An inquiry into a philosophical justification for the socio-cultural factor in development

Abstract

While development implies change, it is not just any change, but a specific kind of change. It is a change that is dialectic. That is, it must have a point from which to deviate, the process and the end result. The process of development is dialectic.For one, it presupposes a given without which nothing can come. However, with just the given we can only have the status quo and thus no progress.For there to be progress the status quo has to be negated by a new idea, one contradicting the given. But not necessarily any new idea is a contradiction. Contradiction as the name suggests has to be such that it negates the old invention. The interaction of the status quo and its contradiction brings about a third idea, a synthesis, which is realised into a new situation. Now, with time, the existing situation is again challenged by a negation. And consequently, a new situation arises. And the process goes on. Development is neither of the positions, nor of the ideas, nor any resultant state. It is the process through which the new situations arise. It is this dialectic.The given situation, the status quo, the original state in human development is integral in the sense that it involves a people with a whole world view. This is the socio-cultural factor in development. To ignore it in development policy formulation and implementation is to miss the starting point of development. However, the socio-cultural factor is not something to be read in a book. For culture is dynamic. The key to it is the realisation that it is only a people who can realise their own development. It is only they who really understand their situations, know the challenges that face them, and can therefore negate their situation and transform it by exercising their critical faculties on it. It is only then that true and sustainable development can be realised.