Introduction: the story so far… Ch.1, Greig, Hulme, and Turner

Arguing about inequality Development studies emerged after WW2 concerned with bridging the gap between richer and poorer countries through economic growth By 1970s there was less enthusiasm Development gap persists into the 21st century Global inequality ‘trails the career of modern development policy as its dark shadow’

An overview of global inequality UN’s ‘Human Development Report 2003’ provides a useful classificatory scheme for looking at: Inequality across countries, within countries, and across the world’s people Economic statistics:

Inequalities across nations Richer countries produce over 4/5ths of the world’s measurable Gross National Product Remaining one fifth concentrated in East Asia GNP per head less than USD$100 in Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi GNP per head more than USD$35,000 in Japan, Norway, Switzerland, and Luxembourg

Global per capita income trebled from 1960-1990s, but since the 1980s there were over 100 countries whose per capita declined. Countries with a declining per capita: their share of world exports declined, food production per capita decreased, their infrastructure had deteriorated. Richer countries dominate international institutions (e.g. IMF, WTO) Inequality of power to dictate the rules of global trade

Inequalities within countries UNDP estimates that 53 countries (containing 80 % of world population) experienced rising inequality Narrowing only occurred in 9 countries Gini Index: measuring inequality. Equal income distribution is assigned value ‘0’ Country where one person has all income is assigned ‘100’ Japan, Denmark, Hungary (Gini < 25) Brazil, Nicaragua, Bostwana, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone (Gini > 60) Japan: poorest 20% receive 10.6% of income; richest 20% receive 35.7% Brazil and Bostwana: poorest 20% receive just over 2 % and the richest 20 per cent account for over 70 % of income . Mexico: richest person’s income equals 17 million poorest citizens Phenomenon also spreading to richer countries

Inequalities across the world’s people Global indicators of inequality The principal polarity is not between rich and poor countries, but between rich and poor people across the world Globalization of production and trade raised the salience of inequalities across nations and classes Richest 20% of the world’s population accounted for 70% of income in 1960 By 1991 this share increased to 85% Meanwhile the bottom 20 per cent declined from 2.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent. By the end of the millenium, wealthiest 5% earned 114 times as much as the poorest %5 Top 1% earned the equivalent of the bottom 57% Technological efficiency will reduce the employed to 20%, 80% of humanity will be unemployed therefore poor. Some claim we are already in a 2/3rds society – bottom third denied meaningful participation in formal economic activities Regressive distribution of income and wealth

The paradox of modernity: the polarization of affluence and deprivation But the world has never been so wealthy Productivity is at unprecedented levels Higher living standards But inequality has increased and one fifth of the world’s population has gone backward economically Gap between ‘unprecedented affluence’ and ‘remarkable deprivation’ Digital divide (by the turn of the millenium, while 50 percent of US citizens had internet access, the corresponding figure for Africa 0.4 per cent. Chapters 5 and 6 of the book deal with history of development theory ‘endogenous’ approach adopts an ‘individualistic’ perspective on development (no international context) Interconnected nature of global inequality. ‘Structural’ (exogenous) perspective: global inequalities are an inherent characteristic of development (inequality is the other side of the coin of progress) While individualist approaches tend to focus on the material, cultural or psychological attributes of the poor, the more structural approaches target how wealth perpetuates inequalities.

Debating Development in the 21st Century Trillions of dollars of aid transferred to poorer countries have not brought development Disillusionment with progress and development Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): aims to halve global poverty by 2015 Traumatic changes also in the wealthier parts of the world Wealthy countries experienced economic change and social dislocation World might be overshooting its ecological threshold Development contributing to global environmental problems Greenhouse gases, desertification, loss of biodiversity, salinity, water scarcity, air pollution, disease transmission Non-renewable resources depletion