Transformative Notions of Development Lead to Sustainable Development of Marginalized Communities

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday VI)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Migration and Marginalized Communities

Proposal

This paper is based on a case study that was conducted in a non-government organization, Institute for Development Studies and Practices (IDSP), at Balochistan, Pakistan to examine the IDSP stakeholders’ transformative notions of development and their emancipatory actions at micro, meso, and macro levels. I employed two critical theories to understand their transformative perceptions and practices: Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s (1999) Postmodern Critical Theory and Jack Mezirow’s (1978) Transformative Learning Theory. This paper will share key elements and conditions that contributed to bring ‘sustainable development’ at the micro level in a traditional society that is dealing with the challenges of extremism, poverty, and the gravity of globalization.

In this case study twenty-one IDSP stakeholders including 4 administrators, 3 teachers, 8 male learners, and 6 female leaners participated. These participants were selected using purposive, convenience, and theoretical sampling techniques and following specific selection criteria designed for each group of stakeholders, administrators, teachers, and learners. Two primary qualitative-research research methods were used to collect data from the research participants: (i) document analysis and (ii) in-depth interviews with IDSP administrators, teachers, and students (Marshall & Rossman, 2006).

IDSP stakeholders’ transformative notions of development and their emancipatory actions in this paper reveal that they believe in human-centred development. The point of reference of their conversations on development was humans or humanity, and not primarily the economy or democracy. Their approach towards development seems opposite to the popular theories and approaches of development. For example, in human capital theory, the development of humans is considered essential for agriculture or economic development. In other words, they are used as an input in the production function of development. Their development in most cases is linked with the attainment of social efficiency and the development of democratic society. These mainstream approaches of development made the individuals and humans the secondary positions while their primary and prime focus is institutions or economy or infrastructure.

Also, human development in IDSP program is not limited to provide only regulatory knowledge and a few skills. They emphasized the development of critical agency in humans. In their views, people of their community will be developed when they will be free of oppression, free from false pre-conceived ideas, fears of incompetence, feelings of denigration, confusion, and complex of inferiority. In their views, their people will be developed when their confidence in their own diverse cultural identity and their local culture and tradition will be restored. In their views, their people will be developed when they feel prepared in engaging with the global forces and powers without compromising on their own integrity. They believe, it is possible only by enhancing people’s intellectual capabilities.

I also personally observed that their critical-thinking ability and intellectual strength have brought sustainability in their personalities and within their inner selves. I believe that sustainable development, which has been the core agenda of most development education programs and projects, should give attention to the sustainability of people’s individual development. From the experientially grounded views of IDSP stakeholders, it seems that sustainable development must start from the sustainability of one’s self.

Author

• Nazia Bano, Ryerson University