Social
Development Theory
7. From
unconscious experience to conscious knowledge
Finally, social development theory remains
elusive because the very nature of social learning is a subconscious seeking by
the collective that leads ultimately to conscious knowledge. We experience
first and understand later. Our mental comprehension perpetually lags behind
physical experience and struggles to catch up with it.
Our view is that the very intensive,
concentrated global experience of the past five decades provides fertile soil
for the formulation of a more synthetic conceptual framework for social
development. Such a framework can vastly accelerate the transfer and
replication of developmental achievements around the world and make possible
more conscious and rapid progress even for the most advanced societies in the
world.
8. Basic
premises
These observations suggest a starting point
for formulation of a comprehensive conceptual framework:
·
Social development theory should focus on underlying processes rather
than on surface activities and results, since development activities, policies,
strategies, programs and results will always be limited to a specific context
and circumstance, whereas social development itself encompasses a potentially
infinite field in space and time.
·
The theory should recognize the inherent creativity of individuals and
of societies by which they fashion instruments and direct their energies to
achieve greater results. It should view development as a human creative
process, rather than as the product of any combination of external factors or
objective instruments that are created and utilized as the process unfolds and
whose results are limited to the capacity of the instruments. Society will
discover its own creative potentials only when it seeks to know the human being
as the real source of those potentials.
·
The implication of this view is that even though it may be influenced,
aided or opposed by external factors, society develops by its own motive power
and in pursuit of its own goals. No external force and agency can develop a
society. (Paul Hoffman, the Administrator of the Marshall Plan for European
Recovery who later became the first head of the United Nations Development
Program, said it succinctly: “Technical
assistance cannot be exported. It can only be imported.” The aspiration of the collective expressed
through the initiative of pioneering individuals is the determinant and driving
force for a society’s own development.
9. Development
as self-conception
Material and biological sciences focus on the
interaction of physical conditions, materials and forces to generate results.
The tendency to view social development in the same way has led to a host of
mathematical equations seeking to define and predict the consequences of
combining different external variables in different proportions and under
different conditions. The underlying assumption of this approach is that social
development is determined by external conditions.
The hypothesis on which our attempt at theory
is based is that social development is determined by human beings, not external
conditions. External conditions certainly can and do influence the process.
People may even act and react in predictable ways to a given set of external
conditions. But the results of any development equation cannot be reliably
predicted on the basis of external factors. Human development is determined by
human responses based on choices made by people. To our knowledge, external
forces alone have never unleashed a process of social development, but there
are countless instances in which external agents have failed to do so.
Human development is a function of human
awareness, aspirations, attitudes and values. Like all human creative
processes, it is a process of self-conception. As the writer, artist, composer,
political visionary and businessman conceive of unrealized possibilities and
pour forth their creative energies to give expression to them, the social
collective evolves a conception of what it wants to become and by expressing
its creative energies through myriad forms of activity seeks to transform its
conception into social reality. The only major difference is that while the
individual sometimes (but not always) is conscious of the conception he or she
is trying to express, the society is usually (not always) unconscious of the
idea and the urge that move it to create something more out of its own latent
potential.
Society is a subconscious living organism
which strives to survive, grow and develop. Individual members of society
express conscious intention in their words and acts, but these are only surface
expressions of deeper subconscious drives that move the society-at-large. The consciousness
of a true collective organism is not merely the sum of its individual parts,
but acquires its own identifiable character and personality. This is why the
USA has been able to assimilate such large numbers of immigrants, yet retain
its distinctive (but constantly changing) national character. Immigrants are
moved by the values of the collective to share in the national aspiration for
greater individual freedom, practical organization and material progress. In a
similar vein, the feverish collective behavior of the stock market, fashions
and pop culture are subconscious social collectives that acquire their own
distinct personalities.
10. Role
of the Individual
Society has no direct means to give conscious
expression to its subconscious collective aspirations and urges. That essential
role is played by pioneering conscious individuals–visionar y intellectuals,
political leaders, entrepreneurs, artists and spiritual seekers who are
inspired to express and achieve what the collective subconsciously aspires and
is prepared for. Where the aspiration and action of the leader do not reflect
the will of the collective, it is ignored or rejected. Where it gives
expression to a deeply felt collective urge, it is endorsed, imitated,
supported, and systematically propagated. This is most evident at times of war,
social revolution or communal conflict.
India’s early freedom fighters consciously
advocated the goal of freedom from British rule long before that goal had
become a felt aspiration of the masses. The leaders spent decades urging a
reluctant population to conceive of itself as a free nation and to aspire to
achieve that dream. When finally the collective endorsed this conception, no
foreign nation had the power to impose its will on the Indian people.
11. Process
of value creation
During the World Academy of Art &
Science’s meeting on development theory in Washington DC in May 1999, there was
a broad consensus of participants that the formation of values was a critical
aspect of the development process. In this paper, we propose to re-examine the
process of development as a process of value formation.
If gross physical actions are the most visible
and tangible form of human initiative, the creation of values is the most
subtle and intangible. Yet human existence is powerfully determined by the
nature of its values. Physical skills, vital attitudes, mental opinions and
values represent a gradation of internal organizing principles that direct
human energies and determine the course of individual and social development.
All human creative processes release and
harness human energy and convert it into results. The process of skill
formation involves acquiring mastery over our physical-nervous energies so that
we can direct our physical movements in a precisely controlled manner. In the
absence of skill, physical movements are clumsy, inefficient and unproductive,
like the stumbling efforts of a child learning to walk.
Human beings acquire social behaviors in a
similar manner. Here, apart from the physical skills required for communication
and interaction with other people, vital attitudes are centrally important.
Each social behavior expresses not just a movement, but an attitude and
intention of the person. Acquiring social behaviors requires gaining control
over our psychological energies and channeling them into acceptable forms of
behavior. Change the attitude and the behavior changes. The developmental
achievements of modern society are founded upon such intangible social
attitudes as confidence in the government, trust in other people, tolerance and
cooperation. Without such attitudes, our money would become valueless paper and
our institutions would cease to function.
The same process takes place at the mental
level. The mind’s energy naturally flows as thought in many different
directions without any structure to contain or organize it. The acquisition of
knowledge involves construction of a mental structure of understanding that is
analogous to the structure of skills and attitudes that govern expression of
our physical and vital energy. It forms an organizational framework for
learning and application of what is learned.
Human values are formed by a similar process
and act in a similar manner. Although the word is commonly used with reference
to ethical and cultural principles, values are of many types. They may be
physical (cleanliness, punctuality) , organizational (communication,
coordination) , psychological (courage, generosity), mental (objectivity,
sincerity), or spiritual (harmony, love, self-giving) . Values are central
organizing principles or ideas that govern and determine human behavior.
Unlike the skill or attitude that may be
specific to a particular physical activity or social context, values tend to be
more universal in their application. They express in everything we do. Values
can be described as the essence of the knowledge gained by humanity from past
experiences distilled from its local circumstances and specific context to
extract the fundamental wisdom of life derived from these experiences. Values
give direction to our thought processes, sentiments, emotional energies,
preferences and actions.
Centuries of experience have been distilled by
society into essential principles. Values such as hard work, sense of
responsibility, integrity in human relations, tolerance and respect for others
are not just noble ideas or ideals. They are pragmatic principles for
accomplishment which society has learned and transmitted to successive
generations as a psychological foundation for its further advancement. The
values of a society are a crucial aspect of its people’s self-conception of
what they want to become.
Because values are intangible to our senses
and their formation is the result of a very long process, we tend to overlook
their central role in development. Social values constitute the cultural
infrastructure on which all further social development is based. In this sense,
values are the ultimate product of past development and the ultimate
determinant of its future course.
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