Using What You Have
Term
Using What You Have
Idea Level
Others (development finding and principle)
Definition
Using What You Have, in Yuen Yuen Ang’s work, means creatively repurposing existing resources, practices, and knowledge to kick-start change, even when these arrangements look weak, wrong or backward by first-world standards. Within Ang’s theory of Coevolutionary Development, it names the first step of market-building: emerging economies must harness what they already have, rather than wait for ideal conditions.
Under AIM, Using What You Have also functions as an inclusive and moral antidote to the colonial logic of assimilation: development should value indigenous knowledge, local agency, and diverse solutions, instead of emulating and copying templates from powerful nations.
Sources
Publications:
Ang, Y.Y. (2016) How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Conclusion.
Ang, Y.Y. (2024) “Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm.” World Politics.
Ang, Y.Y. (2025): AIM: Introduction & Applications. Oxford Development Studies.
Video Lecture:
Ang, Y.Y (2024) “Using What You Have.” INET Video Lecture.
Genealogy
[Paradigm] AIM
→ [Pillar] Adaptive: development is a coevolutionary process, not a linear sequence
→ [Pillar] Inclusive: development begins from available resources and local knowledge, not a single Western endpoint
→ [Pillar] Moral: challenges first-world standards that classify nonmodern institutions only as weak or backward
→ [Theory] Coevolutionary Development
→ [Concept] Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong → [Concept] Market-Building vs. Market-Preserving
→ [Application] Using What You Have: repurpose existing resources and practices to kick-start markets
Contrast with
[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm
→ [Pillar] Western-Centric Thinking: “good institutions” in wealthy economies treated as universal prerequisites
→ [Critique] Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development: poor countries are told they need strong institutions before growth, yet strong institutions are themselves enabled by growth
Quotes
[Definition] My answer begins with a simple observation: development is a coevolutionary process. States and markets interact and adapt to each other, changing mutually over time. The first step of this process is deceptively simple: “use what you have”—that is, repurpose existing resources and practices to kick-start markets, even if this means defying first-world norms. The conditions for economic take-off are qualitatively different from those that later evolve under and sustain established markets. China’s experience finds parallels elsewhere, from the rise of Western societies to the boom of Nollywood in Nigeria.
— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, Introduction, p. 3.
[Rejecting binary labels] My comparative analysis of coevolutionary paths across contexts points to a consistent and (in hindsight) obvious way out of vicious cycles of poverty and weak state capacity: make creative use of whatever is available. We miss the obvious because standard binary labels of “weak/strong” and “good/bad” blinds us to the potential of nonmodern, nonformal, non-rule-of-law, and nondemocratic institutions. Our conventional and strongly rooted bias that the norms of the developed West are universally best leads us to regard any deviation from these norms only as weaknesses. Consequently, institutions in developing societies are routinely identified by what they are not rather than by what they are.
— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, Conclusion, pp. 243–244.
[Theoretical synthesis] Second, the first step of development is using what you have, not what you want. The poor cannot innovate with what they lack: wealth and modern capacity. Necessarily, they must creatively repurpose what they have—practices and resources that the rich may dismiss as backward—to kickstart change. A key word here is “repurpose,” meaning existing materials do not perform miracles by themselves… Another key word is “innovative actors.” Analysts tend to portray innovation as the exclusive purview of the educated or rich. What my model emphasizes is that all development begins with modest forms of innovation among nonelites, the poor, or grassroots actors. This reality has been all but ignored by conventional models privileging foreign aid, first world best practices, and good colonial legacies in North America.
— Ang, “Adaptive Political Economy”
[Inclusive Pillar of AIM] Inclusive: The West is one path, not the universal benchmark.
AIM rejects the colonial logic that development must mimic and catch up to an idealized vision of the West. Instead, it centers the maxim of ‘using what you have’ – the creative repurposing of indigenous systems and knowledge to solve pressing problems. Inclusive Political Economy (IPE) uncovers and recognizes multiple development pathways, solutions, and ideal types.
— Ang, AIM: Introduction & Applications
Concept Constellation
Across Ang’s work, Using What You Have consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:
[External terms mentioned]
Good institutions / good governance
Indigenous knowledge / wisdom