Coursework: International Development - Contested Development

This essay delves into the multifaceted and contested nature of international development. It begins by defining development, encompassing its economic, social, political, and environmental dimensions, and explores the historical context and theoretical frameworks that shape its understanding. The essay examines how different perspectives, including classical and alternative development theories, contribute to the contested nature of development. It highlights the various parameters used to measure development, such as GDP, and discusses the political, social, and economic aspects involved. The essay also addresses the ethical dimensions of development and analyzes the disparity between developed and underdeveloped economies. The author concludes that development is a broad and complex term, explored across many sectors of the economy, with no single definition or focus, making it a continuously debated concept.

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To what extent is development a ‘contested’ notion?
The concept of development has been widely researched and tagged with different
notions and understanding from different researchers. Development, in essence, is quite wide in
scope and encompasses a lot in the economic spheres ranging from historical, political, social,
economic, environmental, cultural, traditional and even on religious perspectives. There is no
one specific parameter that can define development fully without looking at the entirety with
which it affects an economy. The studies regarding development take different scopes which
assign different meaning to this broad topic. This essay will, therefore, focus on a wholesome
definition of development, historical background, theoretical frameworks, and finally demystify
the contestation.
What is development?
Israel (2018) defines development as an undertaking that brings growth, ensures
advancement, generates a positive transformation that in the long run ensures an upward
extension and addition in the value of the economic, environmental, demographic, physical and
social spheres. This definition of development is widely encompassing every component, scope,
and parameters for measuring and evaluating development. Purposely, the focus of development
is to induce good quality of life to a target population by putting down measures that ensure
efficient utilization of the available resources to generate an improvement in the quality of life
without suppressing and straining the resource availability (Emily, 2019). Emily (2019) in her
definition notes that development is more concerned with the improvement of human life. The
quality of life is viewed upon the progression in both economic and social parameters. Further,
she notes that development can be measured using various criteria such as wealth, culture, level

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of education, quality healthcare facilities, and availability of life improving opportunity such as
development.
Kurniawan (2018) posits that the most effective tools of measuring development include
though not limited to Gross Domestic Product, alongside its counterparts such as Gross National
Product, and Gross National Income. Most importantly, Gross Domestic Product which is
defined as that output resulting from an economic activity by the citizens within their borders in
a given year is the most feasible way of measuring a country's development progress (Kramer,
2019).
Historical background
Hodge (2016) on his work on “Writing History of Development” asserts that
development traces back its roots in the year of 1962. He further notes that the concept of
development, however, found a basis in reference to Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the early
1980s when the concept of development became so intense owing to the low quality of life of the
populations in these areas of the world. Seligson et al (1998) note that the concept of
development emanated due to the disparity that exists between the developed and the
underdeveloped economies in the world. Uniteforsight.org (n.d.) points out that the fundamental
question that might have given rise to the concept of development is “why are some nations more
developed than others?” This fundamental question led the international agenda to focus on the
study of the concept of development. The realization was that economic stability is not
necessarily a measure of how developed and economy is as compared to another but rather there
was a need to work on policies that would ensure equal distribution of resources (Seligson,
1998).

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The political, social and economic view of development
In the political realm, development is viewed using different parameters. In an ethical
point of view, a politically developed economy differentiates itself from the non-politically
developed economies in a number of ways. Just to mention a few, a politically developed
economy is more secure and focuses efforts towards protecting the economy from insurgency
from other external factors such as terrorism, unauthorized entries, well-streamlined registration
database for all the citizens of the country. Laws and regulations are enacted that uphold human
integrity and are focused on improving the quality of life of the people the laws seek to govern
(Somayeh, 2017).
Socially, development is viewed in such a manner that in a social setting, there should be
the ability to improve the wellness and being of even citizen of a particular society so that in line
with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the individual citizen is able to reach his/her full potential.
Society is said to be socially developed when the members of that society have all their social
needs satisfied (Www2.gnb.ca, 2019).
Economically, Krueger and Myint, (n.d.) define development as the process where low-
income economies gradually transition into middle income and even higher income. The
economic development perspective captures both qualitative and quantitative approaches to an
economy's transformation. An economically developed nation is thought of one that has a higher
per capita income which may be within the internationally recognized or higher and above. An
economically underdeveloped country lives below a dollar per day.
Why development is so contested

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According to the classical theory of development, development is expressed as a
function of technological advancement and the increase in population. In the wake of
technological progress, there is an equal or higher benefit generation. The benefit generated
increases steadily as technology advances to a point where technology cannot grow any more
leading to low capital generation. This stop in more capital generation leads to an economic
slump. Debasish (2019), while explaining the classical theory of development points out that
taking a growing economy, for instance, suppose there is an increase in the rate of the economy’s
income due to high investments leading to higher capital generations which trickles down to the
citizens through increased wages for the labor, there is a likely population growth owing to
higher disposable incomes in the economy. Likewise, the rise in population causes an equal
demand for food and other basic needs calling for increased labor employment. The law of
diminishing returns sets in when one resource is overused. This further causes higher wage rises
which in turn leads to low profits affecting investments and hence a slump in the technological
progress.
The alternative theory of development takes a divergent route to development rather than
being so reliant on a specific economic parameter to steer development. In this theory,
development is viewed as emanating from within an individual and welcomes every individual to
have plans towards local development and calls upon people to personally take the initiative of
change in order to bring about development. The theory proposes a more people-oriented
development by centering development towards fulfilling the needs of the people from within.
However alternative development technique is highly dependent on participatory of the
development concerned population. Everyone has to take up a role to steer development s/he
envisions (Sha, n.d).

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From the two theories described herein, and the different ways that development is
viewed, it gives a clear picture that development has been hotly contested using different
parameters and viewing every sector of an economy differently and the manner in which aspects
of development are reflected in such sectors. These theories have contributed to the humanitarian
view of development as a means identifying and solving the disparity that exists between
countries in terms of development. The idea is to have a base for evaluating countries in the
development front. The theories are both concerned by ways of ensuring efficient resource
distribution internationally and allocation in various sectors of the economies so that growth and
development are felt in the same manner to remove the disparity. Development has been
explored in every term that affects a society directly. It has been viewed on economic terms,
physical terms, social, environmental perspectives, cultural, religious and in traditional terms. All
these parameters of defining and describing development give the extent of exploration of this
broad term leaving it with no one specific definition and no one focus. It is therefore wise that if
one is to tackle the aspect of development, it is captured to be very reflective in every sector of
the economy so that one is able to successfully understand the dynamics in these areas. It is vital
to note that it is not so easy to have a bare base for defining an economy as developed and the
other as undeveloped.

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References
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Discussion. Available at: http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/economic-growth/classical-
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Emily, B. (2019). What is development? | MyTutor. [online] Mytutor.co.uk. Available at:
https://www.mytutor.co.uk/answers/13171/A-Level/Geography/What-is-development/ [Accessed
3 Apr. 2019].

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Hodge, J. (2016). Writing the History of Development (Part 1: The First Wave). [online]
Humanity Journal. Available at: http://humanityjournal.org/issue6-3/writing-the-history-of-
development-part-1-the-first-wave/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
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israel.org/en/Development-Issues/What-is-Development [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
Kramer, L. (2019). What is GDP and Why Is It So Important to Economists and Investors?.
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Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-development [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
Kurniawan, D. (2018). How Do We Measure Development (and Why Does it Matter)? – Politics
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Discussion - Discuss Anything About Sociology. Available at:

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