Overdevelopment

In international economics, overdevelopment refers to a way of seeing global inequality and pollution that focuses on the negative consequences of excessive consumption. It is the opposite extreme to underdevelopment.

In mainstream development theory, the 'underdevelopment' of states, regions or cultures is as a problem to be solved. Populations and economies are considered 'underdeveloped' if they do not achieve the levels of wealth through the industrialisation associated with the Industrial Revolution, and the ideals of education, rationality, and modernity associated with the Enlightenment. In contrast, the framework of overdevelopment shifts the focus to the 'developed' countries of the global North, asking "questions about why excessive consumption amongst the affluent is not also seen foremost as an issue of development".^[1] By questioning how and why economic development is unevenly distributed around the world, one can evaluate the global North's role and responsibility as “overdevelopers” in producing global inequality. According to various surveys, the Wester consumer lifestyle fails to make people notably happy, while causing increasingly dire ecological degradation.^[2] Overdevelopment is a crucial factor for the environment, the social realm, human rights, and the global economy. ^{[citation needed]}