To Develop What?

Meanings of ‘development’ over time


Over time ‘development’ has carried very different meanings. The term ‘development’ in its present sense dates from the postwar era of modern development thinking. In hindsight, earlier practices have been viewed as antecedents of development policy, though the term ‘development’ was not necessarily used at the time. Thus Kurt Martin (1991) regards the classic political economists, from Ricardo to Marx, as development thinkers for they addressed similar problems of economic development. The turn-of- the-century latecomers to industrialization in central and eastern Europe faced basic development questions such as the appropriate relationship between agriculture and industry. In central planning the Soviets found a novel instrument to achieve industrialization. During the Cold War years of rivalry between capitalism and communism, the two competing develop- ment strategies were western development economics and central planning (in the Soviet, Chinese or Cuban varieties). In this general context, the core meaning of development was catching up with the advanced industrialized countries.

Jan N. Pierterse

Queen of England, Elizabeth as a young woman. 

I have and probably share the complex feelings towards British royalty you do. It is difficult for me to gauge physical beauty with the royal houses of England. They are intertwined so deeply with the gross history of their conquests and belief in their righteousness and importance to the exclusion of others. I see their faces I hear cries of terror, and smell the blood and feel the terror they held over the world for centuries.

It is a difficult jump to make from being subjugated until recently, into the adulation the crown enjoys today from its colonies and former colonies, but millions have made that leap. What happened to the introspection self-development needs a people to employ as they become themselves and try to return to independence from colonial powers? Today that question alone points to what ails our Native souls. 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.2.14