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What is a “Developed” Country? Crash Course Geography #40 - YouTube
Channel: CrashCourse
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the middle east and north africa is
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sitting on a gold mine well a black gold
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mine beneath this region is at least
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113.2 billion metric tons of oil and
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here the physical geography and the
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human geography kind of line up the oil
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isn't uniformly distributed beneath the
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surface of the earth and neither is this
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mind-boggling wealth but the middle east
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and north africa region often called
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mina for short knew great power and
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wealth even before oil became so
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valuable
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at one point the region housed some of
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the most powerful empires and most
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influential schools of thought and yet
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not every country in the region is
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considered powerful today in 2022. in
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this series we've highlighted how the
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perception of all places and lands isn't
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fixed in geography we like to tell the
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story of the world but there are so many
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different perspectives and ways to know
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our experiences we need to think
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carefully about what story to tell and
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the way we tell those stories too
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geography has long been a tool wielded
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by empires knowledge about strategic
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locations mineral resources locations of
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political power and even how we talk
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about and describe cultures and people
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guide the leaders and rulers of the
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world and development which is a
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polarizing complicated word can be the
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concept we lump all those factors into
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we draw comparisons and talk about
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growth but we can also ask what having
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wealth and power really means and how
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and why they're distributed so unevenly
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around the world
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even how we talk about development tells
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a story in and of itself i'm ali zay
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carrere and this is crash course
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geography
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[Music]
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when people talk about how resources
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wealth or even politics are distributed
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around a country or region or the world
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those metrics are often collapsed into
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one concept called development and we
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tend to think of a word like development
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with a certain amount of permanence
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countries that are developed stay
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developed but since talking about and
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comparing countries depends on our
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perceptions and opinions at a particular
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time
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the history of the word itself can be
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really illuminating talking about how
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developed a place is is something that
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started in the mid 20th century but even
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if it wasn't widely used before this it
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has ties to the language used within
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european colonialism like we talked
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about in our last episode many european
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colonizers change the cultural landscape
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of a place just with their word choice
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they describe their colonies as backward
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compared to their modern or advanced
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home countries to justify taking
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resources from their colonies until the
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1970s development was largely thought of
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in economic terms and a so-called
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developed country was one with standards
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of living and material wealth that
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looked like what was found in europe and
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north america
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they often had a history of
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industrialization and colonialism too
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the other group of countries were
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originally seen as underdeveloped these
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were places whose standards of living
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and wealth were considered not as good
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as the so-called developed countries and
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it's probably no surprise to learn these
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countries often had been colonized by
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said developed countries eventually
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underdeveloped changed to developing and
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then got mixed up with talking about the
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third world
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first second and third world are
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actually political terms that describe
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political leanings during the cold war
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coupled with a description of
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predominant economic models but in most
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cases those pairings don't make sense in
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a post-cold war world and underdeveloped
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developing and talking about the third
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world all came to mean the same thing to
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westerners that the non-white people of
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these places were inferior to people in
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so-called developed places and it's a
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sentiment that grew out of the labels
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colonizers chose to use and the history
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they devalued but colonized people and
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scholars from around the world have
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pushed back on this narrative they also
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pushed back on development being tied to
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how similar a place is economically and
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politically to the west which is
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shorthand for europe and north america
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one way to more fully get at the nuance
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of development is to be specific about
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what type of development we're talking
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about
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for instance because economic standing
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and wealth and resources are what
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reinforced colonial narratives about who
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is developed we still use economic
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metrics as one way to measure the
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economic development of a country some
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of the strongest economies in the world
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maybe not surprisingly after those oil
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stats at the beginning are places like
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the united arab emirates it's one of the
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top 30 countries for 2020 gross domestic
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product or gdp which measures the
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monetary value of an economy's final
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goods and services and is one way to
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measure the strength of an economy the
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uae has a free market economy which we
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might remember dates back to some of the
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earliest histories and trade with both
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india and mozambique thanks to monsoon
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migration
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those market-based policies or policies
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that allow for supply and demand to set
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the value of a good encourage
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competition and foreign investment and
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from the late 1800s to the 1960s it was
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under the control and protection of the
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british which we know from our last
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episode on colonialism can have
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lingering negative effects yet it's a
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strong economy thanks to oil and being
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able to use that profit to build
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infrastructure compare that to lebanon a
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location also endowed with resources
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like a water surplus and an arid region
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ample agricultural land and its
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favorable location on the mediterranean
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sea making it a key port for getting
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goods in and out of the middle east
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lebanon was placed under french military
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administration after the first world war
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and was part of the ottoman empire
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before that
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historically lebanon has been considered
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a wealthy place but unlike the uae
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lebanon has struggled to overcome the
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politics related to its colonial past
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and has had political and economic
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setback after setback remember over the
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last few episodes we've talked about
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different types of economic production
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and how it's not enough to have the
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stuff just owning natural resources
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doesn't make a country wealthy lebanon
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has water and agriculture but in 2022
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that doesn't equal the same wealth as
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massive oil fields
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and even having oil fields doesn't
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guarantee wealth and certainly not well
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for all people within a country
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and if something is distributed unevenly
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there's a geographer somewhere trying to
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understand why as geographers knowing
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that economic development is often what
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development is taken to indicate we
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might also cringe at some of the latest
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iterations of terms we might hear people
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talk about the global north versus the
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global south or countries being more or
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less industrialized how we talk about
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development is still evolving but so far
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we haven't come up with the best term
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north and south say nothing about
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economic potential and in the end many
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of the countries that are considered
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economically developed today
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did so through tremendous extraction
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either from their own resources or those
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of other countries
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and the labels we use tell the story of
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those dominant countries those stories
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also guide the global response to how
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economically wealthy countries treat
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lower income ones
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and there's a whole smorgasbord of
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policies meant to help countries create
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stable free market economies and become
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economically developed these can be
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things like import substitution which
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are economic policies that attempt to
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make imports expensive through high
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tariffs or taxes on imported goods
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the intent is to create economic
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motivation to create a strong secondary
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economy by manufacturing goods
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domestically but many people involved in
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development are recognizing that to make
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an economy look like one in europe and
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north america it takes both economic and
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political infrastructures and a massive
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amount of wealth wealth that those
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regions built from colonial extraction
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that then funded their industrial
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revolutions which is where the wealth of
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current low-income countries went in the
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first place instead now low-income
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countries who are members of the un
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often receive loans to fund these
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projects from the world bank the
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international monetary fund and other
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supernatural organizations which mostly
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function outside of the authority of any
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one state but these programs are not
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always a good fit because if a country
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can't pay back what they owe they
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default and have to work out a repayment
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deal which usually involves
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restructuring their economy
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and restructuring often involves some
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sort of austerity measures like cuts to
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social programs like healthcare
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education and pensions so a lot of the
[450]
focus of development is on wealthy
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countries of the world helping other
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economies begin to look like they do
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and in the process a lot of those
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disparities just get reinforced when
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low-income countries are trapped in debt
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but many scholars and leaders have
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pushed back over time because
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development doesn't have a universally
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accepted definition that means we can
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also define it in ways beyond economics
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and how much like europe they are
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in shifting how we define development we
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also shift the story postcolonialism
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which is a response that gained
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increasing prominence throughout the
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1970s and onwards is in part a critique
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of the way these eurocentric labels are
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produced and used it's a framework that
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focuses on politics and activism in
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order to assert that formerly colonized
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peoples have a right to access resources
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and earn material wealth in addition to
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reinforcing colonial stories
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economically focused development also
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tends to reinforce a male-centered
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version of what we give value to but
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societies that value traditional
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practices that are used to protect
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natural resources or traditional
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knowledge to minimize crises or informal
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economic structures that provide mutual
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aid in a community might view
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development differently these are all
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roles and knowledge traditionally
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managed by women but are not often
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counted as economic development we can
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also use other metrics beside gdp to
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measure development
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economists have pointed out that the
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traditional metrics can't measure
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quality of life or overall social and
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physical health of a society and
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throughout the late 20th century
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increasing emphasis was given to the
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human development index which is
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calculated by the united nations this is
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a compound index that looks at variables
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like access to safe water birth rate
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death rate education and access to
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health care to determine a country's
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level of development for example in 2019
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the uae had very high access to
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education and educational infrastructure
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which gives it a high hdi score it also
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has a high score for things that feed
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into economic infrastructure like 100 of
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the population has access to electricity
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but because so much of those metrics
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rely on funding infrastructure lebanon
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doesn't score quite as high another
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quality of life index is the gender
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inequality index which can show income
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disparity for the uae men and women seem
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to have equal access to education and
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health care but women make far less than
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men on average and that's a trend
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throughout the region
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but even these human-centered
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measurements tend to still point to an
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economic quality of life there are also
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metrics for measuring environmental and
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socioeconomic sustainability and even
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happiness for instance there's a gross
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national happiness measurement which is
[592]
an annual survey asking people about the
[594]
overall quality of life they live but
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each of these metrics pretty much
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highlights a single way of thinking and
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talking about the success of a given
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country
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in the 2020s development organizations
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are rethinking how they encourage
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economic growth in the middle east and
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north africa a region with a large young
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population
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and there's some effort to manage the
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region as an economic whole rather than
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several individual states
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internationally countries like china are
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also rethinking foreign investment by
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investing directly into infrastructure
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in return for land for factories thus
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eliminating the need for loans
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ultimately we have to think more broadly
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about what it means to be developed
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remember in order to score high on the
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economic measures of development an
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economy has to produce and consume a lot
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of stuff and it's been estimated that if
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all countries consumed resources in the
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same way as the united states we'd need
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four earths as the globe deals with the
[643]
climate crisis caused by industrial
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development and struggles to understand
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the lasting damage of colonialism we
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will need to rethink what development is
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and how to access resources and
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commodities in an unequal world and one
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area we can start with right now is
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remembering that ultimately we need to
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put people first both in deciding how we
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measure these sorts of things and how we
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implement the changes that are necessary
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how we define development matters
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because it shapes the interactions that
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are allowable where wealth gets located
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and the global discourse on what is
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acceptable economic practice and what
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isn't
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it shapes how we tell the story of the
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world and who are heroes and villains
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failing to see that there are multiple
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valid ways for a country to be developed
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can cause harm
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and the stories we tell about ourselves
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and other countries can shape how we all
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relate to each other next time we'll
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tell the story of growing cotton with
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genetically modified seeds in india and
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the unintended consequences of this
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development strategy
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many maps and borders represent modern
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geopolitical divisions that have often
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been decided without the consultation
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permission or recognition of the land's
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original inhabitants many geographical
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place names also don't reflect the
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indigenous or aboriginal people's
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languages so we at crash course want to
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acknowledge these people's traditional
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and ongoing relationship with that land
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and all the physical and human
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geographical elements of it we encourage
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you to learn about the history of the
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place you call home through resources
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like nativeland.ca and by engaging with
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your local indigenous and aboriginal
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nations through the websites and
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resources they provide thanks for
[728]
watching this episode of crash course
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geography which is filmed at the team
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sandoval pier studio and was made with
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the help of all these nice people
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if you want to help keep crash course
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free for everyone forever you can join
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our community on patreon
[748]
you
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