Human development index literacy as a new social development theory

Abstract

This article reviews the four major theories of development by which the advancement of the modern world has been explained since Adam Smith's The wealth of nations; these major theories include the classical economic theory, the neoclassical economic theory, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare theory and the Human Development Index theory. It traces the story of each of the theories and reveals that the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare and Human Development Index are now accepted as better theories of development. However, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare and Human Development Index theories have been found here to be deficient in participatory attributes and not to promote the exploration and use of indigenous knowledge in the process of development planning and implementation. Consequently, this article proposes the Human Development Index Literacy Theory of social development as a new and alternative development theory that is not only human-centred but also participatory in its approach to development planning and execution.

Keywords:

• literacy
• development
• developing world
• human-centred development
• theory

Acknowledgements

My sincere appreciation goes towards all of the practitioners and scholars in the field of literacy who have laboured day and night to bring development to mankind and who, by that token, have made available to me the literature this article relied upon. My gratitude equally goes towards those economists who have been working to reduce the nefarious effects of hard-core economics on the common man and whose works were available to me during the course of putting together this piece.