What is development?

The concept defies simple definitions. Often viewed simply as an economic process involving growth & diversification

Measured quantitatively – e.g., per capita income.

But it’s also a qualitative concept that entails complex social, cultural, & environmental changes.

These variables may not be so easily quantified.

There are many models of what "development" should look like and many different standards of what constitutes "success.

What is development? Usually involves changes aimed at

improving quality of some aspect(s) of peoples’ lives:

Health

Education

Food production

Income generation (left)

Difficulties can occur in attempts to institute planned/directed change in human societies.

Failure to take into account the integrated nature of sociocultural systems can lead to numerous unanticipated social, cultural & ecological consequences.

Members of a Moroccan women’s cooperative proudly pose with their new, more profitable line of products.

What is Development?

• Process of change intended to improve living standards of people.

• Typically regarded primarily as an economic process, promoting growth & diversification of economy.

• Development is also a qualitative concept that involves complex social, cultural, & environmental changes.

United Nations Development Program

Human Development Index.

Created by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq.

Creation of a single statistic to serve as a frame of reference for both social & economic development.

Combined indicators of health (life expectancy),educational attainment (yrs. of schooling) & living standards (per capita GNP) into a composite human development index, HDI.

"The basic purpose of development is to enlarge people's choices. In principle, these choices can be infinite and can change over time. People often value achievements that do not show up at all, or not immediately, in income or growth figures: greater access to knowledge, better nutrition and health services, more secure livelihoods, security against crime and physical violence, satisfying leisure hours, political and cultural freedoms and sense of participation in community activities. The objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives."

People First: The Human

Development Reports

Components of HDI

Human Development Index

Composite measure which includes demographic, health, educational, income, etc. Very High = 9+ ; High = 8 to 9 ; Medium = 5 to 8 ; Low is below 5

Sustainable Development Concept began emerging in 1970s.

Premise is that development must meet needs of present generation without compromising ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

2 key ideas: • concept of needs – in particular the needs of the world's poor, which deserve overriding priority.

• idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.“

Source: International Institute for Sustainable Development

Ecological Footprint

Concept used to gauge human demands on nature.

Measures the amount of biologically productive land & sea area that an individual/ population/region requires, using prevailing technology, to produce resources that are consumed & absorb waste that is generated.

Measurement/footprint is then compared to how much land & sea area is actually available.

Overshoot *

• Occurs when the demands on ecosystem exceed

the capacity of that ecosystem to regenerate the

resources a population consumes & to absorb the

wastes it produces.

• Currently takes 16 months to regenerate what we

use in 1 year.

• Overshoot is only maintained by liquidating Earth’s

resources.

• Overshoot contributes to climate change, resource

conflicts & wars, mass migrations, famine, disease,

etc. *Very similar to concept of carrying capacity

Overshoot

• Overshoot tends to

have disproportionate

impact on poor b/c

they cannot buy their

way out of the problem

by getting resources

from somewhere else.

Carbon Footprint • Carbon consumption

comprises ½ of humanity’s

total ecological footprint.

• Carbon footprint reveals

amount of CO2 emitted by

population/activity.

• Translates amount of CO2

emitted into amount of forest

area required to sequester

CO2 emissions.

• Gives a measure of the

demand placed on the earth

resulting from the burning of

fossil fuels.

U.S. Carbon Footprint

Annual Per Capita Energy Consumption

Source: Mirror for Humanity. 8th Edition. Conrad Kottak. McGraw Hill Publishers

Debtors and Creditors Debtor countries are those

which rely for their needs on

resource surpluses concentrated

in ecological creditor countries.

Creditors use less biocapacity

than they have.

As overshoot increases, growing

ecological scarcity will

increasingly influence & reshape

world map.

Shift away from 20th century

distinction between “developing &

developed” countries to one of

Ecological Creditor countries &

Ecological Debtor countries.

Today, 80 percent of world’s population lives in countries that use more resources than what is renewably available within their own borders.

Source: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

Ecological Creditors and Debtors, Greens are Ecological Reserves Dark equals > 50% of biocapacity, Light equals < 50% of biocapacity. Reds are Ecological Deficit Light equals < 50% of biocapacity Dark equals > 50% of biocapacity

Development as Intervention Philosophy

• Concept of development can serve to ideologically justify interference in lives of others.

• Based upon assumption that we possess a superior way of living and thinking.

• Industrialization, modernization, westernization, & individualism seen as desirable evolutionary advances that will bring long-term benefits to others.

Anthropologist Conrad Kottak

Culture & Economic Development*

• Comparative study of final reports of 68 development projects.

• Kottak found that culturally compatible development projects were twice as successful financially as those that were culturally incompatible.

• Concludes that to maximize social & economic benefits, development projects should:

1. Be culturally compatible.

2. Respond to locally perceived needs.

3. Involve local people in planning and implementing changes.

4. Harness traditional organizations.

5. Be flexible.

Local Models • Realistic development promotes change, but not too much too fast,

• Preserves local systems while making them work better.

• Best models for development can often be found in target communities themselves.

Traditional ecological knowledge

• Information that people in a given community – based on experience adapted to local culture and environment – have developed over time.

• “Traditional“ does not imply old, nonscientific or non technical in nature • It simply means "tradition-based."

• Created in manner that reflects traditions of communities & the ways in which that knowledge is created, preserved & disseminated.

Traditional ecological knowledge

Traditional knowledge is collective in nature and considered the property of the entire community.

It does not belong to any single individual within the community, and is transmitted through specific cultural and traditional information exchange mechanisms.

Traditional knowledge is often maintained and transmitted orally through elders or specialists (breeders, healers, etc.), and often to only a select few people within a community.

Shea nuts

Indigenous knowledge

Idea of indigenous intellectual property rights emerged as way to help preserve a society’s cultural base, which may have immense commercial value.

• Example: hoodia . • Cactus used by San

peoples for centuries but now sold as an appetite suppressant.

• San Hoodia Project

San peoples of Southern Africa have used it for centuries.

Hoodia gordonii

Conrad Kottak:

The New Ecological Anthropology Blends theory with political awareness & policy

concerns.

Attempts to understand & devise culturally informed

solutions to problems/issues such as:

environmental degradation

environmental racism

role of media, NGOs, & environmental hazards in stimulating

ecological awareness & action.

Many assumptions & techniques of “old ecological

anthropology” now clearly problematic.

American Anthropologist. 1999

John Bodley

Anthropology & Global Environmental Change

The speed & scale of resource depletion and

environmental degradation accelerates with

increases in scale of culture & concentration

of social power.

Cultural resiliency is a key feature of long-

term human adaptability.

Cultural ability to minimize human caused

detrimental impacts to environment while

smoothing out human impact of natural

resource fluctuations.

“…the driving force behind global environmental change

is the natural human desire of individuals to improve the

material security of their households under cultural

conditions of economic scarcity produced by social

inequality and competitive striving.

The important point is that economic scarcity and

environmental problems are produced culturally by

social inequality, they are not natural conditions.”

John Bodley Anthropology & Global Environmental Change

Paul Sillitoe: The Development of Indigenous

Knowledge: A New Applied Anthropology

• Anthropologists must: 1. engage themselves in development process

2. promote appreciation & utilization of indigenous knowledge.

• What can/should we do?

• Remind narrowly focused “experts” that indigenous knowledge is socioculturally embedded • can be difficult to understand outside those contexts.

• Promote communication between stakeholders, e.g., scientists & local target populations.

• Try to anticipate or predict possible sociocultural consequences of introduced changes.