Local Development – Time Framing

David Celetti – Department of Historical, Geographical and Antiquity Sciences - University of Padua

1. Development and History 2. Objective and Contents 3. Didactic and Assessment methods

Diego Riveira, Recreation of the man at the Crossroad

Development and History

-  Is “development” a key question only in the present world and for contemporary societies?

- Do we need history to understand and manage development issues?

1.  LD (LED /SLED) is quite a recent approach to development issues

2.  What’s therefore the role of History in Local Development Studies?

Human poverty - 2002

The largely unequal distribution of income among nations/regions is one the most striking aspect of modern societies

FAO – Hungry People (less than 2 USD/ppp per day) 2010

“Development” as a mean of reducing poverty informs contemporary politics as well as economic and social research

Wealth Distribution in 1500 and in 2002

1. The structural unequal distribution of wealth among nations and regions (Development question) has far reaching roots that go well beyond the present

to encompass the whole modernity

But evidence shows that unequal distribution of income (and wealth) is the exit of long lasting processes

An historical background is therefore necessary to grasp the inner logic of the historical processes that informed contemporaneity and will inform the future

Objectives

2. During the last 500 years the world has become more connected (globalization) and more unequal (divergence) than ever before. This trend will

(probably) encompass the future

An historical background is therefore necessary to understand the actual functioning of (western) economies and societies since Early Modern Times, as well as to identify

possible path of “development”

An historical background is also necessary to understand why LED might be a viable alternative

Objectives Comparative GDP per capita in China and Western Europe (1400 – 2050)

A. Maddison, The World Economy …

Within this framework the course aims to

1.  transfer knowledge about the history of development

2.  provide awareness of the main development models

3.  transmit the ability of collecting and using historical evidence in order to understand development dynamics over time

The course is much more about models and frameworks than about facts, events, chronological processes

The course adopts the language of economic history, but it also integrates the economic processes within larger frameworks, linking it with cultural, political,

social, military, ideological … aspects

Objectives

Contents

Development as a theory that informed praxis from the “Truman Declaration” (1947) to the LED policies. - What’s actually “development”? - How can we define “development”?

Introduction

1.! Introduction 2.! Chronological Framework

3.! Thematic Framework 4.! Personal Reading and Researching

Chronological framework

1.! The “great divergence” and the Eurocentric World (1500-1914): from multipolarity to exclusiveness [The World before 1492, The first and second Colonization, Imperial Europe]

2.! Decolonization and Development Issues (1914-1973): the building of a multipolar world [Wars, Revolutions and Decolonization, Cold war and the “development issue”, The emergence of the Third World]

3.! Liberalistic Globalization (1973-2002): the rising hegemony of western financial centers [Oil shocks and debt crises, Finance and wealth concentration, Structural adjustment policies and “Washington consensus”, Western economic, political and cultural world dominance]

4.! Local Economic Development in light of History: multipolar vs hierarchical vision of the world [Failures and crises of “classic development processes; LED, New thoughts and theories; towards new divergences?]

Thematic framework

Personal reading and research

1.! Currencies, Finance and Development (1694-2014): How the control of wealth (money) and of the mechanisms that allow its displacement in time and space (finance) fostered/hampered development?

2.! Ideology and Development (1775-2014): How ideology (liberalism, nationalism, socialism, religions,…) fostered/hampered development?

3.! Conflicts and Development (1500-2014): How conflicts (social and national, economic, military,… ) fostered/hampered development?

Students are required to engage in independent work, producing and exposing synthetic papers on specific topics (people, institutions, events) that market the history of development

Didactic method and assessment

-  Lectures focused on the presentation of historical processes, theoretical approaches and methodological tools

-  Discussion - Personal reading, research and presentations that deals mainly with thematic issues and case studies and is meant as in integration of the lectures and an opportunity to foster independent learning

The assessment will consider the works produced by the students during the course and the results of a final oral examination.

Didactic method

Assessment