SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN A COUNTRY OF PARTIAL DEVELOPMENT – VIEWED FROM THE VALUES PERSPECTIVE OF SPIRAL DYNAMICS

By Graham Linscott

Introduction
Development strategies in a country where tribal/peasant rural economies co-exist with established nodes of commercial/industrial activity face particular challenges, especially in respect of sustainability. However, the juxtapositioning also provides opportunities which are not present in societies which are wholly under-developed.

This paper is based on the Spiral Dynamics methodology of Dr Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, developed from the original research-based theory in the United States of the late Professor Clare W. Graves. It also draws heavily on field experience in South Africa, where a modern industrial and cyber-technology economy co-exists with rural agrarian subsistence economies of declining vitality. It is a juxtaposition which is to an extent replicated elsewhere in the world, including the Philippines.

Spiral Dynamics (SD) identifies eight developmental stages in human existence, which are stacked in a spiral and colour-coded for convenience. The stages are rational responses to environment, the challenges of existence, and they evolve as new environments (and new technologies) present new challenges. These stages (or mindsets or adaptive intelligences) do not measure intelligence or lack of it. They have no intrinsic moral content – individuals at any particular stage are still capable of good or evil. No particular stage on the Spiral is superior to another – it is simply appropriate to current life conditions. Very briefly, these colour-coded stages are:

Beige: Where the impulse is for sheer survival and procreation. People live in small hunter/gatherer bands.

Purple: Hunter/gatherer bands have evolved into complex communities of tribal order where hierarchies are unchallenged, customs are scrupulously observed, the individual is secure in his niche, there is a warm communality, the collective wisdom of the tribe is revered and there is a strong sense of communion with the shades of departed ancestors and with the forces of nature which are seen as magical.

Red: The rebellious individual breaks away from the constraints of tribal order (often under the impact of urbanisation) and asserts himself for survival in a new and dangerous world. Instant satisfaction is demanded for there may be no tomorrow.

Blue: In reaction to the amoral anarchy of existence at the previous level, the individual withdraws into rule-based order (often religion) in which codes of behaviour are strictly set and observed. Reward (perhaps in the hereafter) depends entirely on the individual’s observing those rules.

Orange: Breaking free from the stultifying rules and regulations of the previous level, the adventurous individual seeks to fully harness the forces of nature for profit and individual comfort. This is the mindset which drives entrepreneurial endeavour and which (in contrast with the rigidity of Blue) is comfortable with political and other trade-offs.

Green: In reaction to the grossness and materialism of the previous level, as well as to the perceived profit of a small group at the expense of the masses, individuals and groups pursue egalitarian agendas of justice, fairness and a sharing of resources. They seek also to protect the earth’s resources from over-exploitation.

Yellow: At this mindset Graves identified a qualitative shift to a higher order of integrated thinking. The individual is capable of seeing value in all the previous levels, of the need to integrate them, not destroy those whose values he does not share. Whereas the individual at Red will despise tribal order (Purple), reject the rules of Blue and accept entrepreneurial Orange only to the extent he can exploit it (typically, gangsterism), the individual at Yellow can appreciate the need for a reasonable sharing of wealth and a caring for the less fortunate (Green); for an entrepreneurial economy (Orange) without which there can be no wealth; for rules and regulations (Blue) without which there is anarchy; for a channelling of the raw individual energies (Red) of detribalised individuals into constructive pursuits; and for communities which desire it to be tribally organised (Purple). In some societies (such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) integrated thinkers are exercised about the plight of the small bands of hunter/gatherers (San Bushmen - Beige) which still exist and are being marginalised by the interests of commercial agriculture.

Turquoise: This describes a mindset which is still evolving – a holistic and essentially spiritual understanding of the cosmos and of man’s place in it.

In practice, no individual is likely to be at only one level. He is more likely to trail with him other mindsets and shift to them as circumstances warrant. The industrial entrepreneur for instance (Orange) is likely to obey the law and pay his taxes (Blue). He might well feel a moral compunction to distribute wealth to the less fortunate (Green). And, if he is a truly integrated thinker, he will recognise that all stages of the Spiral have a role to play if the resources of the earth are to be developed on a sustainable basis. No single mode of existence is going to save the planet.

A grasp of Spiral Dynamics gives a new dimension to analysis of social/political/economic issues and a new understanding of the dynamics of Sustainable Development.

It becomes clear, on reflection, that the developed world is composed almost entirely of the Blue (law and order, accountable and regularly elected government), Orange (entrepreneurial drive) and Green (humane concern for the less fortunate) sectors of the Spiral. Under-developed societies consist mainly of Purple (tribally/ethnically defined communities) and Red (the rootless recently urbanised).

It also becomes clear that partially developed countries (such as the Philippines and South Africa) contain most of  those two ranges combined  – Purple, Red, Blue and Orange. Subsistence tribalists seek a living off the land. The detribalised hustle for a living in the urban slums. Certain individuals find sanctuary and peace of mind in the Church (a very important stabilising factor, quite apart from theological considerations). Brash entrepreneurs wring what they can out of resources available.

Where Green or integrated Yellow values do exist in such partially developed societies, they are in a decided minority and often confined to university campuses which network with others in the developed world.

Sustainable Development – where are the threats?
Developed World
1. Industrial pollution (Orange) – rivers, lakes, seas and the atmosphere are polluted by effluents, disturbing the world ecology.
2. Over-consumption (Orange) – unprecedented material comfort in the developed nations creates a demand for finite resources (fossil fuels, timber, precious metals and other minerals, food) which causes the destruction of forests in under-developed countries, the depletion of fish stocks, destruction of wild habitat for farming purposes and destructive mining development, all of them disturbing the world ecoplogy.

Under-developed World
3. Desperation-driven slash and burn subsistence farming (Purple/Red) destroys forests and grassland and erodes the soil, destroying its productive capacity.

Partially-developed World (eg the Philippines, South Africa)
1, 2 and 3 above, with a tendency toward lax pollution management as the drive for profits and job creation (Orange) outweighs regulation (Blue). The Green impulse for conservation of resources and protection of the environment barely exists.

PLUS
4. The creation of large, rootless peri-urban communities (Red) which drift to the edges of the cities to live in usually appalling social conditions and become, in a world of no inhibition and no regulation, a source of pollution and the spread of disease, notably HIV/Aids (and not to mention crime).

Remedies
1. Orange entrepreneurial drive has to be curbed by regulation (Blue), forcing industrialists to employ technology (also produced by Orange) to manage waste on a sustainable basis. Green mindsets (mainly in the developed world) generally present rather shrill and ineffectual criticism of Orange activities. Developed world waste management is increasingly being successfully managed by integrated (Yellow) thinking, and the challenge is to inculcate such values in the partially-developed world as well.

2. It is difficult to anticipate demand abating in the wealthy, developed societies. It is in fact likely to increase as developing countries make progress and produce their own consumer markets. However, regulations (Blue) against the destruction of forests and other resources are needed in the developing and partly-developed countries, while technology (Orange) in the developed countries discovers synthetic substitutes.

3. Such communities (Purple/Red) have to be deliberately lifted by government through programmes of sustainable rural upliftment (dirigiste Blue) until they are able to derive economic returns from their activities (Orange), which give them an incentive to conserve the land, which has become their most valuable and productive asset. (See Case Study below).

4. Such communities require discipline and order (Blue) and programmes to channel their energies, such as public works projects, rural and urban, which build infrastructure and pass on skills with which they can earn a living.

Note:
In each of these problem areas the solution has included the rule-based discipline and purpose of the Blue sector of the Spiral (whether in the developed industrialised world or the under-developed). Solutions require purposeful actions and programmes by government (which need not imply authoritarianism) which create the framework within which Purple/Red communities can be drawn through evolutionary stages until they reach the Orange of economic prosperity and self-sufficiency. Rule-based Blue also compels Orange industrialists to operate within parameters of sustainability.

Case Study:  Projected “Green Revolution” in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal
Government in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal has embarked on a programme to quadruple agricultural production over the next 20 years. The programme is driven by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs and has been running for three years (No other province has embarked on anything similar).

KwaZulu-Natal consists of:

· A strong industrial/commercial sector (Orange)
· A highly developed commercial farming sector (Orange)
· A poverty-stricken subsistence farming sector which occupies about one third of the surface area by traditional communal tenure, under the administration of traditional chiefs (Purple/Red)
· A recently arrived, poverty-stricken peri-urban sector who have migrated from the deep rural districts (Purple/Red)

The main thrusts of the Green Revolution are:
· Intensification of production. The benefits of mechanisation and technology (Orange) are being brought by government (Blue) to small-scale subsistence farmers (Purple/Red) so they can evolve into surplus-producing small-scale commercial farmers (Orange). The peri-urban sector (Purple/Red) are being encouraged by government (Blue) to develop hydroponic and other intensive projects to produce surpluses and earn cash (Orange entrepreneurialism).
· Farmer settlement/land reform. New farmers from the small-scale subsistence/communal sector (Purple/Red) are being settled on agriculturally viable units of state-owned land by government (Blue), where they are given the scientific backing to develop into commercial farmers (Orange).

· Encouragement of agri-industry. KwaZulu-Natal already has capital-intensive agri-industry (Orange) on a large scale in the sugar and timber sectors. However, small-scale producers (Purple/Red) are increasingly being meshed into these large-scale operations. Rule-based finance agreements (Blue) administered by the milling companies are increasingly drawing these small-scale producers into prosperity (Orange) and creating entrepreneurial opportunities in crop harvesting and cartage. Capital investment (Orange) in tea and cashew nut operations are creating employment plus outgrower opportunities (also Orange). In a remote rural district a giant cotton growing and ginning project (which will convert to wheat and flour milling during the winter months) is about to get under way, meshing private capital (Orange) and small-scale communal outgrower production (Purple), the difference in this case being that the small-scale growers are to take equity (Orange) in the company as the project progresses.

The proposed Green Revolution in KwaZulu-Natal attempts to creatively mesh the evolutionary stages identified by the methodology of Spiral Dynamics. It proceeds from the integrated mindset described in SD as Yellow, which does not seek to marginalise or obliterate any other mindset or mode of existence, rather to integrate it with the others, thereby contributing to the overall health and efficiency of the Spiral.

The Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (rule-based Blue) provides the normal scientific and technological inputs of a government department. But to further the Green Revolution it has formed a Development Trust in partnership with private sector interests (Orange) which seeks out investors in agri-industry, overseas as well as local. To draw all farming communities into the endeavour, a Development Forum has been created which includes large as well as small-scale producers (Orange plus Purple/Red). The Forum is intended to provide the framework (Blue) within which increased production is to be achieved and measured, year by year.

The Case Study is presented as an example of a meshing of the range of evolutionary socio/psychological components of a partially developed and largely rural society into a dynamic whole which aims to deliver spectacular results and on a strictly sustainable basis. As noted at the start of this paper, the juxtapositioning of developed and under-developed nodes can present problems of unevenness and difficulty in meshing any programme of upliftment, but it can also create synergies to drive the project in ways which would otherwise not be possible.

1 August, 2002