Meta-Theory of Development

Development is a process of positive change that improves the quality and level of living in a society. It tries to increase the living standards of people, improve their health and sanitation, improve education and employment, and promote human dignity and respect.

Developing countries often undergo changes that can boost their economy and help them to modernize their society. These changes include introducing new infrastructure, creating more jobs and ensuring a higher education rate for children.

The development of a country is determined by its economic and social structure. These structures determine how a society manages its resources. These include physical resources, such as land, water and minerals, as well as social, mental and human resources, including knowledge, information, technology and energy.

Some researchers, however, have criticized these assumptions as overly simplistic and limiting. They have argued that people across the world share many common developmental pathways, but may go through them in different patterns and in varying sequences.

Meta-theory: There are several meta-theories that shape how we think about the human development process. These theories make assumptions about the nature of humans and their behavior.

Mechanistic meta-theory: These theories assume that human development is a mechanistic process in which people are made up of pieces that can be studied separately from each other. The energy for development comes from the outside (like gasoline for a car).

Organismic meta-theory: These theories assume the butterfly as a metaphor for human development, and that people develop through discontinuous qualitatively different stages like caterpillars and butterflies.