Thinking a lot about development this week and what this actually means.  Obviously the word development means something different to everyone.  What does it mean on an ecological scale?  Can we ecologically develop?  Is the entire process of evolution a continuous process of development?

What does it mean for a small rural community to develop?  What kind of development makes sense?

As with anything, there are differing views on this.  Personally I think we need to take a more ecological view of what development means.  We can't continue to develop the way that we always have.  If we want everyone to develop to be like the rest of the world we need to screw our heads back on the right way.  7 billion people can NOT live in the way that we consider to be developed.  We need a new way of looking at the word develop, and a new model for how to get there.  Or perhaps many new models.

In one of our readings this week we were introduced to the concept of solving problems in a transdisciplinary manner.  Thanks Odum.  I think that this ecological concept can be applied in most cases, but definitely when it comes to development.  We must look for answers from all disciplines and especially from places that we don't even consider to be disciplines. Is the wisdom of the community itself a discipline? We so often belittle these people and don't think that they have the education to make rational decisions about their own lives and future.  In some technical details this can be true, but overall, they know what they need and what is going to work for them.

Example time... was chatting with a guest at the lodge I'm living at and he is a retired engineer.  He was trying to defend this evil toll road that is being proposed for this untouched area.  His rationelle - these people are poor, they need to develop, they need infrastructure.  How can they expect to have doctors in the clinics if the roads are so bad that the doctors can't get into town easily?

I told him that I agreed with many of his points about them needing running water, some electricity, doctors in the clinics etc. but that I had a totally different philosophy about how they should "develop" and how they should strive to get those things...

I lean way more towards a self-sufficiency model, and the importance of education as development, not infrastructure like roads.  Lets get doctors and teachers coming from these communities, so that this is where they want to live.  Why import doctors from the city, who need a road because they are so desperate to get out of this place?  Rather lets increase the educational opportunities for the community so that people who want to live here become the doctors and teachers for the community.

I led a workshop for the development committee for this community last weekend, and I did a big visioning exercise with them.  It was amazing to see the vision that they had, and was overly happy when someone said exactly that - they want engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers etc. to be coming out of their community.

Education-based development over infrastructure.  Or with infrastructure.  Here is where the transdisciplinary comes in.

Alright, those are my thoughts for now.