Week 1: What happened to development?: A snapshot of the state of the world in 2026

DVST 6901: The global politics of development (Semester 2, 2026)
August 3, 2026

Slide available at https://anthrograph.rschram.org/6901/2026/01.

It’s the end of the world as we know it. In an era of polycrisis (climate change, population slowdown, rising inequality and rising consumption, new technologies, and pandemics everywhere), what does development mean anymore?

Main reading: Rist (2007)

Other reading: Rist (2014), chap. 1-2

Keywords

development, modernity, progress

Learning outcomes

Reflect critically on our own assumptions about development, change, improvement, progress, and modernity, and where these assumptions come from
Understand the scope of the class and the structure of a seminar class

What is development for you?

Take out a piece of paper. Write the first thing that comes into your head on this question: What makes a good life?
Imagine the year 2050. What will your life be like? Where do you imagine yourself living? What will the state of the world be? What do you want the state of the world to be? What would be necessary for the most people to have a good life?
Imagine you have a chance to influence how leaders of all the countries of the world help each other to achieve development. What goals would you want to persuade them to work towards? What specifically would you want to each of them to achieve, or at least approach, by 2025?

Getting to know each other

Form small groups
Appoint someone to be a spokesperson and someone else to be a note-taker.
Introduce yourselves.
Discuss each other’s ideas for development goals.

Take note of where you agree and where you disagree.
Think about why you have different goals.

The spokesperson for each group will report on where their group agrees and disagrees.
General observations. Did we miss anything?

Development for a new millennium

In 2000, the United Nations announced that its members had agreed that the world should, collectively and separately, work towards these goals:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development

These were the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Twenty-first century development should be “sustainable”

Even as leaders, activists and professionals debated and then sought to advance the MDGs, many campaigned to expand the goals and to shift the focus.

By 2015, there was a new consensus on goals for advancing sustainable development and the UN announced the Sustainable Development Goals as a new framework for cooperation for the period 2015–2030.

No poverty
Zero hunger
Good health and well-being
Quality education
Gender equality
Clean water and sanitation
Affordable and clean energy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
Reduced inequalities
Sustainable cities and communities
Responsible consumption and production
Climate action
Life below water
Life on land
Peace, justice, and strong institutions
Partnerships for the goals

What is development now?

How did we get here?
Where are we going?

References

Rist, Gilbert. 2007. “Development as a Buzzword.” Development in Practice 17 (4–5): 485–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614520701469328.

———. 2014. The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith. Translated by Patrick Camiller. 4th ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usyd/detail.action?docID=5915284.