The Lexicon of Development: A Quantitative History of the Language of Development Studies

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine the history of the language of development theory in order to elucidate the nature of its terminology. The history of the principal terms of development theory (economic/sustainable/human development, Third World, and North/(Global) South) is examined by way of a quantitative study of the frequency of the usage of these terms during the 20th century based on a dataset of millions of digitised books made available by Google Books. The author argues that the results of the study provide empirical evidence that the language of development theory is a historical-ideological construction which is embedded in the structure of the world economy.

Key characteristics of academics promoting Sustainable Human Development within engineering studies

“…It is worth highlighting specific approaches and strategies aimed at integrating SD principles into technical universities (Egelund Holgaard et al, 2016;Lozano et al, 2015;Rose et al, 2015). In addition, complementary perspectives have focused on promoting the convergence between engineering and development studies (Boni and Pérez-Foguet, 2008;Pérez-Foguet et al, 2005), following the theoretical framework of Sustainable Human Development (SHD) (Absell, 2015). However, significant updates of engineering curricula seem to be relatively limited (Davidson et al, 2010), and much of the strategies adopted by technical universities have primarily focused on developing individual courses on SD (von Blottnitz et al, 2015).…”

Promoting sustainable human development in engineering: Assessment of online courses within continuing professional development strategies

“…The Human Development Reports (HDR) of the United Nations Development Program have institutionalised and operationalized the HD approach, by combining both aspects of development (sustainable and human) and, in the year 2011, by defining SHD as the "the expansion of the substantive freedoms of people today while making reasonable efforts to avoid seriously compromising those of future generations" (UNDP, 2011, p. 18). Theoretical boundaries between the concepts of SD and SHD are not clear and precise and thus present diverse possible interpretations (Absell, 2015). In this study, the concept of SHD is specifically used when highlighting the fulfilment of basic needs and the expansion of human capabilities within SD approaches.…”

Profiling research of the engineering academics who successfully promote education in Sustainable Human Development

“…Furthermore, other efforts have aimed at reinforcing the alignment between engineering and development studies (Boni and Pérez-Foguet, 2008;Pérez-Foguet, 2008;Pérez-Foguet et al, 2005), in line with a Sustainable Human Development (SHD) theoretical framework, focusing specifically on addressing global inequalities and the promotion of a more socially just world. (Absell, 2015). The concepts of SD and SHD do not have specific theoretical boundaries (ibidem).…”