Development and Social Progress

The three main commitments made by the world leaders assembled in Copenhagen for the World Summit for Social Development were to eradicate absolute poverty, to support full employment as a basic policy goal and to promote social integration based on the enhancement and protection of all human rights. Seeing their realization as a requirement for social justice, the Triglav Circle gives a lot of attention to these goals, notably through its participation in the work of the Commission for Social Development at the United Nations.

The Circle also reflects on these notions of “development” and “progress”, on their origins and current understanding, and on their underlying philosophical and ideological assumptions.  It considers the intellectual and political foundations of the type of international cooperation that has been since the aftermath of World War II the prevalent mode of addressing the problems of countries seen as “under-developed”.

Regarding the concept of sustainability, it looks at its cultural and ethical dimensions and at its compatibility with a dominant economic model based on competition and on the rapid obsolescence  of material goods. The Circle is particularly interested in the objective formulated by the Rio Summit of 1992 and reaffirmed regularly in international agreements, including in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, that changes in patterns of production and consumption are needed to stop the deterioration of the health of our planet. Its emphasis on the concept of harmony, with the self, with others and with Nature, is part of its efforts to promote a renewed approach to social progress based on  moderation, generosity and solidarity.

Interview with Nitin Desai, a senior economist who played a leading role in introducing the concept of the sustainable development into economic policy? Nitin played a major role in drafting the seminar report “Our Common Future” as partof the Brundtland Comission on Environment an Development in 1987. Desai in a friend on the Circle. Interviewed by Damandeep Singh, Produced by Aditi Desai. Interview is in two parts which are also on You Tube.

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Key Ideas

International Symposium

Development for Harmonious Societies in a Pluralistic World, Beijing,2006
Event with Chinese Academy of Science and representative of the Triglav Circle

All great civilizations have flourished from a strong and organized economic ground. Neither are new the difficulties inherent to its realization. Deification of the economy and neglect of its elementary working conditions are opposite but recurrent temptations. Today’s circumstances, however, make the task of building humane economies for harmonious societies both urgent and exceedingly difficult.

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Forum for Social Development, Bamako, Mali Feb 2009

Social Development Forum

There were two events. The first was a meeting of the Ministers for Social Development of the West African region who, for the first time, were establishing a basis for active cooperation on social issues. This process is supported by UNESCO, in the context of its program MOST (Management of Social Transformation). The text adopted, in the presence of a representative of the African Union, is an interesting example of a mix of universal values and principles (directly inspired by the text of the Copenhagen summit, which is much more alive in Africa than at the Headquarters of the United Nations) and of African traditions and specificities… The second event was a Salon du Developpement (sort of “Development Fair”) which brought together for three days a large variety of representatives of the Malian society. …

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The Spiritual and Moral Dimensions of the Politics of Development Dimensions spirituelles et éthiques des politiques de développement,
 By Barbara Baudot in Mali

Today when international political pundits discuss development in the forums of national governments and of international organizations, the discourse centers on economic growth, debt burdens, free trade and foreign direct investment: how to stimulate it, how to develop more efficient markets, how to make countries more competitive, how countries can become players in the global market society. Few if are discussing the intangible issues of life that should govern and direct these efforts. Such issues include nothing less than the larger meaning and purpose of human life…  It is these types of questions with intangible answers that must also be addressed if the world is truly going to develop the potential nature has given humankind.  Tackling them means addressing the spiritual and moral dimensions of development politics .

Read the full text of speech in pdf

Meeting of the Circle

Simpler Life Styles: Utopia or Reasonable Political Project, Report , Ougny France, June 11 2006

Simplicity is a.sophisticated concept. It is not the same as poverty and material deprivation. A simple life requires a minimum amount of money, this amount varying with places and circumstances. But frugality demands generosity and liberality, for a simple life ought not to be tense and self-centered. So much so that, for instance in the Quaker tradition, simplicity is the condition for and the equivalent of generosity and respect for the other. It means attention to the needs of other human beings, especially the weakest. It also means rejection of violence. It is the opposite of selfishness, self-assertion, and self-centeredness.

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The Idea of Progress and its Relevance for the 21st Century
Agenda, programme of Work and Report

Four currents ran through the debate: a critique of progress, as a concept and an ideology central to the dominant form of modernity; an apology of the same idea of progress, judged by its fruits; a focus on social progress, as a political project; and, a restoration of the meaning of the word and the place of the concept in different historical and cultural settings. These four perspectives, which might be labeled critical, apologetic, social and academic, are outlined below. Some common grounds are then indicated and pending questions are identified, including the possible renewed need for a Utopia.

Read Agenda and Program of Work

Read the Report

Enriching the United Nations 2030 Agenda with the encyclical letter Laudato Si’ Report  Domaine de La Garde, Bourg en Bresse 2016.

Two documents were before the Seminar.[1] The first, entitled, Explanatory Note and Themes for Selection of Questions in an Agenda, was circulated at the end of May. It provided a brief analysis and comparison of two texts – a text adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2015 entitled Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (thereafter the 2030 Agenda) and the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home, issued by Pope Francis in May 2015 (thereafter the Letter)- and it argued that the Letter should be used to “enrich” the 2030 Agenda

[1] Four written comments on the Explanatory Note were also made available at the meeting. They were written by Christian Balslev-Olesen, Steve Gorman, Max Harris (non- participant) and Konrad Raiser.

Read the final report in pdf

[1] Four written comments on the Explanatory Note were also made available at the meeting. They were written by Christian Balslev-Olesen, Steve Gorman, Max Harris (non- participant) and Konrad Raiser.

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Violence against Nature and Man, and the Search for the Common Good.Canton de Vaux in Switzerland.13-15 July 2012

Two assumptions explain the choice of this subject. The first is that all forms of violence are related and feed each other: violence against the environment feeds violence in international and personal relations, and violence in the public discourse and policies feeds violence in schools and homes. The second assumption is that a coherent and shared perception of the values that constitute universal good can generate the peace and respect for all life without which humankind would find great difficulty freeing itself from the likely consequences of this violence, be it an ecological catastrophe, an atomic or chemical warfare, or the development of new forms of oppression and slavery. .

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Articles

Nature in Peril
by Nitin Desai,  published in India’s Business Standard, July 14 2021

Nature can protect us only if we protect it-that is the simple truth the governments need to recognize.  The environment in India faces a major challenge.
The ministry charged with protecting it seems to be more keen on helping to promote activities that are likely to damage it.
This case is not unique to India but to many countries whose principle aim is to feed its GDP at all costs while saving face.

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Action for the Protection of the Environment: The roles of national governments, local governments, and civil society
by Hideo Shingu and Barbara Baudot

While environmental degradation quietly accelerates, part of human society prospers in the deceiving splendor of great wealth in things, other parts aspire to this affluent life style and the rest of humanity remain in various levels of poverty—be it relative or absolute, living either lightly on the land as their ancestors before them or in the squalor and filth of new urban and rural slums.
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Reflections on Science, Technology and the Human Spirit
by Arthur Dahl

Too often in our world, science and religion are seen as in conflict, if not contradictory. As a Baha’i, I have never had that problem, and chose a career in science because it seemed to be the best expression of my spirituality. These reflections emerge from this experience of science in harmony with the human spirit.

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Science, Technology and The Organization of Knowledge
by Saad Nagi

The objectives in this statement are to: clarify what is meant by science and technology; explain the relationships between the two; and distinguish between the ways knowledge is organized for codifying the theoretical principles of disciplines and for applied purposes.  Distinctions have been made among three “ways of knowing”2: theology, in which beliefs are grounded in faith; philosophy, where consistency is the primary criterion for acceptance of systems and arguments; and science, which requires empirical verification of information.  Three sets of criteria are used to identify and evaluate scientific material.3

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The Idea of Progress and its Relevance for the 21st Century
by Eduard Dommen

On peut prétendre que l’étymologie du mot ‘nihilisme’ est double. Il provient d’une part de ne hilum, « il n’y a pas de fil ». Aucun fil ne relie les choses entre elles. Tout est ce qu’il est; il ne vient de nulle part, il se tient soi-même et il ne va nulle part. Il n’a aucune attache, il n’est lié par rien. C’est le degré absolu de la liberté.
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Forgotten Hills: Islands of Woods, by John Elder

I have long been, and continue to be, a passionate advocate of substituting renewable energy for fossil fuels. But Robinson’s way of addressing the costs of such an approach helped me open my heart more fully to the concerns of Vermont neigh­ bors with whom I disagreed about the installation of twenty-one wind turbines on a ridge in northern Vermont. His attention to loss in our rural regions’ present and future as well as in our past also offered a more encompassing outlook on these wounded and recovering landscapes. Such a broad perspective suggested the possibility for respectful communication between what might have seemed sternly fortified counter-positions. Furthermore, coming so soon after the walk to Saint Colman’s cave, his talk reverberated for me with the conflicting versions of Moya Cannon’s story.  Read more …

Positivism, Natural Science and the World of Metaphysics
By Barbara Baudot

The modern interpretation of natural science is seemingly responsible for catapulting the individual into a global, technological civilization under a regime of domineering materiality. This is ironic and sad because physics and higher mathematics actually point to a number of very significant ideas concerning the realities of the universe and life which could, given an appropriate world view, remove the chains binding human intentions to material circumstances and aspirations. With the assistance of reason enlightened by imagination and wisdom, modern science can lead humanity to a high sense of purpose that prioritizes ecological harmony. Physicist Brian Greene’s summarizes this standpoint:

To open our ideas to the true nature of the universe has always been one of physic’s primary purposes. It is hard to imagine a more mind stretching. experience than learning, as we have over the last century that the reality we experience is but a glimmer of the reality that is.[4]

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Highlights

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