Lecture notes SOCL1013 (Semester 2, Block 4) - Southern Africa in the Era of Globalisation
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Course
SOCL1013 (SOCL1013)
Institution
University Of The Witwatersrand (wits)
Sociology 1013: Southern Africa in the Era of Globalisation delves into the multifaceted impacts of globalization on the social fabric of Southern African societies. The course is divided into four parts. These notes have content that was explored in Block 4 which consisted of Part 3: Globalisation...
Development = improvement of humankind. European elites saw it as how
industrialized a country is. Improving the standards of living.
The Market = an institution as it has consequences
Measuring development:
• Gross National Product (GNP) – measures economic/income growth. This can
be problematic, as it does not mean the growth is equally distributed.
• Human Development Index (HDI) – measures levels of income, education,
infant mortality etc.
• Happiness Index: measures how happy people are in a country based on
their perceptions of crime, freedom and more
Poverty in South Africa:
• Poverty is a gendered experience
• Poor children had limited access to safe playing areas
• Females had better access to housing and electricity, but not to water,
sanitation and refuse removal services
• Types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty
DEVELOPMENT AND COLONIALISM
• Development is an ideology, which emerged from the colonial period and is
associated with the west. Europeans saw colonialism as introducing
development to others.
• When you realise that development can look multiple ways (not just the
European way, which has become a model for the rest of the world), you
realise that this was just a tool for power play.
• Development is presented as something that can “help others.”
1
,Course: SOCL1013
Lecturer: Thabang Sefalafala
• Development & colonialism
o Extraction facilitated European industrialization
▪ Taking “cheap” raw materials from other countries and adding
“value” to it.
▪ The more they extracted, the more they destroyed
o Development is something that is used to civilise the “white man’s
burden”
▪ Difference was seen as a problem
o Development was believed to be the destiny of all humans
o Used as a justification for forced labour
▪ Schools and education were used to make people align
• Development = power relation = political
o Unequal ecological exchanges between Europe and the rest of the
world
• Social organization
o Colonialism socially reorganised the colony and the colonised
o The Third world was made due to the system
• Colonial Divisions of Labour
o Colonised – used for the extraction of raw materials
o Coloniser – manufactured goods
o The development project becomes a way to continue these divisions
POLITICAL CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT
• Post-Cold War World Order (1939 -1944)
o First world – capitalist
o Second world – communist soviet
o Third world – postcolonial states
• Capitalism can only happen through freedom but presents itself as though it is
freeing
• What is the development project?
o Rich countries helping poor countries to develop
▪ Destiny of the world to become capitalist
▪ development determined by the rich countries
▪ USA and Western Europe become the 3rd world’s aspiration
2
,Course: SOCL1013
Lecturer: Thabang Sefalafala
o Ingredients of the development project
▪ Nation-state
▪ Economic nationalism
▪ Economic growth
▪ Import substitution Industrialization (ISI)
o A new relationship is established between the rich and the poor
countries.
▪ A new world order that is mutually “beneficial” for both the
developed and underdeveloped in developing the
underdeveloped. The developed were very determined to help
▪ More developed countries cannot be expected to compete
with developing countries at an industry scale
o The communists were willing to help with no strings attached (even if
the country was not communist) however the capitalist had strings
attached when they offered help.
▪ The strings that were attached perpetuated the colonial
divisions of labour.
• Development is also a top priority for “new” countries, but the question was
how to achieve it.
o Development Theory addresses 2 questions:
▪ How did the current situation develop? (Oriented towards the
past)
▪ How can countries develop? (Oriented towards the future)
EXPLAINING UNDERDEVELOPMENT
These theories attempt to explain the reasons behind underdevelopment
MODERNIZATION THEORY
“HOW DID THIS DEVELOP?”
• Modernization theory assumes that poverty and lack of development are the
“original” state of all countries.
• The inequality we see is because some countries developed while other
countries didn’t
• Rostow’s concept of “traditional society”
3
, Course: SOCL1013
Lecturer: Thabang Sefalafala
o If a country does not break past this point (due to internal reasons), it
remains underdeveloped.
▪ Lacks “Newtonian” understanding of science
▪ Limited levels of productivity
▪ Agricultural focus
▪ Lack of centralised political rule
o If you do not succeed, it is your fault.
• Ignores genuine scientific discoveries made by other countries because it is
not “western/ Newtonian.”
• Why was the West able to develop?
o Capitalism introduced a mindset within them to do what is best for
them. This meant not caring about the harm their actions could do to
others to be at the top.
o Capitalism can only exist in a democracy (because one needs
freedom to do whatever one wants)
• This description certainly did not apply to the Southern countries in the 1950s
and postcolonial countries (Rostow does recognize that)
• The stages:
1. Traditional Society
2. Preconditions for take-off (potential)
3. The Take-off (all the shackles of tradition are completely gone)
4. Drive to maturity
5. The age of high consumption
“HOW CAN COUNTRIES DEVELOP?”
• Modernization theory took two forms:
o Cultural modernization
▪ Cultural Modernization theory assumed that culture had to
change for everything else to change
▪ The question was how to transform culture from “traditional” to
“modern.” Focused on:
• Politics
• Family
• Education
• Work
4
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