ReviseSociology

Category: Theories of development

  • Post-Development Perspectives

    The Post-Development Perspective became popular in the 1990s. Theorists from within this perspective are critical of Western models of development, arguing that development was always unjust, that it never worked, and that developing countries should find their own pathways to development. Escobar (2008) criticised modernisation theory for being ethnocentric. He argued that it was only…

  • Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid – A Summary and Criticism

    In this blog post I summarise Dambisa Moyo’s views on the problems with Aid as a strategy for development – she is talking about Official Development Aid rather than Emergency relief aid. I’m mainly drawing from her writing at the end of chapter 3 and the whole of chapter 4 – and I offer up…

  • The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs – A Summary of Chapters 1-4

      NB –  You might also like this summary of Chapter 8 – Which focuses on AIDs and malaria in Africa and ‘Jeffrey Sach’s case for International Development Aid, a summary of chapters 12-16 It would be useful for students of Global Development to develop a critical understanding of this book because Sachs has been…

  • Jeffery Sachs: Arguments for Aid

    This post summarises the views of Jeffry Sachs, for a broader post on this topic please see this post here. Jeffry Sachs in ‘The End of Poverty’ (2005) makes the case for increasing spending on aid to developing countries. Taken mainly from chapters 12-16 (1) Why is Aid needed? Sachs argues that injections of aid…

  • How to End Poverty in 15 years

    In this hour long programme Hans Rosling asks how we can eradicate extreme poverty in 15 years, which is goal number 1.1 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to which 193 nations signed up to in September 2015, in New York. While recognising that relative poverty exists within rich and poor countries…

  • Jeffry Sachs – Summary of The End of Poverty, Chapters 12-16

    This is a brief summary of the case Jeffry Sachs made for International Development Aid in his 2005 book ‘The End of Poverty’. Taken mainly from chapters 12-16 (1) Why is Aid needed? Sachs argues that injections of aid are needed to break the poverty trap –because there is no where else money is going…

  • The Bottom Billion – Paul Collier – A Summary

    Global poverty has been falling for decades, but a few countries which are caught in four distinct traps (such as the resource curse) are falling behind and falling apart. Aid does not work well in these places but there are things we can and should do because neglect will pose a security nightmare for the…

  • Sustainable Development

    This post defines sustainable development, summarises the environmental challenges we face and contrasts technocentric and ecocentric views on the relationship between economic growth and sustainability. There are many definitions of sustainable development, including this landmark one which first appeared in 1987: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future…

  • Criticisms of Neoliberalism

    The three country case studies below all suggest that although neoliberal policies might promote economic development in the long run, in the case of Chile at least, there are some significant negative consequences of this pathway to development. Chile in the 1970s Boliva in the the 1990s India – Contemporary NB – If you’re here…

  • People Centered Development

    This post provides a brief summary of people centred development approaches to social development, including the work of Vandana Shiva. Why are developing countries underdeveloped? People Centered Development Theorists generally agree with Dependency Theory about why some countries are underdeveloped – because of a history of exploitation and extraction by western Nation States and TNCs.…