Preview
IB DP Global Politics — Thematic study: Development and sustainability | SL | Development and Sustainability
📋 What You Will Learn
- Define development and sustainability and explain why both concepts are contested
- Describe the key dimensions of development: economic, social, political, cultural and environmental
- Explain the main indicators and frameworks used to measure development and sustainability (GDP, HDI, SDGs, Planetary Boundaries and others)
- Analyse the strengths and limitations of different assessment tools and what they reveal or conceal
- Compare how different theoretical perspectives (liberal, dependency, postcolonial, feminist) interpret development and its goals
- Evaluate the claim that economic growth and sustainability are compatible goals
🔍 Guiding Question Can development and sustainability ever be fully reconciled, or does the pursuit of economic growth inevitably come at the cost of the natural systems on which all human wellbeing depends?
🌍 Why This Matters In 2023, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report warned that only 15% of the 169 SDG targets were on track, with many going into reverse following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war and accelerating climate impacts. The gap between the world's stated development ambitions and measurable reality raises urgent questions about what development actually means, who defines it, and whether current economic models can deliver it without destroying the planet.
🔑 Key Concept Link This topic engages all four key concepts. Power shapes who defines development and whose interests the dominant frameworks serve. Sovereignty is at stake when international bodies set development conditions or environmental targets that constrain national policy choices. Legitimacy is questioned when development models imposed from outside fail local populations. Interdependence is central: environmental degradation, poverty and inequality cross borders, making development and sustainability inherently global challenges that no single state can address alone.
What Is Development? The Contested Concept
Development is one of the most debated concepts in global politics. For much of the twentieth century it was equated almost entirely with economic growth — rising GDP, industrialisation, modernisation. That narrow view has been challenged from multiple directions, and today most scholars and practitioners recognise that development is multi-dimensional.
📖 Definition — Development Development refers to processes of change that improve human wellbeing, expand freedoms and capabilities, and create conditions in which people can live dignified, meaningful lives. It encompasses economic, social, political, cultural and environmental dimensions and is understood differently across theoretical traditions and political contexts.
The definition above is deliberately broad because the concept is genuinely contested. Economists may emphasise per capita income; social scientists may prioritise health and education; political theorists may focus on freedom and participation; environmentalists may centre ecological limits. Each emphasis reflects different values and different assumptions about what a "good life" looks like.
Why the concept is contested
- Who defines it? Historically, development agendas have been set by wealthy states, the World Bank, the IMF and academic institutions in the Global North — raising questions of power and representation.
- Whose values? Western liberal models of development (market economies, liberal democracy, individual rights) are not universally shared;