Development and Conservation: A Global Dilemma

Abstract

The pursuit of ‘progress’ in the developed and less-developed countries ran about parallel in the 1950s and 1960s, but doubts clouded both their horizons in the 1970s in the form of disappointing material advance in the less-developed countries and the surge of environmental consciousness in the industrialized world. The focus of this paper is on the tensions which the combined development—conservation problem is creating in two basic institutions, the commercial corporation in the industrialized countries and the school in the less-developed countries, together with their roles in the search for solutions.In the case of the industrial countries, the developmental and environmental impact of the corporation is described, together with its role in the allocation and use of resources. The market mechanism and its failure in guiding corporate actions is outlined, as are the supplemental roles of legislation, protest, and the concept of corporate social responsibility.In the context of the less-developed countries, the conventional role ascribed to education in development is described in its record of failure. The article proceeds to report attempts at reform via changes in curriculum and institutions, and the continuing search for functional school systems now that the desire for development is tempered by a growing awareness that environmental—conservational problems are not unique to the ‘over-developed’ North, but that the South also needs developmentand conservation.The paper concludes by asserting the importance of both the corporation and the school in the search for ‘development and conservation’, and the scope and need for both research and concomitant action.