DEST201 Midterm Study Guide: Development Theories, Thinkers, and Gender Approaches

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering core concepts, key thinkers, historical paradigms, and gender frameworks in development studies.

Core/Periphery relationship

A concept from Dependency Theorists arguing that the capitalist world economy is divided into core, periphery, and semi-periphery regions. In the periphery (largely agriculture), capitalism develops differently from core countries (advanced industrial) and is characterized as externally directed, less dynamic, and more exclusionary and unjust.

Neoliberalism

A political-economic ideology that attempts to improve human well-being by promoting individual self-interest and advocating for the withdrawal of government interventions in the economy (rooted in Adam Smith). Characterized by austerity, privatization, and marketization, led by figures like Thatcher and Reagan, and exemplified by structural adjustment programs in Africa and Latin America.

Participatory Action Development

An approach to community research emphasizing collective inquiry, experimentation, and direct action by communities themselves grounded in social history. It seeks to understand the world collaboratively by trying to change it following reflection, founded on community beliefs and objectives.

Assets based development

A community approach that identifies and builds upon existing strengths and assets found within a community, mobilizing individuals, associations, and institutions to connect personal strengths with those who need them.

Deficit based development

An approach focusing primarily on identifying and servicing the needs, liabilities, and limitations of communities, which often communicates failure, helplessness, and low expectations for families and communities.

Post-development

A theoretical stance viewing the entire concept and practice of development as a failure and a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world, placing its critical emphasis on discourse, power, and knowledge within a global context.

Anti-development

A perspective driven by disillusionment with development failures and 'business-as-usual' practices, advocating for a total rejection of Western-inspired development (viewed as a new religion, imposition of science as power, cultural Westernization, and environmental destruction) in favor of a return to subsistence lifestyles and agriculture.

Structural Adjustment

A package of 'free market' economic policy reforms imposed on developing countries by the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and IMF) as a condition for receiving loans, encouraging free markets and foreign direct investment (FDI).

Andre Gunder Frank

A German-American sociologist and economic historian who promoted dependency theory after 1970 and world-systems theory after 1984, known for introducing the concept of the metropolis-satellite relationship.

Raúl Prebisch

An Argentine economist recognized for his contributions to structuralist economics, specifically the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis, which formed the foundational basis of economic dependency theory.

Samir Amin

An Egyptian-French Marxian economist, political scientist, and world-systems analyst noted for introducing the term 'Eurocentrism' in 1988 and contributing to dependency and world-systems theories.

Theotônio Dos Santos

A Brazilian dependency theorist who defined dependence as a situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subjected.

Émile Durkheim

A sociologist (1858–1917) concerned with how societies transition from primitive to modern, explaining social change through shifts in bonds of morality or social solidarity (Traditional/Mechanical vs. Modern/Organic Solidarity) and the division of labor in society.

Max Weber

A sociologist (1864–1920) who argued societies must be understood in their own terms, focusing on how cultural and religious beliefs (such as the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism) drive rationalization, arguing that traditional societies failed to develop because they were constrained by myths and customs.

Walt Rostow (W. Rostow)

An economic theorist who proposed the 'Non-Communist Manifesto' outlining five linear stages of economic growth: traditional society, preconditions to takeoff, takeoff, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption.

John Friedmann

A theorist who argued that development should be people-centered, asserting that sustainable development must be built from the bottom up through participation, collaboration, partnership, and equity.

Charles Darwin

An English naturalist, geologist, and biologist (1809–1882) famous for 'Origin of Species' and evolutionary theories that heavily influenced concepts of social evolution in sociological and development theories.

Adam Smith

A Scottish philosopher and economist (1723–1790), hailed as the 'Father of Economics' and 'Father of Capitalism,' who argued that unregulated market competition and self-interest maximize economic wealth and profits.

Mahatma Gandhi

An Indian anti-colonial leader and political ethicist (1869–1948) who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British rule, maintaining that ethical and moral considerations should never be sacrificed for goal orientation.

Amartya Sen

An Indian economist and philosopher who pioneered the capability approach and human-rights-based framework, conceptualizing development as the expansion of individuals' substantive freedoms rather than mere income growth.

Hugo Grotius

A 16th–17th century scholar recognized as the 'Father of International Law,' who established natural law foundations for international relations and claimed that uncultivated land could legally be occupied.

Immanuel Wallerstein

An American sociologist and economic historian who developed World Systems Theory, analyzing global inequalities through a unified world economic system divided into core, semi-periphery, and periphery nations.

Macro/Grand Theory

Theories that trace broad structural outcomes and resource transfers across large populations, using the nation-state or global systems as their primary unit of analysis.

Middle-Range Theory

Theories positioned intermediate between minor working hypotheses of day-to-day empirical research and all-inclusive unified grand theories.

Micro Level Theory

Theories focusing on interactions, behaviors, and outcomes observed over small populations or localized groups (e.g., studying females aged 10–20 years).

Modernization Theory

A development framework based on evolutionism and functionalism, positing that development is internal to societies, follows a universal linear path, and ultimately leads to prosperity, progress, and stability.

Post-modernism

A late-20th-century intellectual movement rejecting universal truths, grand narratives, and comprehensive ideologies, presenting a critical and skeptical departure from modernism.

Post-structuralism

An extension and critique of structuralism that rejects fixed universal structures, particularly utilized in critical textual and discourse analysis.

Dependency Theory

A theory emerging in response to failed modernization projects in Latin America, asserting that resources flow from poor 'periphery' states to enrich wealthy 'core' states, arguing that underdevelopment is caused by external exploitation and that socialism is the solution.

World Systems Theory

A structural approach to global history developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that analyzes how an integrated capitalist world-economy exploits the periphery and semi-periphery to benefit the core.

Keynesian Policies

A post-war macroeconomic management approach arguing that economies do not automatically self-stabilize and require active state fiscal interventions to stimulate short-term aggregate demand, exemplified by U.S. policies following the 2007 financial crisis.

Listian Industrialization

An economic strategy advocating infant industry protection through tariffs against foreign competition, prioritizing long-term national economic education and industrial capability over short-term consumption.

Marxism

The political and economic theories formulated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels advocating for the replacement of private ownership of production with cooperative ownership to achieve communism.

Neo-Marxism

A 20th-century adaptation of Marxist thought that incorporates ideas from other traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, and existentialism to explain modern capitalist dynamics.

Marx's Stages of Development

Karl Marx's sequential theory of economic evolution tied to class struggle, categorized into five modes of production: primitive, ancient, feudal, modern capitalist, and socialist/communist.

Women in Development (WID)

An early liberal feminist framework coined in Washington arguing that modernization had failed to benefit women, seeking to integrate women into existing economic structures via legal reforms under the assumption that economic benefits trickle down.

Women and Development (WAD)

A neo-Marxist feminist framework emerging from the critique of WID and modernization theory, focusing on the structural relations between men and women and asserting that economic participation alone does not equate to empowerment.

Gender and Development (GAD)

A holistic development approach examining unequal power dynamics, socially constructed gender roles, the double burden of women, masculinities, gender mainstreaming, and the distinction between practical and strategic needs.

Sex vs. Gender

The conceptual distinction where sex refers to fixed biological characteristics determined at birth, whereas gender encompasses socially and historically constructed roles, identities, and unequal power values learned through socialization.

Ester Boserup

A Danish economist whose seminal book 'Women’s Role in Economic Development' highlighted the negative impacts of modern agricultural projects on female labor, providing the foundational basis for the WID approach.

Practical Gender Needs (PGNs)

Immediate, short-term survival needs identified by women within existing social roles and power structures (such as access to water, healthcare, food, and housing) that do not challenge male dominance.

Strategic Gender Needs (SGNs)

Long-term needs identified by women aimed at transforming unequal power relations, addressing issues like gender-based division of labor, property ownership, political decision-making, and protection against domestic and sexual violence.

Gender Equality (GE)

The state of having equal rights, opportunities, resources, and fair valuation for labor regardless of sex or gender hierarchy, focused on enabling full human potential rather than requiring sameness.

Gender Analysis

A systematic methodology used to examine the differences, resource access, division of labor, constraints, and relative opportunities between men, women, boys, and girls in a given society.

Gender Mainstreaming

The strategy of integrating the distinct perspectives, needs, and experiences of both women and men into the design, implementation, and evaluation of all legislation, policies, and development programs so that inequality is not perpetuated.

Women, Environment, Development (WED)

A 1980s framework highlighting the explicit connections between environmental degradation and gender inequality, advocating for global systemic solutions and recognizing women's vital roles as environmental managers.