Week 3 Critique: Development

For Week 3's Blog Critique, I will be focusing on Andrew Osborne's Week 3 Blog on Development. As he begins to talk about the abandoned coal mine and other places we visited, he mentioned Katie Willis's definition from the Key Concepts in Geography text: "Development is used in everyday speech to refer to change" (Willis, 2009), and how Willis is refering to 'development' as anything that has been altered by people. I believe that Willis had a different point in mind, though. As I read further into Willis's definition, Willis stated:

"However, within geography, development usually has more specific meanings, refering to either national-level processes of econominc, political, and social change, or the positive change resluting from intentional actions to improve the living conditions of poor or marginal populations." (Willis, 2009)

He goes on to explain that development can take on many different perspectives and has changed and morphed over time, but the constant is that it is influenced by power (Willis, 2009)

The perception that the Greer limestone mine as being sustainable due to its counter-effects on the acidity of the stream is a concept that I would not have thought about. When we think of sustainable development, we do not typically think of a limestone mine that is polluting into the stream as 'sustainable,' and that point is arguable, but it is an interesting concept to think about. James Duncan, in his entry in The Dictionary of Human Geography, cites W.M. Adams in explaining that the phrase 'sustainable development' is a flexible term, and used to justify ideas about economuy, environment, and society (Adams, 2001). Adams also cites the Brundtland Report of 1987 in defining sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Adams, 2009). While I doubt that the Greer Limestone company had sustainability in mind when polluting the stream, the fact that they are resulting in a sustainable impact (combatting the acidity of the water with basic pollutants, resulting in cleaner water) is a very different perspective, but he makes a sound case for claiming that it is a sustainable development.


Adams, W.M. 2001: Green Devleopment: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World, 2nd edn. London: routledge

Duncan, James Key Concepts in Geography. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications, 2009. Print.

Gregory, Derek. The Dictionary of Human Geography. 5th ed. Malden: Blackwell, 2009. Print.