Whither growth? International development, social indicators, and the politics of measurement, 1920s–1970s

Abstract

Few concepts in the history of twentieth-century history proved as important as economic growth. Scholars such as Charles Maier, Robert Collins, and Timothy Mitchell have analysed how the notion that an entity called ‘the economy’ (defined by metrics such as Gross National Product, or GNP) could be made to grow came to define economic thought and policy worldwide. Yet there has been far less attention paid to the fact that neither growth nor GNP went without challenge during their emergence and global diffusion. This article focuses on one set of growth critics: those who advocated for ‘social indicators’ in international development policy during the 1960s and 1970s. It advances three overlapping arguments: that advocates for social indicators harkened back to early twentieth-century transnational efforts to make workers’ ‘standard of living’ the primary statistical framework for policy-makers; that, while supporters of social indicators expressed frustration with technocratic governance, their reform efforts nevertheless represented technocratic critiques of modernity; and finally, that one of the major reform efforts, Morris David Morris’s advocacy on behalf of the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index’ (PQLI), as an alternative measure of national wellbeing, ultimately struggled to challenge the GNP growth paradigm, and yet proved influential in spawning subsequent research into new measures and approaches to development.

Averages, indexes and national income: accounting for progress in colonial Australia

“…New managerial targets were elaborated in the second half of the twentieth century, none more important than American-led measures of national 'economic growth' (Collins 2000;Yarrow 2010). This, too, met resistance, as development economists advocated recovering early twentieth-century social indicators that emphasised consumption patterns and individual well-being rather than aggregate accumulation (Macekura 2019). At the same time, it was this same consumer-citizen whose 'choice' neoliberals would, after 1970, seek to liberate from the assemblage of the post-wage 'economy'.…”

Towards an Improved Ceramic Water Filter Paradigm: From Design Optimization to Participatory Implementation

“…It also provided several recommendations for future operations, largely related to calling for wealthy nations to invest in expanding access to international markets within the post-colonial nation states and reducing focus on economic growth as a metric for evaluating economic strength. The central thesis was thus that economic strength was more related to participation global commerce than year-on-year changes in Gross National Product (GNP)(Macekura 2019).…”