Miss
In his book “How Europe underdeveloped Africa” Walter Rodney discusses such issues that caused the underdevelopment in Africa and how Europe in particular contributed to it. This assignment is set to answer such questions in Walter Rodney’s perspective and no else’s.
1. What is underdevelopment?
Before W. Rodney discussed what is underdevelopment he firstly identifies development itself. “Development in human society is a many-sided process. At the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Some of these are virtually moral categories and are difficult to evaluate – depending as they do on the age in which one lives, one’s class origins, and one’s personal code of what is right and what is wrong”. However, what is indisputable is that the achievement of any of those aspects of personal development is very much tied in with the state of the society as a whole. Rodney asserts that the term development is often used in an economic sense when he says; the justification is that the type of economy is itself an index of other social features. What then is economic development? A society develops economically as its members increase jointly their capacity for dealing with the environment. Development as the main entity in the human life, complies of the word "change" hence, it is the process of changing from bad to good, from good to better, and from better to best. This means that, Development is the process of changing from a low level at a particular stage to the high level of the particular stage in which there is a positive gain.
Rodney's research lays proposition to an understanding of underdevelopment. He points out that once development is understood one can best comprehend the concept of underdevelopment. Rodney defines underdevelopment as not the absence of development, because every people have developed in one way or another and to a greater or
1. What is underdevelopment?
Before W. Rodney discussed what is underdevelopment he firstly identifies development itself. “Development in human society is a many-sided process. At the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Some of these are virtually moral categories and are difficult to evaluate – depending as they do on the age in which one lives, one’s class origins, and one’s personal code of what is right and what is wrong”. However, what is indisputable is that the achievement of any of those aspects of personal development is very much tied in with the state of the society as a whole. Rodney asserts that the term development is often used in an economic sense when he says; the justification is that the type of economy is itself an index of other social features. What then is economic development? A society develops economically as its members increase jointly their capacity for dealing with the environment. Development as the main entity in the human life, complies of the word "change" hence, it is the process of changing from bad to good, from good to better, and from better to best. This means that, Development is the process of changing from a low level at a particular stage to the high level of the particular stage in which there is a positive gain.
Rodney's research lays proposition to an understanding of underdevelopment. He points out that once development is understood one can best comprehend the concept of underdevelopment. Rodney defines underdevelopment as not the absence of development, because every people have developed in one way or another and to a greater or