Development studies is a discipline that seeks to answer big questions surrounding the way countries develop over time. One of these questions is the question of poverty; how it is caused and more importantly what can be done to solve the issue of poverty. According to the United Nations (UN) (2010) 2.8 billion people survive on less than $2 a day which is nearly half the population. Thus development studies seek to find solutions to this issue in order to assure that all people have equal opportunity and access to basic resources. In order to do this development geographers, use different theories to act as lenses in which to see this issue and provide different views on the issue which offer different solutions. This essay will use Modernisation
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As previously discussed, alternative development is a bottom up approach, there arguing the other top down approaches largely caused poverty through uneven wealth distribution. Whilst modernisation theories intentions are that the wealth will trickle if economic stability is first created at the top down, alternative theory states that this largely has just caused worse problems; especially regarding poverty. According to Little (1990) the benefits that economic growth has failed to trickle down to the poorest parts of society and their relative share of income has declined. This creates huge amounts of inequality, thus creating divided societies in which the poorest areas have major welfare issues and since, in some cases, the higher levels of society are incredibly wealthy the divide has created societies with extreme wealth as well as extreme poverty. This makes poverty an even bigger issue in development studies as it means that there is now issues of inequality, not just exclusively poverty but it has increased the division between different class groups in …show more content…
It can be argued that whilst modernisation is about developing and creating urban and industrialised states alternative development is almost in many ways de-modernisation (Pieterse, 1998). This argument comes from the idea that whilst modernisation is largely about implementing Western forms of economic development in underdeveloped, non-western nations, alternative development is more about working with the locals. Alternative development is about finding solutions
As previously discussed, alternative development is a bottom up approach, there arguing the other top down approaches largely caused poverty through uneven wealth distribution. Whilst modernisation theories intentions are that the wealth will trickle if economic stability is first created at the top down, alternative theory states that this largely has just caused worse problems; especially regarding poverty. According to Little (1990) the benefits that economic growth has failed to trickle down to the poorest parts of society and their relative share of income has declined. This creates huge amounts of inequality, thus creating divided societies in which the poorest areas have major welfare issues and since, in some cases, the higher levels of society are incredibly wealthy the divide has created societies with extreme wealth as well as extreme poverty. This makes poverty an even bigger issue in development studies as it means that there is now issues of inequality, not just exclusively poverty but it has increased the division between different class groups in …show more content…
It can be argued that whilst modernisation is about developing and creating urban and industrialised states alternative development is almost in many ways de-modernisation (Pieterse, 1998). This argument comes from the idea that whilst modernisation is largely about implementing Western forms of economic development in underdeveloped, non-western nations, alternative development is more about working with the locals. Alternative development is about finding solutions