Development versus Dependency theory
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- How does Frank?s ?dependency theory? differ from the traditional ?development
theory??
The conventional view of the undeveloped countries denies them a history:
?To classify these countries as ?traditional societies? implies either
that the underdeveloped countries have no history or that it is unimportant.?
(Griffin 1969)
But it is increasingly clear that the history of the post-colonial
countries has been crucially important in shaping their present underdevelopment.
The most influential proponent of the thesis that European expansion and
colonialism created the underdevelopment of these countries has been Andre
Gubder Frank. Frank?s thesis is that underdevelopment is not basically
a consequence of traditionalism. Rather, he argues that underdevelopment
in Latin America-and by extension, parts of Africa and Asia- has been systematically
created by colonist exploitation. Frank has documented ?the development
of underdevelopment? in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Cuba.
- What explanations are given in Paul Silletoe?s article for the failure
of development?
- Conspiracy theories that suggest ?development? is all a multi-national
capitalist scheme to enslave the world, saddling many Third World countries
today with international debts crippling economic growth.
- Donors missing overseas assistance for flagrant strategic political
ends, notably during the Cold War to support and reward allies, but continuing
up to present times by tying aid to trade.
- The neo-Malthusian argument that relentless population growth is
wiping out any technological gains, despite the fact that yield statistics
demonstrates that the world produces enough food to feed us all.
- What was wrong with the ?top-down? approach?
It is widely agreed that the ?top-down? approach which many agencies
took to development was partly to blame. Th e assumption that experts,
notably economists, can diagnose problems and devise plans for governments
to implement to improve people?s lives is questioned. The arrogance, the
ignorance of the needs and aspirations of the poor, did great damage.
- What does he mean by the ?participatory? approach?
Agencies consulting more closely with their ?target beneficiaries?-
i.e. involve the poor themselves in problem identification and decision-making
process, rather than trying to impose outsider-devised interventions on
them.
- How does indigenous knowledge differ from scientific knowledge?
Indigenous knowledge- what ?ordinary? folk know. This is local in geographical
extent and cultural context. It is fragmentarily distributed, exists nowhere
as a totality. Although more widely shared locally than specialised scientific
knowledge, no one person, institution, or authority encompasses it all.
- Look at the example of the pumpkin vines in Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, blights such as bacterial wilt, and fungal disease occasionally
attack the profitable pumpkin crops. People attribute this to the ?evil
eye?, and it is common to see inverted earthenware pots, painted black
with white circles, hung up to protect the crop.
A role for indigenous knowledge research remains in the solution, to
inform and perhaps correct externally-derived adaptive technical interventions.
Such research can further understanding of the homestead system, where
Pumpkin vines are customarily grown in a spreading tangle off the
ground over bamboo frames. Although this is more of a piecemeal ?happening?
than a planned cultivation, such practices, built up through experience
over many generations, may hinder the spread of disease.
Indigenous knowledge research may also facilitate collaborative communication
of scientific findings, since people are more likely to respond to recommendations
if they match their own perceptions of their needs, for example, if they
are expressed in an ?evil eye? idiom.
- Why did the Flood Action Plan have bad consequences for the poor ?Jele?
caste.
The spending of many billions in development assistance-funding scientific
advances and associated technological interventions goes hand-in-hand with
increased poverty. It bolsters the power of the wealthy elites who occupy
positions interfacing with the international community. The poor are excluded
and further lose control over their own lives. One clear link in Bangladesh
is such that technological advances may increase the value of resources,
attracting the wealthy and powerful who then seek to control them. Resources
held in common which give uncertain or poor returns and are uneconomically
labour-intensive are not attractive propositions. The poor often rely on
such common land and water bodies to eke out their meagre livelihoods.
If the wealthy evict them, following a scientifically informed intervention
that increases productive capacity, the consequences can be dire.
The Flood Action Plan, for example, a multi-billion dollar engineering
project of embankments and sluices intended to control monsoon flooding,
has also made it more feasible to control what have traditionally been
common water-fisheries. When combined with development-assisted fish-stocking
programmes, these become highly productive resources and poor jele caste
Hindu fisherman find access restricted. Before the 1970s, the untouchable
jele caste was almost exclusively involved in fishing, and fishermen followed
traditional access customs.
-How does the ?Green Revolution? often work against the interests of the poor?
- Green revolution- Dramatic increases in agricultural production from genetically engineered hybrid grains that produce high yields in return for high inputs of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
- ELDCs are importing three times more cereals from EMDCs because the
green revolution has made these ELDCs increasingly dependant on foreign
grain imports although the revolution was supposed to promote self-sufficiency.
- Need for petrochemical fertilisers, mechanised farming, irrigation
etc. Therefore except where the country transforming its agriculture is
self-sufficient in oil, fertiliser manufacture and industrial capacity
to produce tractors and other machinery. The Green revolution creates markets
for the industrial countries and plunges under-developed countries into
deeper and deeper dependency.
- Consequences for rural populations- radical transformation in the
agrarian class structure, The costs favour the large land-owner and relatively
prosperous peasant farmer. Widens the gap between the rich and the poor.
The poor are forced to sell their land to the expanding capitalist farmers
and join the labour force. This causes rural depopulation as poor people
seek jobs elsewhere; e.g. Pakistan, Thailand, Mexico, India, Philippines.
- How did the development discussions make conflict worse in one Bangladeshi
village?
The Bangladesh projects have followed established participatory approaches,
striving to empower while facilitating technology transfer. Further, the
scientists have adopted a problem-centred approach, generating a range
of potential options from which ?beneficiaries? might choose.
In one Bangladeshi village, the discussions catalysed conflict between
stakeholder groups rather than facilitating progressive change. The rich
landowners expected their poor and landless clients to go along with whatever
they mooted, as usual. The wealthy saw the project as an opportunity to
speed up this slow natural process to their advantage. When they were encouraged
to speak out at segregated stakeholder sessions, the poor, particularly
those who relied heavily on fishing, predictably opposed the suggestions
which would deprive them of a common resource. A village leader, addressing
a meeting, warned everyone against collaborating with the project and talked
of protecting the ?beel?, as it was part of a British plot to retake colonial
control of Bengal. More worryingly, the landowners forbade people to fish
over their land over the lake. In another display of power, following elections,
landowners refused to enter into sharecropping arrangements with poor member
of their villages or employ them as day labourers, effectively depriving
local people of an important source of income, by entering into arrangements
with persons from elsewhere.
We need to urge development agencies to debate more openly the wisdom of ethics of interfering socially in other communities, imposing Western-informed notions of good governance, human rights and natural justice. We need to promote this kind of open debate or else the rich will continue to become richer, and the poor poorer. One of our consistent exports to egalitarian tribal societies around the world has been poverty. We should not allow politicians, to whom these issues are so familiar, to spin them away.
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by: Admin
Total views: 334
Word Count: 1335
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 Time: 12:00 AM
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