ABSTRACT

Development is usually defined principally in terms of economic growth: as countries experience increased growth their productive capacity expands and they ‘develop’. As long as population increases - and there are few contemporary societies in which population is not increasing-then it is difficult to imagine development without economic growth. The problem of containing the negative effects of economic growth on the environment cannot be reduced to demographic factors alone. In chapter 4 some of the negative implications of pursuing economic growth in the South are examined, since they frequently call into question ‘development’ itself. For the moment we need to consider the immediate question: to what extent is economic growth an adequate measure of development?