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Abdulaziz Dino Gidreta
Thus, there is a widely shared understanding of development as an attainment of a rela-
tively comfortable socio-economic, political and cultural state by people in particular, and
the country in general. Distinctively, it is about improvements in the social matters includ-
ing physical and spiritual health, and general and technological literacy including media
consumption; the economic basis beyond basic necessities; political conditions as can
be measured by the level of stability, democracy, and tolerance; cultural productions like
arts and literature; and scientific and technological advancements and the level of con-
sumption of that. İn this regard, Servaes points out that these changes become genuine
when individuals and social groups within the system move away from a condition of life
widely perceived as “unsatisfactory” towards a situation or condition of life regarded as
materially and spiritually “better” (2002:77).
There have been a range of views concerning the ingredients of a tangible development.
Torado (1977) in Servaes (2002) underlines, development should be viewed as a mul-
ti-dimensional process involving major changes in social structure, popular attitudes, and
national institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of
inequality and the eradication of absolute poverty.
Development, in its essence, must represent the entire gamut of change by which
an entire social system, tuned to the diverse basic needs and desires of individuals
and social groups within that system, moves away from a condition of life widely
perceived as “unsatisfactory” towards a situation or condition of life regarded as
materially and spiritually “better” (Torado, 1977: 62).
Servaes (2002:78) adds that development for society means the development of the col-
lective personality of society. In other words, it is a multi-variant quantitative and qual-
itative change, and may not be immediately measurable by cardinal means. This has
announced that the meanings of ‘development’ will no longer be attached only or mainly
to quantitative economic growths. Servaes (2002:78) summarizes the works of several
scholars to come up with seven essential criteria for a meaningful development: basic
needs, endogeny, self-reliance, ecology, sustainability, participative democracy, structur-
al and sustainable changes.
Basic needs imply the realization of human, material and non-material needs. It begins
with the satisfaction of the basic needs of those, dominated and exploited, who constitute
the majority of the world’s inhabitants, and ensures at the same time the humanization of
all human beings by the satisfaction of their needs for expression, creativity, equality, and
conviviality and the ability to understand and master their own destiny. Endogeny stems
from the heart of each society which defines its sovereignty, its values and its future. Be-
cause development is not a linear process, there can be no universal model, and only the
plurality of development patterns can answer to the specificity of each situation. Self-reli-
ance implies that each society relies primarily on its own strength and resources in terms
of its members’ energies and its natural and cultural environment. Self-reliance needs to
be exercised at national and international (collective self-reliance) levels, but it maintains
its full meaning only if rooted at the local level, in the praxis of each community.
