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'''Overdevelopment''' refers to a way of seeing global inequality that focuses on the negative consequences of excessive consumption. It exists as the mutually constitutive counterpart to the more commonly known concept of ‘underdevelopment’.
In mainstream development theory, the existence of ‘underdeveloped’ states, regions or cultures is seen as a problem that needs to be solved. States, regions, cultures and people are considered ‘underdeveloped’ in that they do not adhere to [[Eurocentric]] ideals of rationality, progress, and modernity that are associated with the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. In contrast, the framework of overdevelopment shifts the focus to the ‘developed’ countries of the global North, asking “questions about why excessive consumption amongst the affluent is not also seen foremost as an issue of development”. <ref
By questioning how and why uneven development is produced in the world, one can evaluate the global North’s role and responsibility as “overdevelopers” in producing global inequality. According to various surveys, consumption is seemingly not making people notably happy, but rather increasing the West's [[ecological footprint]]. <ref> Barkin, Samuel J. Trade, Sustainable Development and the Environment, Global Environmental Politics3:4, November 2003 </ref> Overdevelopment has a huge impact on the environment, the social realm, human rights, and the global economy.
▲==Environmental Implications==
Excessive consumption causes negative environmental impacts in both 'overdeveloped' and 'underdeveloped' regions. “Findings indicate that there are significant differences across countries of the world in the consumption quality of life of its citizens. Using the HDI, which is composed of longevity, knowledge, and standard of living, data reveal that lives worsen from west to east, with the worst conditions in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, environmental damage estimates, as determined by the EDI composite developed specifically for this investigation, demonstrate that wealthier nations create [[environmental degradation]] that is consistent with their higher consumption patterns rather than their absolute numbers.” <ref> Hill, Ronald Paul, Peterson, Robert M., Dhanda, Kanwalroop Kathy, Global Consumption and Distributive Justice: A Rawlsian Perspective, Human Rights Quarterly 23 (2001) 171-187, 2001. </ref>
===Post Colonial===
The legacy of [[colonialism]] can be said to play a role in why overdevelopment has been largely unconsidered due to the “almost exclusive focus on ‘underdevelopment’ and the underdeveloped world that has characterized development studies and associated disciplines for so long needs”. <ref
Mainstream development work aims at fighting poverty, sickness and crisis in ‘underdeveloped’ regions. This sentiment of “metropolitan responsibility for distant human suffering” is reminiscent of imperialist and colonials movements from Europe and North America as they “became entwined within global networks of exchange and exploitation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” <ref
▲The legacy of [[colonialism]] can be said to play a role in why overdevelopment has been largely unconsidered due to the “almost exclusive focus on ‘underdevelopment’ and the underdeveloped world that has characterized development studies and associated disciplines for so long needs”. <ref>Power, Marcus, Anti-racism, deconstruction and ‘overdevelopment’, Progress in Development Studies, 2006; 6; 24 </ref>
▲Mainstream development work aims at fighting poverty, sickness and crisis in ‘underdeveloped’ regions. This sentiment of “metropolitan responsibility for distant human suffering” is reminiscent of imperialist and colonials movements from Europe and North America as they “became entwined within global networks of exchange and exploitation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” <ref>Power, Marcus, Anti-racism, deconstruction and ‘overdevelopment’, Progress in Development Studies, 2006; 6; 24 </ref> This colonialst mindset frames the fixation with the Global North coming to the aid of ‘distant others’. This view could be countered with an equal attentiveness to the problems of ‘overdevelopment’ and the overdeveloped world. <ref>Power, Marcus, Anti-racism, deconstruction and ‘overdevelopment’, Progress in Development Studies, 2006; 6; 24 </ref>
===Marxist===
Marxist work argues that an impact of [[capitalism]] in the global economy is to produce inequality. The two faces of capitalism are underdevelopment, occurring in the ‘third world’ and overdevelopment, occurring in Europe and North America. <ref> Ruyle, Eugene, "The Two Faces of Capitalism: Underdevelopment and Overdevelopment." Unpublished manuscript, written about 2001. </ref>
Acts of consumption of [[commodities]] take embody the overdeveloping form of capitalism in the global North. “Almost everything we now eat and drink, wear and use, listen to and hear, watch and learn come to us in commodity form and is shaped by divisions of labour, the pursuit of product niches and the general evolution of discourses and ideologies that embody precepts of capitalism. <ref
==Responses==
Responses to overdevelopment include the [[de-growth]] movement, [[sustainable development]], anti-development and other local or indigenous resistance movements.
Indigenous movements such as the [[Aloha ʻAina]] movement and the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]] movement, often have their own concepts of development, overdevelopment, and [[sustainability]]. Their versions of these concepts overlap with those of environmental activism, but differ in many important ways, many of which relate to the ideal interrelation of humans and environment in the particular places in question.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
*[http://globalwebpost.com/farooqm/writings/q-academic/overdevelopment.html International Development: Is There Any Role Model?] by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
*[http://globalaware.net/affluence/ Make Affluence History]
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