Albert Hirschman and Gunnar

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Myrdal, it is possible to find new pathways to development that will be able to facilitate
individual achievement and national growth.
2. Answer the Question: How do you think this week’s topic related
to a) developmental policy, b) practice or c) research?
The week’s topic is related to developmental policy as the idea of neoliberalism gave
way to the modernization and urbanization of the developing nations (Ferguson 2010). While
the post neo-liberal era show the fall of neoliberal practices and rise of developmental goals
as the new approach, the limitations to it exists and the MDGs has not been able to fulfill the
expectations of the world institutions. The articles argue about agricultural liberalization and
micro-financing. The reference to financialization as a retrospective approach to neo-
liberalism also helps in developing policies that will help the nations (Fine 2012). All the
articles talk about the different approaches to development and the limitations that they have
faced.
The topic is also related to practice as governments still promote agricultural
liberalization, urbanization as a standard of developmental aspect and entrepreneurship as a
means of national growth (Khan and Christiansen 2010). The readings provide insight into
the limitations of these practices and what future might see as development and practice.
Even after MDGs were introduced, they could not eradicate poverty and hunger all together.
This later led to the introduction of SDGs which are constituted to eliminate poverty and
hunger from the world. There are still scope for further research as more research needs to
be done about the intervention of world institutions like World Bank, IMF and United Nations
and how they can contribute more to the development of the nations (Harvey 2007).

12LEARNING JOURNAL
3. Write up the week’s Bibliography
Ferguson, J., 2010. The uses of neoliberalism. Antipode, 41, pp.166-184.
Fine, B., 2012. Neoliberalism in retrospect? It’s financialisation, stupid. In Developmental
politics in transition (pp. 51-69). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Harvey, D., 2007. A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, USA.
Khan, S.R. and Christiansen, J., 2010. Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark: How
development has disappeared from today’s “development” discourse. In Towards new
developmentalism (pp. 65-76). Routledge.

13LEARNING JOURNAL
Week 7: Dependency Theory
1. Accurately summarize two texts
Text 1
Munck, R., 1999. Dependency and imperialism in the new times: a Latin American
perspective. The European Journal of Development Research, 11(1), pp.56-74.
The interruption of the Marxist discourse was mainly due to the dependency problem
of the Latin America. This era of imperialism and dependency is replaced by the practice of
globalization as a developmental framework in the recent times. The emergence of the
Marxist approach to imperialism started during the post WW1 era. Lenin criticism imperialism
as an inevitable result of imperialism rather than a policy while Luxemburg opines that the
implication of imperialism is not only financial but also societal. She sees imperialism as the
heart of the capitalist system.
The second wave considers imperialism on a different light and considers the
aspects of the third world countries. The dependency of the third world countries on the
developed economies and the world institutions are focused on the uneven distribution of the
resources and developments through the nations. The article also argue about the
deconstruction theory of dependency, globalization, new imperialism and post dependency
which gives future opportunities of development for the dependent nations.
Text 2
Kelly, M.P.F., 1989. Broadening the scope: gender and international economic development.
In Sociological Forum (Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 611-635). Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum
Publishers.
The authors claim that the aspect of gender is key to the idea of economic
development as it indicates to the important aspects like production and labor. The authors

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conduct a formal review of the influential approaches for development. These approaches
are parallel to gender theory. The author compares to approaches to industrial restructuring,
i.e. the expansion of plants that are processing exports in the border of United States and
Mexico and the strategies that the Californian electronic firms have adopted for their survival.
The focus of the author in this article is on the aspect of gender, predominantly the
female gender to analyze the recent labor trends. The author argues that the present labor
trend is tapped by the female workers seeking competitive advantage and this allows the
firms to maintain a substratum of labor. This leads to the creation of a domestic and a
market oriented production models which facilitates capitalist fulfilment.
2. Answer the Question: How do you think this week’s topic related
to a) developmental policy, b) practice or c) research?
The topic of the week looks at the emergence of Latin America and other developing
countries through the dependency theory. The readings gives a clear insight into the way
dependency theory can facilitate development (Cardoso 1972). The MDGs as described by
the United Nations talked about the cooperation and contribution of the developed states for
the advancement of the developing nations. Since the time of imperialism, the capitalism has
made it impossible to reduce the difference between the rich and the poor. The topic gives
idea about the reasons that industrialization, imperialism and structuralism has facilitated the
first wave of development for the dependent nations, but they have not been able to
eradicate poverty in any way thus calls for better developmental policies that the earlier
policies have not been able to address (Munck 1999).
The weeks learning is also related to practice as the world politics is still working on
the dependency theory and this can be seen through its application in health sector (Castells
and Laserna 1989). The uneven distribution that the theory talks about is applicable to the
Latin American context till now. The colonial governments there failed to control diseases
like Malaria that affected the population on a long term basis. The gender issue is also
applicable here as through colonial intervention, the fertility of women of the dependent

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nations were controlled for a long time through medicine and research (Kelly 1989). There
are certain limitation to dependency theory as it is limited to only Latin American Context.
Thus, it provides further research opportunities to find out how that applies to the broader
context.

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3. Write up the week’s Bibliography
Cardoso, H.F., 1972. Dependent capitalist development in Latin America. New Left Review,
(74), p.83.
Castells, M. and Laserna, R., 1989. The new dependency: Technological change and
socioeconomic restructuring in Latin America. In Sociological forum (Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 535-
560). Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers.
Kelly, M.P.F., 1989. Broadening the scope: gender and international economic development.
In Sociological Forum (Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 611-635). Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum
Publishers.
Munck, R., 1999. Dependency and imperialism in the new times: a Latin American
perspective. The European Journal of Development Research, 11(1), pp.56-74.