The Socio-Economic Dimension of the Development Concept: Towards a New Conception in the Face of Contemporary Challenges

Abstract

This article analyzes the theoretical renewal of the development concept following the failure of the economic models of the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of Gilbert Rist (2007) regarding the deconstruction of development paradigms and Amartya Sen (1999) concerning human capabilities, we demonstrate how the integration of environmental sustainability and humanism addresses contemporary challenges. Our approach combines the historical analysis of economic crises with the study of the emergence of a new North American economic sociology (Granovetter, 1985; Zelizer, 2011), which reintegrates social variables into development models. The results indicate that this conceptual renewal makes it possible to move beyond purely quantitative approaches to growth, proposing instead a multidimensional framework anchored in human well-being and ecological resilience.