Examine How and Why the definition of development has changed over time (25)

Development in Geography refers to the standard of living and quality of life of its inhabitants. Development is a process of change that affects people's livelihoods. This may involve an improvement in the quality of life to people undergoing this particular process of change. It also is a measurement, that considers a state's economics, politics and social factors. Typically, countries that are considered as 'developed', have a high level of economic, political and social status. They can be defined as MEDC's (More economically developed countries), and the opposite LEDC's (Less economically developed countries), which are situated on the lower end of the scale of development. It is important to understand that countries are continuing to make progress and are trying to improve their development. 
The traditional view of development dates back to the colonial empire, where a countries development was measure on their resources was measured on their resources commonly accessing these resources through its colonies. Development was largely influenced by its countries trade and its personal wealth, for example Britain had a large colonial empire stretching 35,500 km² in 1920 with many countries providing resources free trade such as India and many parts of Africa moreover Britain became the first western country to industrialise in the 18th century in this period the countries development was largely based on wealth. 
However, after the second war the empires went for a process of decolonisation in the 1950s and 1960s. This had a slight change on the term development and countries were divided into first second and third world countries. The classification assisted countries economic status, first world countries being the highest which would predominantly capitalist nations such as USA, secondworld countries were many communist countries like the USSR and then the USSR control countries in the east eastern Europe where people lived in poverty. Also third World countries were the poorest and considered the least developed. These countries were mainly post colonial countries which have the lowest economic status.
After a system of classification was introduced there was more of an understanding of the countries development in 1980 the brand report was published to highlight the growing gap in economic development between the developed and the less-developed world it led to a north south divide where the northern hemisphere was develops the southern hemisphere was mostly underdeveloped the main exception being Australia and New Zealand in 1980 the United Kingdom situated in the northern hemisphere is GDP was US$565 billion and Angola had a GDP of US$5.9 billion.
However in the late 80s and 90s dramatic transition was seen as a third world was becoming more diverse due to industrialisation the term third world was seen as a derogatory term and new groups emerged such as newly industrialised countries and BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). There was more than economic focus as poorer countries increase their GDP through industrialisation and fast growing economies it change the definition of development as it had a greater detail to the assessment of development within a country as more poorer countries would I versing into smaller more precise categories of contrast to their previous label as a third world country.
In recent years the term development has become even more detailed as a definition takes into account the quality of life. Therefore, political and social factors have been included in the definition. For example, infant mortality rate and literacy rates. The UN in the indicator it shows the human development index which combines economic and social indicators such as ownership of telephones per capita. These indicators reveal information about general living standards in the country for example Switzerland has an employment rate of 80% aged 15 to 64. 
In addition to this, newly in its new indicators such as Gross National Happiness have been used as a form of measuring development in bhutan. Bhutan is considered to be in the top ten poorest countries in the world, according to UN statistics. Despite Bhutan not being very economically developed, it demonstrates social development as the people living their are happy. Moreover, other indicators have been used, such as gender equality and sustainability to correlate with development. 
In conclusion, development is something that cannot be categorised but in fact is on a scale on continuum. A country may excel in one criteria of development such as economic, but then struggle in other social or political forms. therefore the definition of development has expanded and it is hard to measure a countries overall development, as it has transitioned from a more simple concept to one of complexity.