Principles in Development 

October 2010
 Ross Scholes –Research Essay

Research Essay

Principles in Development : aligning practice with spiritual

purpose

This essay proposes that principles-based approaches to development provide the only
complete solutions. It identifies parallels with those personal practices traditionally
perceived as religious which warrant investigating. Noting that community and
cooperative efforts inherently embody this direction through different forms, it
considers how this and certain other vectors of global changes might be regarded in
the field of Development Studies. Currently collected under the umbrella of this field
of study are an assortment of discontinuous and limited theories bound seemingly
only by conscience. A unifying theory is required. The principle of Oneness, and how
that might be rediscovered and applied is discussed. This personal reflection upon
current limitations in development hopefully provides a glimpse into the future which
mankind eventually constructs, if any. In my view it contains a starting point, and that
Development Studies makes a good platform to proceed from.

A personal reflection on the future of Development Theory

The effect of this our species upon the Earth is like a debilitating disease. The Earth
has recovered from far worse but how might humanity turn itself towards a more
survivable civilisation? Ronald Wright (2005) describes the recurring patterns
underlying the collapse of previous civilisations. Evidently the path to progress that
ends in unsustainable environmental degradation is a well trodden one, though never
before taken as far as our current predicament. We are up to our necks in the
excrement of greed as our world gets progressively digested through the bowels of
capitalism, with the stink of competition forcing us to crowd closer and closer to the
ceiling of Earth’s capacity as we vie for breathing space in our ‘ordinary’ lives.

Humanity does have other alternatives, a better world is possible. Indeed, there are
emerging grassroots actions raising such armies the likes of which have never been
seen before (avaaz.org; landshare.net; viacampesina.org) being a few. The opinion of
academic experts writing about our future seems to be that we don’t yet know enough
to deal with the pending crises. I say, bunkum. We know full well, and have done for
a long time, exactly what is required – a new kind of collective set of values, the

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

personal choice to privilege principles over profit embedded into our social
institutions. My question then is whether the field of Development Studies can
provide such direction to drive the changes which are after all its primary concern.

Although subsumed by neoliberal globalisation (McMicheal, 2005) the global

development project maintains its foundation in humanitarian principles.
Development Studies, with its licence to explore any practices relating to global
change, will need to expand its vision before it can provide a clearer direction. Peet
and Hartwick (2009) critiqued the breadth of its theoretical platform in a thoroughly
astute and in-depth review of development-related arguments and theories. They
concluded that ‘Critical Modernism’ a democratically-reinforced egalitarian credo,
was our best model into the future (:282). But noting that such an arrangement was
more or less approximated in the politics of early post-war New Zealand one might
reflect that democracy may not necessarily protect us from a slide towards
dispossession through capitalism. People become politically complacent over time.
There must be a more hopeful and less muscular vision.

Also, the similarity amongst the limitations encountered in the end-games of all
contemporary development practices, variously attributable to intractable power,
theory gaps, human nature or just the speed at which change won’t happen, essentially
warns of a continued failure in the kind of thinking which launches and fuels their
trajectories. No matter how doggedly pursued the unsustainable and unfair goal of
economic growth fails equally in both North and South. In other words, Western
society’s value system, enacted through its conveniently myopic economics, will
forever be that inadequate. The adoption or imposition (Escobar, 1995) of such
thinking into non-Western societies has only multiplied the problem, its consequence
the abandonment of ancient philosophies and disintegration of social institutions for
over two-thirds of the world’s people. Economic theory should be deregulated!

For a truly restorative change of direction new disciplines will need to be adopted by
and large that translate understanding into responsibility. The necessary
understandings are not new. They have been around for millennia, once being the
foundation of ancient cultures like Tibet, India and Burma. But in Europe its
equivalent was vigorously smothered by the murderous intrigues of Rome’s Catholic

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

imperialism. From the spiritual superficiality thereby imposed arose the

‘Enlightenment’ era, ushering in notions of reality which displaced truth with facts in
an intellectually shiny, but morally deficit, scientific materialism. Science has since
been so effective that there is a general expectation that it can just as effectively solve
the problems it has created. Collective wisdom is what we lack, not better science.

It seems to me that mankind will forever be faced by self-inflicted crises of one sort or
other while it errs from a certain direction – a kind corridor towards its own destiny –
which eventually will require the more or less universal realisation that our very
purpose in life is spiritual in nature. Such insight remains far from a global
inevitability - notions of God don’t go down very well in scientised circles. But there
is this inescapable limitation to science. As a way of knowing it is performed by the
mind reflecting upon the material world, its methods to truth require verification
through repeatable outcomes of observable effects within the physical dimension. Yet
there are other aspects to life we can each acknowledge with equal certainty; matters
of the heart; understandings in consciousness; insights and morals, in places where
science is forever excluded. Such knowing may be distinguished as participatory
truth, knowledge through the investigation of the self, the ancient way of knowing and
wisdom, now more or less discarded by Homo economicus.

From its study of matter physics has gone beyond “earth, fire, air and water” through
the periodic table and quantum theory to discovering parallel universes, and all by the
power of ‘equals’. The breathtaking implications at each stage of this quest have
largely gone unnoticed by the world. But its ultimate discovery could be world
transforming. That is, if physics ever concludes that matter is consequent upon
consciousness, and not the other way around - as now anthropocentrically (and
incorrectly) presumed – then what started as Einstein’s Unified Field Theory would
end up verifying the One Reality, the singularity priorly posited in all transcendental
wisdom. All religions would face adjusting their version of God to accord with the
irrefutable evidence of ‘equals’ ... hopefully that might change things.

What I am suggesting is that there are other processes which, though of little interest
to the development industry because they confront the status quo, should be highly
relevant to the field of Development Studies - that is, if it chose to undertake what

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

seems to me the urgent quest for a Unified Theory of Development; one which applies
equally to the North and the South, is culture neutral, can bridge the chasms between
existing contemporary development theories, and embraces Nature as an owner-free
common resource. Existing points of contact for interrogating the possibilities are
already expanding - for example the Community Land Trust movement (CLT); and
the highly imaginative work of engineer-futurist Jacque Fresco (1916-), now
embraced by the Zeitgeist Movement (TZM), an online network of mostly young
people from developed countries. Their vision, encompassing a money- and politics-
free world built upon egalitarian principles may sound fanciful, but it has been
adopted with such vigour that in less than three years it now claims over 310,000
members worldwide.

Vectors for Change

Everyone is constantly motivated to improve some or other circumstance of their life.
This relentless urge for change essentially derives from a deeper sense of
dissatisfaction with our born condition. In its most harvestable manifestation,
shopping therapy, the relief provided is sufficient for many people. Others commit
themselves to disciplines and codes intent on changing the very fabric of their lives.
Potentially a study of these personal practices of striving, as found in religion, sport
and making money, could provide insights for possible extrapolation to wider
development purposes. Because religions are universally principled and pre-loaded
with a spiritual intent I choose this as the easiest starting point.

Religious practices and disciplines, as with belief systems follow a general pattern.
Admittedly practices and beliefs are related in a chicken and egg way; but I would
argue that ultimately it is people’s actions rather than what they think, which most
significantly affects material change. So from the exoteric personal practices, those
intended to align the practitioner’s life with the spiritual process, I have chosen the
two most obvious, community and diet, and briefly investigate them through a non-
religious lens.

Community as a vector for change: Of the reasons why people engage in

community they seldom choose it as spiritual practice. Nevertheless without self-
discipline, self-understanding and a willingness to surrender to some self-transcendent
principle, collective arrangements of mutual dependence generally strain to breaking.
Significantly, community is inherently principles-based and being effective in the

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

global North and South, fulfils the preliminary criteria for a Unified Development
Theory.

Community in the sense am describing implies the condition of mutual

interdependence amongst members committed at some level of personal survival. This
could apply at the scale of business cooperatives such as the Mondragon Corporation
(Kelly, 2009) and equally include the networked peasant movements from the
developing world fighting to maintain their lands. In U.S, France and Canada a food
ordering system called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is emerging as a
significant movement (Sharp et al., 2002). The U.S. has hundreds of start-ups each
year. Above the mores of self-centred individualism CSA looms as a promising site
for principles-based community to become a force for change.

In low-income countries proximity community are common. There are plenty of

indications that principled community is an emerging global paradigm. For example,
in her paper on the outcomes of corporatised urban water services management in
central and South America, Bakker (2007) notes the growing record of failures by big
business compared with the more successful community cooperative supply schemes.

Diet as a vector for change: The role of diet, another widely adopted spiritual
discipline in traditional religious practice, is highly significant to future development.
In a ten-year study on the effects of diet done at the time when indigenous populations
first began interacting with European civilisation Dr. Weston Price documented
empirical evidence of diet as a significant link between bodily, mental and spiritual
health, and remarkably as having intergenerational consequences (Price, 1939).

More recent studies of food focus on social, political and economic factors mainly
within the field of geography. Diet-related issues are abundant; such as the 1 billion
people dying from being underfed while 1.6 billion are dying from being overfed; or
the environmental impacts of raising beef. One FAO report (Steinfeld et al., 2006)
notes serious land and water and deforestation outcomes from cattle farming
practices. Globally the livestock sector produces more greenhouse gas emissions than
the entire transport sector (:xxi). Adding this to the serious disease burden caused by
eating meat (cancerproject.org/), it is clear there are massive development issues
around diet.

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

It is difficult to imagine operationalising the practice of vegetarianism even with

plenty of high-profile support. But, being a principle-based direction, and applicable
for North and South societies, it meets the criteria for future-oriented solutions within
a Unified Development Theory.

Money as a vector for change: Beyond explanations for its scarcity money gets
overlooked as a subject for study. Few people have any concept of its architecture,
how that structure influences their lives, or how that might be changed. Money is a
kind of illusion we are born into and never think to question. Like in the saying ‘if
you want to know about water don’t ask a fish,’ we can’t imagine a world beyond
money. It appears to be a public commodity, a neutral medium for endless exchange.
And perhaps it once was, but it has since evolved into a product designed and
managed to maximise profit on a nationwide scale for a privately-controlled cartel of
banking dynasties.

People relate to money as some kind of sparkle in their pocketbook. Yet money’s
absence, rather than its presence, is what directs their lives. And few realise the
money they do have is based upon a negative proposition … all bank-money is
created as loans, and the sum of the debt is always greater than the sum of the money
accounted for. That is, the process incurs an invisible value loss upon society - a value
gain for banks which is externalised anonymously as one component of national
inflation. I have raised this point to explain why money in its current form does not
meet the principles-based criteria which I suggest must apply to future-oriented
solutions. However money could be analysed for ways to align it to a Unified
Development Theory. That would entail interrogating its structural parameters.
Religious practices do not really provide much guidance in this regard – renouncing
it, as the Zeitgeist Movement (ibid.) proposes, is not a practical solution on a global
scale. However there are successful projects recognising money-caused
impoverishment, such as the Community Land Trust movement (ibid.) returning to a
Commons ideal. Because money is a ubiquitous vector for change I think that its
study, in terms of exploring ways to change its direction to meet the principles-based
criteria has significant potential. After all, money is just a set of coded social
agreements, all of which can be reset. The socialised banking system of the
Mondragon Corporation (ibid.) stands out as a successful example which fulfils the
principles-based approach.

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Development Studies 710 - October 2010 Ross Scholes – Research Essay

In Conclusion
Our purpose in life is self-development. When that purpose is aligned to the spiritual
nature of life itself then the felt need for a co-operative world environment will
become the dominant influence on human thinking and action. The longer we forestall
this evolutionary necessity the more control we must accept, the more chaotic will the
fabric of our society become - and the more destructive will be our exploitation of the
Earth and its resources.

There already exist understandings where those who can accept responsibility for this
change should look for tools to do so. To integrate and communicate these within a
theory of the future broadly and beyond academic contest is the practitioners
challenge. The means and the direction are becoming clearer.

(approx. 2390 words)

The human heart can go the length of God.

Dark and cold we may be, but this
is no winter now. The frozen misery
of centuries cracks, breaks, begins to move.

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

the fall, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to meet us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The greatest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are now soul-size,

The enterprise
Is exploration of God.
But where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake, for Pity's sake?
~ Christopher Fry, “A Sleep of Prisoners”

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 Ross Scholes –Research Essay

REFERENCES

avaaz.org. Retrieved 10 Sept, 2010, from

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_victory_report/?cl=784151437&v=7351

Bakker, K. (2007). The “Commons” Versus the “Commodity”: Alter-globalization,

Anti-privatization and the Human Right toWater in the Global South.
Antipode, 39(3), 430-455.

cancerproject.org/. Cancer Facts - Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk Retrieved 10

Oct, 2010, from http://www.cancerproject.org/survival/cancer_facts/meat.php

CLT. Community Land Trust Retrieved 2010, 10 Oct, from

http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/clts.html

Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the

Third World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Kelly, G. (2009). The Mondragón Cooperatives as a Model of Collaborative Business

for the 21st Century Retrieved 10 Oct, 2010, from
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7565584850785786404&ei=o7w7
S8PhL47A-AbMu-WRBA&q=mondragon&hl=en#docid=-
6348598461397509798

landshare.net. Retrieved 10 Oct, 2010, from http://www.landshare.net/

McMicheal, P. (2005). Global Development And The Corporate Food Regime. New
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Peet, R., & Hartwick, E. (2009). Theories of Development. New York: Guildford
Press.

Price. (1939). Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. New York, London: Medical
Book Department of Harper & Brothers.

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Sharp, J., Imerman, E., & Peters, G. (2002). Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA): Building Community Among Farmers and Non-Farmers Journal of
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Steinfeld, H., Gerber, P., T., W., V., C., Rosales M, & de Haan, C. (2006). Livestock’s
Long Shadow; Environmental Issues and Options.: FAO, LEAD.

Szekely, E. B. (1938). The Essene Gospel of John.

viacampesina.org. Retrieved 10/10, 2010, from http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php

Wright, R. (2005). A Short History of Progress. New York: Carroll & Graf.

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