Lecture: Unequal Development, Economic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique, Chris Hann and Keith Hart, 2011
Keywords: Anthropology, Development, Economic Sociology, Economy, Economy and Society, Unequal Development
University of Delhi
Bachelor of Arts
Economic Sociology
Reading to be covered: Hann, Chris and Keith Hart, 2011, Economic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique, UK: Polity Press, Chapter: 6, Unequal Development, pp. 100-119
Course Structure
Important Points to be Kept in Mind while Studying the Article/ Study Material
Expected Outcome
Introduction: Unequal development
Development in an Unequal World
Anthropologist and Development
The Anthropology of Development in Africa
The Informal Economy
Conclusion
Important Points to be Kept in Mind while Studying the Article/ Study Material
The meaning of development
Types of development
The process of the development
How the development process had changed society and social structure
Social impact of the development
What we mean by the unequal development
The reason, nature, quantity and quality of the development and unequal development
Expected Outcome
At the end of the article, the student will be able to understand the meaning of the development, its process and this are changing the society and social structure. Students will be able to explain the meaning, reason, nature, quantitative and quality of the development and unequal development.
Introduction: Unequal development
Dear students first you should know that what is development. What is the different meaning of development? I have already covered these things in my introductory lecture.
The term development is linked with racist imperialism.
Anthropology’s turn to ethnography with last century was linked to the replacement of empire with a world system of independent nation-state based on the right of people everywhere to define their own way of life.
The study of development had required anthropologist to engage with social change at a more inclusive level.
Anthropological study shows that how our world becomes unequal.
The radical critiques launched by Marxist and Feminist contributed in their own way, but they lacked Marx and Engel’s world history vision.
The ultimate goal of the drive for development is the better world in which the rich might join poor countries to seek ways of improving economic prospects.
However, how do you see the development is important?
Development in an Unequal World
Direction
Desire
We had one billion world population in 1800 and 1/40 population were living in the town and cities. Other extracting was a livelihood from the agriculture-related work.
In those days the source of energy was animal and plant.
By 2000 the total six billion population are living on this earth and 1/2 population were living in the cities.
Now we have an average annual population growth rate is 1.5 per cent and the average growth rate of cities is 2 per cent in the last 200 years.
Now due to medical science development and food production, many people live longer, work less and spend more than they did before.
However, the distribution of energy is unequal in the world.
Average US cities consume 400 times more energy than the average Uganda consuming.
Development is a hectic dash of humanity from village to city.
The rise of capitalism causes in the respected cycle of creation and destruction in society. Joseph Schumpeter calls it creative destruction.
They say that the government is the best place for sustained economic growth.
The most common usage of development of the last half-century refers to the commitment of rich countries to help poor countries became richer.
But after 1970 this commitment has faded.
Global Market: Development has thus been a label for political relations between rich and poor countries after the colonial empire.
However, the European Empire has collapsed after an anti-colonial revolt.
After the second world war, two decades (1950-1960) economic growth rise. After 1980, we had oil shocks, and during 1980-1990 onwards we open up the world economy for capital players.
It necessary at the expense of state ability to govern and debt interest payments become a huge income drain from the poor countries.
DEAR STUDENTS, YOU RELATE IT WITH THE THEORY OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT. IF YOU NEED A SEPARATE LECTURE ON THIS LET ME KNOW.
Anthropologist and Development
Earlier the development studies were offered in interdisciplinary space within an increasing formalization academic division of labour.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the dominant approach was modernization; the idea the poor people should become more like the rich. This meant replacing ‘traditional’ instruments with ‘modern’’ ones, adoption a ‘bourgeois package’ that consisted of cities. Capital, science and technology, democracy, the rule of law and education for all.
At that period increased inequalities were held to be acceptable since the benefits of programmed would eventually ‘trickle down’ to improve general living standards.
Around 1970, it becomes clear that this was not working and Marxist theories become more widely accepted it was realized that we need the redistribution of the wealth.
By 1980 it was realized that for making society more inclusive and welfare we need the central control by the central state bureaucracy.
The development process needs the participation of the common people therefore the concept of participatory development good the boost.
The state has also realized the importance of the anthropologist in the development process.
Therefore by 1970s, anthropologist and other ‘soft; social scientist were recruited to monitor ‘the human factor’. However, the neoliberal revolution of the 1980s installed the economist in full command and Development Studies interdisciplinary ethos was effectively sidelined.
And at this stage academician realized that we need a separate area of academic study labelled ‘development’.
Later on, was also realized that we cannot understand the development and development process in the society in the mathematical terms. Therefore we need the human face to be for the meaning of the development. Therefore, the concept of development with the dignity and development with the human had come out and widely discussed the academician and in the society in general.
Many Non-Government Organizations (NGO) have come forward in this debate and they advocated for the development with the human face in the development process the poor and downtrodden people too should be concerned.
Many British anthropologists including Malinowski and Raymond Apthorpe and others played a significant role in this regards.
They emphasized that before the development process we need to go to the people where they are living, we should conduct they study for the effect of the development. We should also make sure for their participation.
The anthropologist soon found that they were in the middle of a class war. They could take up one of three positions. They could inform on the people for the benefit of the bureaucracy. They could take the people’s side as advocates for their interests. Or they could try to sit on the dance as mediators, offering interpretations of the peoples to the bureaucracy and of the bureaucracy to the people. Most of them chose the last option.
After many developments regarding the role of the anthropologist in the development process, a new specialization called the “anthropology of development’’ arose, seeking to formalize the involvement of anthropologist in development bureaucracies.
Anthropologist did very well in the area of rural development through the concept of ‘participatory development.’
The Anthropology of Development in Africa
The project of developing Africa took hold in the late colonial period, around the time of the Second World War and immediately after. But independence from colonial rule brought a new dimension to the search for economic development there.
The Anthropology of Development in Africa
Around the Second World War, the project of development Africa took hold during the by the colonial period. Some African countries had good economies which were decline later on for example; in 1960 African country Ghana had a bigger economy but later on the decline. African countries were a striking example of indigenous capitalism in modern economic history. The period from the 1880s to First World Was saw exploitation in the mass production and consumption of commodities.
The farmers of Africa were to grow a profitable crop.
After the second world was Africa become the playground of the colonial power and they were started exploited their natural resources.
Africa appears in the Western media as little more than a playground for the four horsemen of the apocalypse: pestilence, war, famine and death. This is showing the colonial midst of the western media towards Africa.
The Informal Economy
These third worlds were also seen as ‘a planet of slums’ as Mile Davis has observed.
The businesses were run in a traditional way, what Max Weber called the ‘traditional enterprise ‘being based on rules, calculation and the avoidance of risk.
These countries are suffering from poverty, because of no purchasing power. To get out of poverty and economic depression economist Keynes has suggested that the government should increase the purchasing power, to get out of poverty and economic depression.
Marx has said that the economic condition is also controlling the social relations therefore for equal and better social relations we need economic equality.
Conclusion
Anthropologists need to show not only how people organise themselves locally in the face of global inequality. This involves a fundamental critique of current ideas and practices carried out in the name of ‘development’. The anthropologist can play an important role in sustainable development and narrow down the gap between the rich and poor.
Anil Kumar | Student of Life World
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