Abstract

MUJICA CHIRINOS, Norbis  and  RINCON GONZALEZ, Sorayda. The Concept of Development: Most Relevant Theoretical Positions . Revista Venezolana de Gerencia [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.50, pp.294-320. ISSN 1315-9984.

Resurgence of the discussion regarding development models can be located at the end of the 1990s, when it became more evident that the orthodox adjustment measures applied in Latin America in particular, did not achieve the desired results, thereby generating doubts about the concept and orientation that guided these processes. Today, in the context of the crisis of global finances and the capitalist system in general, the theme has been brought up once again. The objective of this article is to analyze the concept of development seen from the most relevant theoretical positions in the second half of the twentieth and beginnings of the twenty-first centuries. The methodology used to approach this study included theoretical review and analysis, content analysis and biblio-hemerographic analysis, focused on the period between 1960 and 2008, centering analysis on the operationalized models of that period, while including other alternative approaches, given the theoretical and epistemological importance of the theme. Results show that a marked economistic emphasis has existed regarding the idea of economic growth as an expression of development, which has motivated some responses from other angles. The study concludes that there is a need to conceive development as a highly complex process, which demands the integration of diverse factors that contribute to enriching the concept and affecting the policies and actors involved in it.

Keywords : Development; development concept; development theory; development models.