Development dilemmas and manufactured hazards

EVELOPMENT PROJECTS go in di erent directions and each one presents its own dilemmas. Contradictory perceptions and practices have various consquences for the people a ected, for better or worse. Researching development is therefore crucial to deepen understanding of the risks associated with di erent strategies and the complexity of development paths. Sociologist Ulrich Bech developed the concept “organised irresponsibility” to describe risk societies. In terms of this approach, one may broadly distinguish between two types of risk: external risk and manufactured risk. External risks are those that unexpectedly strike an individual or community. Historically, this could be illness or natural disasters. Manufactured risks, on the other hand, are created by the progress of human development. Chernobyl is one such example, as are the consequences of climate change for millions of people. e global climate negotiations bear testimony to the processes of “organised irresponsibility.” When increased carbon dioxide emissions in the West and the developed world a ict Africa with more oods or prolonged droughts, the polluters are to a large extent unwilling to pay and take responsibility for these consequences. In a development perspective, risk can be seen as “a cause of poverty and its persistence.” By seeing development as part of the risks societies face, as part of the “organised irresponsibility,” one can better understand the importance of basic research into development issues. is also has direct implications for the policy-makers who have to confront development dilemmas. In the 1980s, sub-Saharan Africa experienced general economic decline and political instability. e international donor community, headed by the World Bank and the imf, began to demand structural reforms – the so called Structural Adjustment Programmes (sap) – as a condition of further funding. is approach involved less state intervention and more free market liberalism with the aim of propelling economic growth. In agriculture, the large-scale farming of cash crops for the international market was advocated. Traditional and small-scale farming were declining. Although many African countries initially opposed these changes, in many cases they were reluctantly forced to adopt them to safeguard the ow of funding and the development aid.