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Sociology: Development

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Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Changing Connotations of Development
  3. Development as Economic Growth
  4. Development as Improvement of Human Conditions
  5. Development as Human Freedom
  6. Development as Upgradation of Social Order and Social Harmony
  7. Social and Political Aspects of Development 
  8. Socialist conception of Development
  9. Development as Liberation from Dependency and Exploitation

Introduction

Social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of development are now intertwined with one another. It has been very challenging for scholars to come up with a single, all-inclusive definition of development because of its composite and multidimensional nature.

Changing Connotations of Development

Different people have different definitions of development. As a result, development has been defined and measured in various ways throughout history. According to liberalist theorists, development entails enhancing a society's economic, social, and political circumstances. The socialist viewpoint holds developed nations accountable for the underdevelopment of third-world nations.

Development as Economic Growth

In the middle of the 20th century, economic growth and the increase in Gross National Product were used to define and measure development. This was primarily due to the economic losses brought on by the colonial powers' exploitation of the resources of the newly freed nation states in Asia and Africa. For these nations, economic growth was top priority. The models that were available included market expansion, financial development, trade, and a focus on rising GNP.

Development as Improvement of Human Conditions

It was quickly realized that simply increasing the country's wealth or income was insufficient. The standard of living for people should improve. Mahbub ul Haq defined development in terms of human development, which implies an increase in peoples' chances for a good life. He created the Physical Quality of Life Index and the Human Development Index to gauge how much people's chances for success have increased. The four types of indicators used in this index were the life expectancy, the child survival rate, the literacy rate, and the average person's purchasing power.

According to Haq, development's primary goal is to increase peoples' options. Human choices go far beyond just having enough money to live comfortably. They also include things like knowledge, good health, stable employment, protection from crime and violence, and enjoyable leisure time. In addition, there are many other significant decisions made by people that are not solely or even primarily influenced by their income.

Development as Human Freedom

Amartya Sen broadens the definition of development to include the expansion of human potential, opportunities, and liberties. Human capabilities include health and education, and opportunities include creating an environment that allows people to live long, healthy lives filled with creativity. The liberties include a variety of civil liberties. Sen places so much value on freedoms that he defines progress as freedom. Here, the terms "freedom" and "freedom from" are interchangeable. Freedom from hunger, disease, and ignorance are just a few examples of the two types of freedom that development symbolizes. It also stands for the freedom of worship, expression, and self-realization, among other things. Freedom of, as opposed to freedom from, is concerned with preserving civil liberties while freedom from is focused on improving human capabilities like health and education. Thus, improving quality of life is the main focus of the human development paradigm.

Development as Upgradation of Social Order and Social Harmony

With regard to the physical and civil dimensions, life quality is not fully satiated. Other aspects of quality of life include psychological, social, moral, and cultural factors, among others. The current conception of human development suffers from a limited perspective to the extent that it prioritizes the physical and civil over the psychological, social, moral, and cultural. Economic, physical, and civil quality of life are given priority when defining development, and the so-called developed countries rank highly in each of these categories.

The social quality of life, which is reflected in family harmony and community ties, as well as the psychological quality of life, which is measured by levels of satisfaction and contentment, mental health, sound sleep, and tolerable levels of stress and tension, are the other dimensions that require attention. Similar to this, moral quality of life can be described as having a low incidence of crime, delinquency, violence, and unwed motherhood. Additionally, according to some thinkers, development should lead to the preservation of racial and cultural diversity. Gender equity, respect for cultural diversity, and social harmony should all be goals of development. This also suggests an improvement in social order, particularly in terms of normative order and integration.

Therefore, development can be viewed holistically as an improvement in all facets of social order, including material, affective, and civil. Its parameters could be:.
  • Economic development
  • Human Development
  • Civil Development
  • Social Development 
The frontiers of development have not been static, but rather have been expanding. Thus, rather than being seen as alternatives, but as complements, the various meanings of development.

Social and Political Aspects of Development

Sociology frequently discusses how modernity and development are related. A second step forward was made as a result of systematic attempts to conceptualize modernization as the current mode of social change that is both universal in applicability and global in scope. This was made possible by the perception of constant and increasing interaction between economic and non-economic factors in development.

A degree of self-sustaining growth in the economy, or at least growth sufficient to increase both production and consumption regularly; a measure of public participation in the polity, or participation in defining and choosing policy alternatives; a diffusion of secular/rational norms in the culture und.

Socialist conception of Development 

In the 20th century, the socialist idea first gained traction when academics began contrasting Asian and African nations with those in Europe in an effort to understand why the former had less developed than the latter. The economic indicators of progress in these nations were also used as a gauge of development by their leaders and academics.

Development as Liberation from Dependency and Exploitation

The theory that the underdevelopment of the Third World is a result of the First World's development has been developed by academics like Paul Baran, Immanuel Wallerstein, Andre Gunder Frank, and Samir Amin. The center-periphery thesis asserts that during colonial times, the center (colonial power) directly exploited the periphery and developed at the expense of the periphery. He identifies unequal exchange as the main factor contributing to the underdevelopment of the periphery. Development therefore refers to freedom from reliance on unequal exchange in a global context. This necessitates fundamental adjustments to international relations, especially between developed and developing countries. Therefor, a new International Economic Order is demanded.

Frank contends that national structures are less unequal when the center-periphery thesis is applied to the national context. There are dominant and dominated classes within each country, just as there are more and less developed and developed nations in the world. Liberation of the masses from reliance on the dominant class is, therefore, what development in the national context means. Restructuring of class and power relations is necessary for such liberation to take place in any given nation.

Reference

  1. Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 1998. India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 
  2. Haq Mahbub Ul. 1996. Human Development Paradigm for South Asia. D. T. Lakadwala Memorial Lecture, Delhi; Institute of Social Sciences
  3. NCERT. 2007. Social Change and Development in India: Text book in Sociology for Class XII, New Delhi: NCERT.
  4. Sharma S. L. 1986. “Changing Conceptions of Development: An Analytic Search for a Missing Dimension”, in S. L. Sharma (ed.), The Issues in Asian Rethinking on Development, Jaipur: Rawat Publications.

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