Paper short abstract:

Why has the concept of overdevelopment been largely ignored in the development studies literature? This research identifies a school of theorists who contributed to the understanding of this concept and the proposed solutions that parallel contemporary degrowth thought.

Paper long abstract:

This research conducted a genealogical investigation into the term overdevelopment and identifies degrowth policies as a solution to this condition. The author argued that a genuinely “developed” country falls within a social floor and environmental ceiling that meets human needs and accounts for ecological limits. A qualitative systematic desk review method was used to uncover the existing literature on overdevelopment. Since being coined in the 1950s, overdevelopment was sidelined to perpetuate the underdeveloped/developed dichotomy. This dichotomy led to the framing of nebulous “development” as the goals of all states, without critical social and ecological considerations. Furthermore, the relational aspects of development and underdevelopment are addressed, along with the conditions of uneven and mal-development they constitute. The literature revealed a temporal consistency in overconsumption as an indicator of overdevelopment. Overconsumption is driven by social norms emanating from the higher strata of societies and leads to relative deprivation. The secondary indicator of size and scale has implications for the ideal size of societies in reaching development goals. After these indicators, the concept of “sustainable development” was scrutinized and mainstream development metrics were problematized. Modeling development pathways off of states which have developed largely through (neo-)colonial resource extraction create an “impossibility theorem.” Alternative measurements were discussed, as well as floor-and-ceiling models present in the overdevelopment and post-growth literature. To conclude, degrowth policies were identified as a solution to the overdeveloped condition.