Why Learning for Development?

This book in the Development Matters series takes a learning approach to development. The focus is on the everyday learning that takes place through development action, which may be intentional and structured as well as informal and an outcome of different forms of engagement. The social dynamics of learning are important for individuals, for their organizations and for building coherent policy and action. The connection between these processes is not straightforward – the organizational and institutional embedding of new learning is often one of the biggest challenges for development, and is a recurring theme throughout the book. This first chapter engages with the considerable scope of the field, and outlines our approach.

Conceptualizing a learning approach to development

Contemporary development theorist Jan Nederveen Pieterse defines development 'as the organized intervention in collective affairs according to a standard of improvement. What constitutes improvement and what is appropriate intervention obviously vary according to class, culture, historical context and relations of power' (2001: 3). This definition is purposive: development involves deliberate action to bring about positive changes for humanity. Nederveen Pieterse does signal, however, that both purpose and process are contested arenas.

The contested nature of defining development and of what constitute 'organized intervention' and 'standard of improvement' is also present in the three views of development outlined by Thomas (2000). Starting with the notion of development as 'good change' put forward by Chambers (1997), Thomas notes first that development is a vision of a particular state of being. There are many visions of being, however, and such differences will be socially and culturally defined as well as changing over time and having different representations in different historical periods and parts of the world. Second, development is seen as a historical process: the dynamics of social, political and economic organization as they have changed over time – particularly, but not only, within capitalism. There are different analyses and interpretations of this historical process, and especially of the nature of capitalist development, with its historical links to colonialism and access to cheap inputs for industrialization from different parts of the world. Third, development is intentional activity: the interventions of different actors (state and non-state) deliberately taken to bring about what those actors consider to be 'good change'. Again, what is considered to be 'good change' will be informed by different understandings of development and will hence be supported by different policies and approaches to intervention.

There are obvious similarities between Nederveen Pieterse's 'organized intervention' and Thomas's intentional development, and his 'standard of improvement' is associated with a vision of a desirable state of being. However, development as a historical process is fundamental to the other two conceptions: by studying history, we gain a sense of why development has occurred in particular ways in different parts of the world – outcomes which include, of course, both the inexorable process of change in social, economic and political conditions, and the actions and interventions of those who wished deliberately to bring about change with the intention of improving well-being as a whole. Those actions, in history as in the present, have been informed by visions and perspectives about what constitutes development (even if 'development' was not the terminology used). Indeed it has been suggested by Cowen and Shenton that development in its modern form was conceived in response to the negative effects of capitalism in the early nineteenth century, and that 'to develop ... was to ameliorate the social misery which arose out of the immanent process of capitalist growth' (1996: 116). Since then, the main 'big debate' has been whether development should take place alongside capitalism or should envisage another social order. More recently, 'another social order' – in terms of its representation in socialism and communism – is seen as having failed, with some exceptions, such as in Cuba and China, although changes in those economies – particularly in China – have challenged their original Marxist visions. However, development alongside capitalism has also been judged by many as having failed the large majority of poor people (in spite of massive changes in South-East Asia and in the BRICS). In the views of different structuralist and post-development thinkers, in particular, the development alongside capitalism 'project' is seen as the cause of the lack of development or underdevelopment in certain parts of the world (and as responsible for poverty and inequality within advanced capitalist societies).

Such contestations in terms of big ideas about the social order have been reflected in theoretical debates about development, whether in terms of grand theory about the nature of capitalist and socialist development, or with respect to middle-level theories of alternative and people-centred human development. Apart from currents of Marxism and post-development thinkers, most theorizing of development has been aligned to greater or lesser extents with policy and intervention within or alongside capitalism. Alternative development and human development thinkers have challenged capitalism in terms of its negative impacts and have argued for the need to focus on human needs, social and community development, human capabilities and democracy. Although it can be debated whether such ideas constitute the basis of a completely different social form, they have certainly challenged the neo-liberal currents and capitalist growth orthodoxies of the 1980s. The theories of development that underlie the alternative and human development visions have also been closely linked in turn to approaches that promote participation, empowerment and capacity building, which have influenced major institutions such as the World Bank in their studies of the 'voices of the poor'. As Thomas notes (2000: 20–1), even post-development thinkers have acknowledged the need for action, although with the strong caveat that interveners should 'start examining the whys and wherefores of their actions' (Rahnema, 1997: 397).

This book focuses on intentional development while arguing that the actions of interveners are fundamentally part of, and contribute to, development as history. Intentional development includes actors who may be considered as having 'trusteeship': 'the intent which is expressed, by one source of agency, to develop the capacities of another' (Cowen and Shenton, 1996:...