IDEV*1000 Midterm Exam Review: International Development, Culture, and Ethics

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, theories, ethical frameworks, and economic terminology from the IDEV*1000 midterm notes.

International development

The study of differences in wealth, poverty, inequality, and human well-being between and within countries, which seeks to explain why these disparities exist and how living conditions can improve.

Underdeveloped

A term popularized after US President Harry Truman's 1949 address suggesting that a country has not reached a particular level of progress, which can imply that Western countries should guide others.

Third World

A term introduced in 1952 by Alfred Sauvy to describe countries outside the Western and Soviet power blocs during the Cold War; it later became associated with poverty despite these nations having distinct histories and economies.

Developing countries

A common term for countries considered less economically developed, which can imply that all nations follow the same uniform path toward progress.

Newly industrialized countries (NICs)

Countries that have undergone rapid industrialization, exemplified by South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Fourth World

A classification that can refer either to extremely poor countries affected by conflict or to Indigenous peoples facing dispossession and exclusion within their own nations.

Global South / Majority World

Alternative terms emphasizing global inequalities and highlighting that poverty is not confined to one single geographical region.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total economic value of all goods and services produced within a country.

GDP per capita

A country's Gross Domestic Product divided by its total population, providing an average measure of economic output per person.

GNI per capita

The average income received by a country's residents, including relevant income earned from abroad, divided by the population.

Income inequality

The uneven distribution of income among individuals within a population.

Emerging economies

Nations that are rapidly expanding economically and attracting foreign investment, such as China, India, and Brazil.

Gini coefficient

A statistical measure of income inequality scored on a scale from $0$ (representing perfect equality) to $1$ (representing maximum inequality).

Absolute poverty

A condition characterized by the severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe shelter, and clothing.

Relative poverty

A state in which an individual possesses significantly fewer economic resources than what is socially customary or acceptable in their specific society.

Multidimensional poverty

Poverty characterized by overlapping deprivations across multiple life aspects, including poor health, lack of education, and inadequate living conditions.

Human Development Index (HDI)

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) metric that assesses development through three key dimensions: health (life expectancy), education (years of schooling), and standard of living (GNI per capita).

Capability approach

A development theory formulated by Amartya Sen arguing that development should aim to expand people's substantive freedoms and opportunities to live lives they value, rather than merely maximizing income.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

An eight-goal framework adopted in $2000$ for the $2000-2015$ period that used measurable targets to reduce global poverty, improve health, and broaden education access.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A global framework adopted in $2015$ comprising $17$ goals and $169$ targets to guide international action through $2030$, prioritizing inequality reduction, environmental protection, and ensuring that no one is left behind.

Sustainable development

Development that enhances current living standards while preserving the natural environment and ensuring future generations can meet their own needs.

Rights-based approach

An ethical perspective asserting that all individuals hold fundamental entitlements, such as access to food, shelter, and basic healthcare.

Post-development

A school of thought emerging in the 1980s that fundamentally questions the conventional Western development model and explores alternative modes of societal organization.

Anti-development

A perspective that rejects Western modernity and conventional development more radically than post-development, frequently advocating a return to subsistence agriculture and traditional lifestyles.

Discourse

As explained by Stuart Hall, the structured ways of speaking, thinking, and representing ideas that shape human understanding and are bound up with power relationships.

Eurocentrism

The tendency to interpret the world, history, and human progress predominantly through European or Western values, experiences, and cultural standards.

Anti-politics machine

A concept developed by James Ferguson describing how international development agencies frame poverty as an apolitical, technical problem to be solved by experts, thereby masking structural, political, and economic causes.

Buen Vivir

An Indigenous Andean philosophy ('living well') originating in Ecuador and Bolivia that centers societal progress on community well-being, ecological harmony, and balance rather than continuous economic growth.

Degrowth

An economic and social movement that challenges continuous economic expansion, calling for a planned reduction of production and consumption in affluent societies to promote sustainability and human well-being.

Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index

A multidimensional metric associated with Bhutan that gauges societal progress through health, education, community, culture, and environmental health rather than material income alone.

Eurocentric gaze

Viewing and assessing other societies exclusively through Western criteria while treating Western lifestyles and values as the universal benchmark.

Free trade

An international economic policy that seeks to minimize or eliminate regulatory and financial obstacles—such as tariffs and import quotas—with minimal government intervention.

Fair trade

An international trade framework designed to ensure equitable outcomes for marginalized producers and laborers in the Global South through sustainable practices, fair compensation, and safe labor conditions.

Absolute advantage

The economic capability of a nation to manufacture a specific good or service using fewer inputs or resources than a competing producer.

Comparative advantage

The ability of an economic entity to produce a specific good or service at a lower opportunity cost relative to another producer.

Unequal exchange

A trade dynamic where global exchange disproportionately advantages wealthier nations over poorer ones due to asymmetries in market power and pricing between raw goods and finished products.

Embedded liberalism

The post-World War II international economic order that balanced open global markets and multilateral trade with domestic welfare protections and state regulation.

Market regulation

State interventions and policies, including subsidies and tariffs, implemented to structure market functions and protect domestic economic sectors.

Pragmatic trade policies

Flexible, strategic trade approaches that combine selective international market integration with state interventions and industrial protections, as utilized by China.

Material factors

The quantifiable physical and economic resources of a society, such as income, employment, land, food, housing, and infrastructure.

Cultural relativism

The practice of analyzing cultural practices and beliefs strictly within their own social context, which critics caution can be misused to justify harmful traditions or human rights violations.

Ethnocentrism

The evaluation of other societies and cultures according to the preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture, often assuming one's own is superior.

Dominant culture

The set of cultural values, practices, and norms propagated by dominant groups—such as political elites, major corporations, or media institutions—to define what is desirable or standard.

Cultural resistance

The practice of using indigenous symbols, rituals, customs, and narratives by subordinate groups to challenge, question, or dismantle dominant power structures.

Double movement (in culture)

The ongoing cultural conflict wherein dominant social groups attempt to assert hegemony while less powerful groups actively resist, renegotiate, and reshape those meanings.

Turn toward culture

The shift in development studies emerging during the 1980s that rejected purely technocratic and economic models in favor of incorporating local values, traditions, and cultural contexts.