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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES:RETROSPECT AND INTELLECTUAL PROSPECTS

David HulmeGlobal Development Institute

University of Manchesterwww.gdi.manchester.ac.ukwww.effective-states.org

The University of Bristol3 February 2016

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INTRODUCTION• Social Sciences -“Chaos of disciplines”…or

“Chaos of cross disciplines”• According to Development Studies

Association – development is the study “of the

alternative processes and methods of socio-economic change”• A very broad definition – to

accommodate the intense contestation of what “development” means

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• Mohan & Wilson (2005)• “Development Studies is driven by real-world

issues and problems, rather than disciplinary perspectives….[this] requires that different disciplines find ways to communicate and pool resources….disciplinary priorities are secondary to engagement with the realities of men, women and children living in poor countries and the processes and policies which affect them.”

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• Esteva (1992 and 2014)• “In saying ‘development’ most people are now

saying the opposite of what they want to convey…they are transforming its agony into a chronic condition…from the unburied corpse of development every kind of pest has started to spread”…[do we now live in a world which is] “post post-development”?

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• Me – It can’t be dead!• The study of processes of socio-economic change and the

pursuit of ideas and practices that make the achievement of human flourishing for all more probable

Key points• Cross disciplinary….sometimes ‘cross’ with disciplines• Its intellectual history creates a continuing legacy• Applied emphasis…direct engagement or ideas/framing• A desire to treat the objects of study as active

participants in development (co-production)• We must distinguish the study from the practice…but

close interactions between them• Tension: trade-offs in an imperfect world OR all good

things come together (a world of saints and virtue)

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A MINI-HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 1

• Starts just after WW2• 1950s and 1960s – It’s the projects, stupid!• Big ‘D’ development• Catching up, modernization, prosperity for all,

copying the West• Walt Rostow and Talcott Parsons

1970 – It’s NOT the projects, stupid!• Dependency theory, development of

underdevelopment • It’s the social and economic structure, stupid!• Critique of capitalist development –

revolutionary• But eventually leads to a theoretical

IMPASSE (David Booth)

A MINI-HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2

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A MINI-HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 3

1980s – It’s the policy, stupid!• Neo-liberal economic thinking (Hayek, Friedmann)• Structural adjustment (World Bank & IMF

conditionality) and the Washington Consensus• Privatize, liberalize, deregulate• UK and European DS challenge this…ineffectively

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A MINI-HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 4

1990s • 1990 was a pivotal year- World Development Report on poverty- Human Development Report with HDI- Fall of USSR/Iron Curtain- UN ‘Children’s Summit’ in New York• Washington Consensus (WB & IMF) vs.

UN Paradigm (Therien)• Rise of NGOs…and civil society• A broad interest in ‘institutions’ – initially formal

and democratic but later ‘informal’

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A MINI-HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 5

2000s • Move to the middle ground• From ‘state or market’ to ‘state and market’• A big middle…Dollar & Kraay to Stiglitz to Sachs• It’s NOT the projects• It’s NOT the policies• It’s the institutions, stupid!• Political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists

have been saying this a long time• But DS needed the high priests – economists and

econometricians – to join this chorus

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2015 – WHERE ARE WE?

• Still great contestation…much about relative roles of market and state in development and/or economic growth and human development. But, very few DS scholars now take pole positions!

• Confusion about what is happening on the ground

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Are these the worst of times?

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Or are these the best of times?

% of people living on $1.25 per day halved since 1990

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WHY SO MUCH DOOM & GLOOM?

• Aggregate human progress – wealth, reduced absolute poverty, life-expectancy, reduced infant mortality – is the best ever.

• But, an air of precariousness and insecurity – why?• The media – take a break with www.positivenews.org• The aid agencies and NGOs need to continue to ‘sell’

humanitarian crises• Nature of contemporary globalization – aggregate improvements

but also high insecurity (especially jobs) and rapid rise in inequality

• The unsustainability of contemporary growth process

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2015 – OTHER BIG DIVIDES

• Development as Science• Aid agencies, ministers, evidence• Econometricians, RCTs, J-PAL• Agency with a minor in structure

• Or, development as unfolding History• Why States Fail, Political Orders, Social Orders• Structure with a minor in agency

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2015 – OTHER BIG DIVIDES

• Development as ‘all good things come together’• Aid agencies, ministers, prime ministers (“golden

thread”)• Win/win policies

• Or, development produces winners and losers• Critical development studies• Political scientists, sociologists, economic historians,

anthropologists

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2015 – CONSENSUS

• No longer growth versus human development versus institutions – they need to be woven together

• But, very different weighting in specific disciplines and perspectives of growth (orthodox economists), human development (HDCA) and institutions (political scientists and political economists)

• Agency versus structure less common…agency and structure• But, very different emphases in disciplines and perspectives• Intersectionality – almost all will agree…but ‘gender’ analysis

continues to dominate Development Studies…and ‘class’ is rarely referenced

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 2015 – CONSENSUS?

• It’s the Politics (aka “institutions”), stupid!• Broad acceptance in Development Studies after North,

Acemoglu & Robinson, Fukuyama, Leftwich, Khan• Difficult for the practice of development with its need

to predict/guarantee performance/outcomes. ‘Governance’ is more comforting.

• Tom Carrothers….”The Almost Revolution”• Does ‘politics’ mean prescribe to liberal

democracy?• Does ‘politics’ mean understand the political

economy (PEA)?• For Political Scientists/Studies - does ‘applied

politics’ exist…should it?

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EMERGING (CONTINUING) CHALLENGES: THEORETICAL

• Weaning ourselves off “false binaries”. Developed / developing; rich/poor; North/South; fragile/stable; donor/recipient…we know they are over-simplifications

• Achieving “compelling analytical narratives” as the numbers of actors increase and the specificities of space and time become ever more evident:

G20, 3G, BRICs, AU, ‘non-traditional donors’, GAVI, Global Fund, philanthrocapitalists, virtual communities

• Theorizing multi-scale linkages and processes: Halperin, it’s the cities, stupid!

• Dealing with the US…no longer hegemon? Neither hero nor villain?• Moving on from aid/ODA…focusing on development finance…

understanding financialization

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EMERGING (CONTINUING) CHALLENGES: METHODOLOGICAL

• Quality standards for qualitative research… “trust me I’m a social scientist….”

• Institutionalising Q-squared (Kanbur and Shaffer)• Achieving Q-cubed or “co-production of knowledge”

– systematization or standards (Shack Dwellers International / SDI)

• Improving the quality of datasets – especially DHS• Access to data - Northern elites and Southern

gatekeepers

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EMERGING CHALLENGES: RESEARCH TO POLICY / PRACTICE / IMPACT

• Official linear framework for “knowledge transfer” contrasts with the real world of shifting webs of “knowledge creation” – informal and diffuse

• Conversion of academic anal ysis into “evidence”• Privileges positivist, large n, quantitative work• Undervalues/ignores small n and qualitative work (“anecdotes”)• Claims to objectivity and value-free social science• Role of research becomes the empirical proving of “what works”…RCTs rule• Fosters a focus on products…institutions become “isomorphic mimicry”

• The domestic politics of aid and aid agencies• Findings the minister “does not appreciate”• Findings that cannot be absorbed – longer time frames, relationships,

windows of opportunity, flexible funding• Doing Development Differently (DDD) “movement”

• Donors should support “politically smart and locally led development”• Aid quality not quantity…an honest dialogue with taxpayers

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FUTURE AGENDA for DS 1• Clearly academics should lead on this – independence!• Maybe the UN has done it for Development Studies –

the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)• Every good thing…so no research priorities?• Or have they identified a set of important research

priorities – climate change, sustainability, green growth, inequality, urbanization…they even include governance and effective institutions (but not politics and democracy)

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FUTURE AGENDA for DS 2• Priority = understanding the deeper processes• Challenging official win/win narratives that are being fostered• Global level:

• understanding processes underpinning the MDGs to SDGs shift = better understand how to achieve more progressive goals in 2030

• theorizing, testing, critiquing the promise of “inclusive capitalism” (anti-neoliberalism no longer works)!

• National level: greater focus on the politics of national and sub-national development and on implementation. Most poor countries have OK policies – they lack the finance and the delivery capacity.

• All levels:deeper understanding of values, norms and beliefs and their diffusion …consumerism, values as prices, (un)acceptability of inequality, tolerance and intolerance

• Tools for intervention – how to theorize action/practice as trying to change the historical trajectories of societies – not as linear projects or policies

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CONCLUSION• DS as a highly productive form of cross-disciplinary ‘chaos’ – economics

has pride of place but politics is on the rise• Theoretical challenges – common to the social sciences• Methodological challenges

• Institutionalising the quality of qualitative work• Q-squared• Q-cubed…the frontier or a false promise?

• Research to practice• Advocacy for “shifting webs” approaches – there is not a ‘science’• Demonstrating that there is no evidence without theory• Exploring DDD and related initiatives

• For me – big future agenda – social norms and values• How to foster social limits on consumption/consumerism…how to

promote other-regarding behaviours