(Re)-defining ‘development’

In exploring the connections between international development and landscape architecture, we delved deeply into literature, theory, and discussions surrounding the 'issue' of development.

So how, as landscape architects, should we seek to understand the ever-evolving ‘map’ of development?

International development emerged during the period of formal decolonisation and independence that followed WWII as a way of upholding a distinction between the rich, ‘developed’ and the poor, ‘undeveloped’. Colonial powers had left countries in a state of political instability and economic insecurity. It was within this context that the ‘developed’ set about ranking other countries' development according to their matrix of economic prosperity.

Yet this Developed/Undeveloped binary is increasingly inappropriate for encompassing the entangled network of actors, processes and challenges that ‘development’ claims to serve. For example, since 1980, income inequality between countries has decreased, whilst that within countries has increased (see World Inequality Report 2022). Today, 75% of the world’s poor live in so-called middle-income countries; it is these within-country inequalities that are felt by individuals day-to-day, and that can be easily overlooked by aid donors, who often still make aid decisions based on the outdated method of dividing countries into low-, middle-, and high-income countries (UNU-Wider 2013). 

Development scholars have stated the need for a ‘profound and ongoing redrawing of the global map of development’ (Horner & Hulme 2016) in order to recognise how all countries are in the process of ‘developing’. ‘Global development’ prioritises context-specific approaches to tackling inequality, whilst also looking to make development processes collaborative and collective. ‘Sustainable development’ complicates the idea that development is something purely economic, and asks how we might meet ‘the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (IISD 2024). 

In order to move towards a collaborative, collective and anticolonial development practice requires imagination. Landscape architects are well-placed to contribute to a sustainable, everyday development, assisting in building ‘a whole new pluriverse, envisioning spaces and objects that will foster the best in all of us’ (Lara & Hernández 2021). True development is improving conditions without repercussions for other beings, including wildlife and ecosystems. For example, rearranging or reusing resources to improve the social and health issues caused by air pollution.

By reminding ourselves that inequalities are reducing globally, but widening on local scales, we can seek ways to contribute to development no matter where we live in the world. We have found that contributions to development can be finding a context-specific pathway for steering change among local systems. Combining your knowledge of the built and natural environment with those working to improve living conditions (or vice versa) is steering change in new ways and setting the stage for development to follow. In this way, we recognise the bottom-up contributions towards development.

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How can landscape architecture be better integrated into international development practices?

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References

Horner, R. and Hulme, D. (2019) From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development. Development and Change, 50: 347-378. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12379

IISD. (2024). Sustainable Development. International Institute for Sustainable Development.  https://www.iisd.org/mission-and-goals/sustainable-development.

Kapoor, I. (2023) ‘Decolonising Development Studies’, Review of International Studies, 49(3), pp. 346–355. doi:10.1017/S026021052300013X.

Langdon, J. (2013) Decolonising development studies: reflections on critical pedagogies in action. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement, 34:3, 384–399.

Lara, L. F. & Hernández, F. (2021) Spatial Concepts for Decolonizing the Americas. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Saleem, A.M. (2023) Decolonising the international development sector requires a disruption (part 1): a focus on the past can mask the colonial present. University of Leeds. https://religioninpublic.leeds.ac.uk/2023/07/05/decolonising-the-international-development-sector-requires-a-disruption-part-1/

UNU-Wider. (2013). Research Brief: Global Poverty, Middle-Income Countries and the Future of Development Aid. https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/global-poverty-middle-income-countries-and-future-development-aid#:~:text=Today%2C%20three%2Dquarters%20of%20the,live%20in%20middle%2Dincome%20countries.&text=The%20world's%20poor%20have%20not,not%20fallen%20in%20absolute%20numbers