Development: Creator and destroyer of values

Abstract

The terminology and practice of development are ambiguous. The term is used both descriptively and normatively, and it refers either to goals or to means for reaching these. Moreover, the practice has oscillated from one-dimensional pursuit of economic growth to comprehensive social engineering to transform societal structures. Development was long considered an unalloyed good. As attendant social, cultural, ecological and human costs become more evident, however, it is increasingly viewed as a two-edge sword, simultaneously creating and destroying values. It brings material and technological gains and new freedoms, but also breeds injustice, destroys cultures, damages environments and generalizes anomie. More importantly, development engenders value conflicts over the meaning and content of the good life, the basis of justice in society, and the criteria governing the stance of human societies toward nature. In thinking about, and acting upon, development we need “a wisdom to match our sciences.” This essay explores possible roads leading to such wisdom.

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