Research Notes on Network Analysis

In the economic literature, one approach to development has centred on capital accumulation. This leads to an emphasis upon public finance, foreign aid, and such-like measures designed to raise funds for governments to invest. In the sub-Saharan situation, capital accumulation poses a dilemma: on the one hand there are great institutional deficiencies for raising capital; on the other, the amount of capital which most observers feel can be raised is much less than the ‘needs’ of African societies. This concentration on the problems of capital and its accumulation is what economists call the ‘macro’ approach. It asks what over-all amounts of capital are needed. It does not in the usual case relate the total capital to its different uses.