Is it Possible for a Society to Exist Without Development?

Abstract

The article problematizes social development as a phenomenon and concept for the present and for the future in relation to certain trends that have emerged in the modern world. The concept of development, interpreted as increase, growing complexity and improvement, is currently the main one for society’s mindset in time and dominates the vernacular, while in reality there have been trends towards the convergence of social labor and a decline in demographic and economic growth. For half a century now the international community has focused its efforts on achieving “sustainable development”. Since the beginning of the new millennium, this oxymoronic and euphemistic construction has begun to give way to the more unambiguous concepts of “degrowth” and “undevelopment”, which denote the program setting of the growing social movement for self-limitation of production and consumption in order to preserve the natural environment. In this regard, the author poses the following question (is it possible for a society to exist without development?) and gives a positive answer for it: for almost three thousand years nomads have been an example of an environmentally determined social homeostasis. It is likely that in the near future, by historical standards, the implementation of the “green agenda” will lead to a slowdown or even a halt in social development, and before counteracting or contributing to this in practice, it is advisable to think the situation through from a theoretical standpoint.

Keywords

• development
• evolution
• progress
• growth
• degrowth
• ecology
• homeostasis
• nomadism