Development and Change: Emerging Perspectives

Development is basically change involving a modification in the existing man-environment relationship, to bring about a steady improvement in man’s standard of living and his quality of life. Standard of living and quality of life are only the external indices of the inner growth of man which development truly implies. In traditional thought, both Greek and Indian, development means becoming according to the law of one‘s nature, a determinable sequence of changes proceding from the very structure of a thing as Aristotle put it. It not accept the linear theory of growth misconceived as development by the western scholars. The non-linear view of development suggests that society understood as a dynamic whole cannot be reduced to any of its dimension for purposes of planning its development. The development of society, that is to say, cannot be equated with mere economic growth. In fact, it is this unidimensional approach to planning which is at the back of the increasing sickness and degradation of the environment. And it is this false notion of development that needs to be corrected. The present compendium offers new insights into the ongoing debate on development and change. It carries 12 papers contributed by the Faculty of Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad who have tried to highlight the different perspectives and concerns pertaining to sustainable development of the Indian society which today stands at the crossroads of globalisation and parochialisation, of socialism and privatisation and so on with far reaching future implications for the social economy and ecology. It is hoped that the publication will stimulate fresh thinking on the vital questions of development and change and will be well received by the social scientists, development planners, administrators and policy-makers.