GEOGRAPHY

Why is “development” problematic for geographers? 🗺️

“Development” is something that lots of GCSE and A Level geographers will study, perhaps in the context of tourism in Kenya, favelas in Brazil, or structural economic change in Birmingham. Economists often use economic development indicators, such as GDP per capita, to assess the average quality of life amongst countries’ populations. The British government might think of development in terms of regenerating cities, like Stratford during the 2012 Olympic Games. However, geographers are more likely to look at the subjective and emotive characteristics of development, whilst paying attention to its long, complex and murky history. Here’s a short introduction to the problems with ‘development’.

💡 Things to consider

• Development is often framed in terms of rich countries helping poor countries: In 1949, US President Harry Truman gave an inaugural address where he called on highly developed countries to support less developed countries:

Truman was speaking in the post-World War Two era, when Western countries like the US were on a mission to rebuild the global economy. His speech marked what some development scholars argue was the formal start of development discourses (the phrases, meanings and terminology that accompany ‘doing’ development.) Truman seemingly clumped together the Global South, portraying them all as miserable and poor, whilst emphasising the superiority of richer nations like America. Indeed, the “threat” of their poverty to Western countries seems to be his main concern, rather than providing support.

• There is no singular way that countries develop: The idea of development is based on the belief that Global South countries should become more like Global North countries, following a linear, upward path of development. What this means is that countries, which had only just become independent from colonial rule, should embrace the power of the market by privatising public services, lowering trade barriers (making their exports more lucrative) and shrinking the size of the welfare state. After the 2008 economic crash, this kind of happened in Britain, and we experienced a decade of austerity (cuts to public services, frozen wages for teachers and doctors, etc).

  

  However, African countries had to take out loans to ‘develop’ their economies, and international organisations like the IMF and World Bank attached stringent conditions to these (e.g. some governments had to pay back very high interest on their loans, agree to export their goods for a low price, or introduce new technology in agricultural industries.) These countries often could not meet these conditions, causing them to default on their loans, and to rack up lots of debt. This entrenched worldwide economic inequality, since Global North countries including the UK benefited from cheaper fruit and veg, for example, whilst many Global South populations suffered from high levels of unemployment, corruption, and political instability. Economic interventions like this became known as SAPs (Structural Adjustment Policies).

  

• More harm than good?: When Truman addressed the nation in 1949, he was ushering in an era of Cold War politics - in other words, super tense relations between the US and the Soviet Union. Although no actual fighting happened during the Cold War, Global South populations were used as pawns by the West. For the West, it suddenly became very important that postcolonial nations did not side with Russia/Communism, and instead progressed as their capitalist allies. Therefore, western NGOs and governments invested heavily in building infrastructure, delivering vaccinations and exerting political control over former colonies. Although this was beneficial in some ways, it also reproduced colonial hierarchies - the Western, ‘white saviour’ was supposedly ‘protecting’ impoverished Africans from the evils of communism.

  These colonial hierarchies persist: in 2018, Oxfam workers in Haiti and UN peacekeepers in Liberia and the Central African Republic were accused of sexual exploitation. In many other cases, western development ‘experts’ fail to listen to Global South communities, and impose schemes on them that may not work in the long run. So, when we’re using the term ‘development’ it’s important to remain mindful of the people who have been let down, abused, dehumanised and victimised by development ideology.

🔎 Find out more

• The Guardian - Oxfam abuse scandal is built on the aid industry’s white saviour mentality

• ResearchGate - Why is it alright to do development ‘over there’ but not ‘here’? Changing vocabularies and common strategies of inclusion across the ‘First’ and ‘Third’ Worlds

• Crossing Borders: development, learning and the North-South divide

• Global Development Institute Blog - Problems of development and “development” as a problem

• Chapter 1: What is Development?

LAW

Can prenuptial agreements be justified? 💒

Prenups are agreements that a couple enter into before marriage that will determine what each party is entitled to if the marriage were to end. Without prenups, courts have a power of redistribution and will look at the whole marriage to determine the fairest distribution of assets. Prenups remove this power from the courts and allow the assets to be split in a pre-determined way before the marriage is entered. They have not been accepted within the UK for very long, so the courts are still somewhat hesitant to give effect to them.

For a prenup to be valid: there must be fairness in its creation, i.e. lack of pressure, full disclosure, etc; and, it must be fair to give effect to it, i.e. courts won’t give effect to it if it would leave one party in real need (the word “need” has been interpreted quite broadly here to mostly include the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed). Prenups may let people decide what they want to happen, but are they actually fair?

💡 Things to consider

• Entering the Unknown: It is incredibly difficult to know what will happen in the marriage before it begins. It is beneficial for courts to determine the redistribution since they can view the entirety of the marriage after it has ended. It is impossible to know the exact direction that a marriage will take, so creating a lasting document beforehand could result in severe unfairness. For instance, both parties may intend to keep their careers throughout their marriage, but if they have a disabled or ill child, then one party may choose to become a stay-at-home parent instead; a prenup drafted on this assumption could be very unfair to the party who decided to take care of the child.

• Autonomy: The main argument in favour of giving effect to prenups is autonomy. If two people made an honest agreement before the marriage that one person should only receive 10% of the assets, and this is entirely sufficient for their needs, then should the courts intervene? It could be difficult for an agreement of this kind to be made fully autonomously. If one of the party’s parents were worried their child’s future spouse was a gold digger and highly encouraged a prenup, would the agreement be entered autonomously if they then signed it only to prove they were not marrying for money? Did they have much choice in the matter? It is also difficult to determine autonomy when these agreements necessarily involve love and emotions, which can make a person act irrationally.

  

• Fairness: Who should determine whether an agreement is fair? Fairness lies in the eye of the beholder; something the parties think is fair, a court may not. The parties may place more value on something that a court would place less value on, e.g. heirlooms, pets, items with sentimental value. So, should the parties determine whether an agreement is fair when they are affected by it, or should the courts decide? The wife will often leave her career during the marriage to remain home, so she will lose the growth in that career for the duration of the marriage, and may not be able to financially care for herself once the marriage ends; this is a large factor in relation to fairness that the courts consider, but one that would usually be overlooked in prenups.

🔎 Find out more

• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/income-budgeting/family-finance/prenup

• https://vittana.org/17-pros-and-cons-of-a-prenup

• https://www.graysons.co.uk/advice/prenups-how-far-are-they-legally-binding/

• https://www.familydivorcelawyer.co.uk/prenup-uk/

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Hillforts in Wales: This article discusses the rise of hillforts in Wales during the late Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age, focusing on their strategic locations, panoramic views, and the reasons behind their construction. A super resource for those interested in Archaeology!

• 🎨 Food and Art: Food is essential to our survival. It is also one of the great pleasures in life. It's no surprise then that fruit, vegetables, meat, and drink have been common motifs in painting and sculpture from the Roman-era until today. But there’s more to paintings of food than meets the eye. This short article is great if you’re interested in the History of Art.

• 🧪 Tristan and Iseult: Love triangles, magical potions, family drama… no, this isn’t a medieval spinoff of EastEnders! This In Our Time podcast explores the famous medieval chivalric romance. Great if you’re interested in Literature, French, or History.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 4th February - University of Oxford Online Maths Club

• 5th February - UEA Global Conflict Taster Lecture

• 5th February - UEA Economics Taster Lecture

• 6th February - UEA Maths Taster Lecture

• 6th February - UEA Drama Taster Lecture (A Doll’s House) 

• 6th February - University of Oxford Maths and Computer Science Study Day (Waiting List)

• 6th February - University of Oxford History Super-Curricular Lecture: Byzantium And The Later Crusades

• 7th February - Cambridge For Beginners Webinar

• 7th February - University of Law: Oscar Pistorius Case

• 7th February - University of Oxford Discover Computer Science Webinar

• 7th February - Balliol College University of Oxford Insight Into: Neuroscience of Food and Sensory Experience

• 8th February - University of Cambridge Physical Natural Sciences Teachers and Advisors’ Q + A

• 8th February - UEA Chemistry Taster Lecture

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