Seeking Endogenous Development: Ethnic Groups and Cultures in Western China

Author: Zhou Dameng, Liu Zhiyang, Qin Hongzeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book is one of the achievements of the major humanities and social sciences project of Sun Yat-sen University titled "Seeking Endogenous Development—Ethnic Groups and Cultures in Western China," and it was also funded by the National "Project 985." Endogenous development is based on the local ecology and culture, listens to the voices of development subjects, respects the right to development and the freedom to develop of local people, and explores the path of endogenous development in Western China.
After World War II, under the strong promotion of governments in Western developed countries and in response to the development needs of newly independent nations, development theory emerged. However, this "development" was never entirely endogenous or spontaneous from the beginning; rather, it was a reaction to or a "replication" of the existing international environment and the models of developed countries. "Development means paving the way for most regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America to replicate the typical environment of economically developed countries: industrialization, high urbanization, widespread higher education, agricultural technology, the broad acceptance of modern values and norms, including specific orders, rationality, and individual goals. This kind of development both acknowledges and denies the existence of differences: the existence of the Third World embodies differences, and development is precisely the opportunity to eliminate them."
Consequently, in the development practices of the Third World, this development approach has led to a series of complex social and economic issues, such as ethnic conflicts, inflation, imbalances in economic structures, unemployment, unequal distribution, distorted urban development, and social polarization, among others. In response to these development crises, since the 1970s, anthropologists working in development institutions and those trained in applied anthropology for the development field have proposed new development concepts such as participatory development and endogenous development. Under the advocacy and promotion of organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank, these ideas have gradually been accepted, recognized, and implemented in practice.