Are We There Yet?

Issue:  Countries of the world can be classified according to level of economic development, based on a broad array of socio-economic variables. Until fairly recently, many sources simply classified nations into “developed” and “underdeveloped.” Sometimes they are referred to as the “haves” and “have nots.” There are some problems using such a simple, two-category classification. First, there is the underlying implication of superiority and inferiority of the developed nations and underdeveloped nations, respectively. Secondly, many countries do not clearly fit into either of these two broad categories.   This virtual tour using Google Earth(tm) technology allows students to analyze levels of development using the CIA World Factbook and the various categories of classification.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss what development is.
2. Understand the difference between development indicators and indexes.
3. How do you define and measure development?

Download File: development