SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT WITH SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Liam Carlo L. Calingasan

The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (APECO) is a development project
launched by the Philippine government in 2007. The plan was to make the lands of the barangays
of Dibet and Esteves of Casiguran, Aurora, where the Dumagat tribe and many others live, an
economic zone and freeport. The project included construction of infrastructures and airport
runway, and aimed to “attract productive and legitimate investments” and increase labor force,
which were said to support economic growth of the country. With this, people in these areas were
subjected to transfer to different places. The Dumagat tribe lost their lands inherited from their
ancestors, as well as their peaceful and sufficing way of living that has been practiced by past
generations.

The question is, what really is development, and how does a society, as a whole, actually
develop? It is hard to determine the development of a society, since it just covers a lot. The
concept of development should include: multidimensionality, poverty and inequality, and the
social forces. Development is not only economic based, where it only measures the society’s
productivity. It is also composed of noneconomic objectives. Although, according to De
Guzman, it is summed up as the attainment of “good life” or the “good society”. Development is
also concerned with inequality, which includes many areas, such as poverty, but equally
determines it, just as much as multidimensionality. Structural change is also a part of
development, since economies are run by social systems. Therefore, social norms and values are
variables that have to be taken into account.

The issue in determining a society’s development is the different perspectives of differing

groups of people in the society. As seen in the APECO case, the national government and the
Dumagat tribe have conflicting definitions of development. For the government, APECO is a
way to develop society. APECO not only can grow the economy, it can also support equality by
increasing the labor force, which decreases poverty in the country with provision of higher
salaries. With these, social norms and values may change too. Despite these changes the APECO
can bring, for the Dumagat tribe, not only their own lands are to be taken away, but as well as
their traditional way of living, which to them is the definition of “good life”. The project
indicates the inequality that is happening, between the people and the government. The latter just
removes the people of their rights as owners, which shows how the government tries to
manipulate the people they are supposed to protect. For the Dumagat tribe, this supports poverty,
since they lose the “good life” that they were having, and contradicts the ‘fit’ social norms and
values for them.

This is an example of how complicated determining the development of a society as a

whole, because such, further questions where to draw the line of development. However,
understanding society from different perspectives is already advancing to the answer that is yet
to be found. This ability, called the sociological imagination, allows one to understand personal
troubles in different generations, and public issues of different social structures. It allows them to
determine their relativity to the society, their responsibilities and contributions. It also allows
them to comprehend that everything that is happening in the society can be linked from the
structural changes that have been occurring. Therefore, if the writer were to answer the questions
of what is development, and how does a society develop, it is simple. The development of
society is what is the society right now, no matter from which perspective, and it is continuously
occurring.