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SOCI 301 Class Notes
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Full semester worth of class notes including some pop up quizes that were given to us in class. Soci 301: Sociology of Development and Underdevelopment.
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Sociology of Development & UnderdevelopmentWEEK 2A: Development Reality and Theory
Origins of Development
1. Colonialism: environmental and social costs. The ends justify the means
a. Europe put itself as the benchmark
b. Goal: extract resources (pull out and not put in ) + look more westernize
i. Exp: jamaica largest production of __ Development as a social process
2. Development as a social process
a. Social Cost: cultural shifts, community/ relationship changes
3. Development as political intervention
a. Government involvement, multinational institutions like the UN
4. Philosophically: Improving humankind interpreted as socially engineering societies
(capitalism and industrialization)
5. Imperialist intervention (resource extraction, social transformation… racism constitute
the white man’s burden)
Problems with Development
● Development originated with colonization
○ European accomplishment compared to other societies and understood as
dominant and superior
○ Came with substantial environmental problems and social upheavals
● All about the future not about improving the past
○ Exp: reduce the ecological footprint
● The ideal of development ruptured by govt cutback and citizens protests
Development and Social Engineering 19th century :
● Associated with ‘white man’s burden’
○ Changes in language, religion …
● Social engineering: policy for social transformation (capitalism, industrialization,
regulation, colonization, and imperialism )
● Social engineering in colonies: new discipline (forced labor, schooling, segregation )
● Development introduced new class, racial hierarchies in colonized societies as well as
within colonizing societies
Social Engineering in the 20th century
● Development as a ‘project’
○ Decolonization and anti-colonial resistance made development an emancipatory
promise
○ 1945: UN
, ○ Civilizing project: the ideology of nationalism
○ 21st century: development defined by economic growth and rising consumption
● Goal: political independence for self-determination
Development as Projects
1. Development project : (the 1940s-1980): rooted in public regulation of markets as
servants of states; governments protect civil rights through a social contract =
commodity chain
2. Globalization project : (1980 --) markets regain ascendancy; incorporation of the ‘good
market, bad state’ mantra int public discourse
3. Sustainability project : (2000 --), tension between these poles continue as the world
transitions to a new project governed by ‘climate regime”
Example:
● Evidence of a Development paradox, where poverty accompanies economic growth
○ Control of 50 percent of world income by the wealthiest 10 percent
○ High levels of malnutrition in India in spite of economic growth
○ The dynamic that links these projects, and accounts for their succession is a series of Polany
mobilization)
● Ghost acres
DO JOURNAL REFLECTION
Development Theory
● Influenced by Adam Smith’s Wealth hof Nations (neoclassical economic theory)
○ Division of labor
○ Free Market
○ Productivity
● Economic principle: markets maximize individual preferences and allocate resources
efficiently
● Development is about output income and consumption
● Ricardp : specialization is good or countries
● Main development theories approach this economic question in different ways
1. Mo
( finish slides*** )
Week 2B: Development Theories
,Modernization Theory
The rise of Modernization Theory
1. USA rise as a superpower: via the Marshall plan and support to weakened European
countries
2. Spread of communism
3. The disintegration of European colonial powers and the birth of new nation-states in the
Third World seeking models of development for their countries
● Modernization Theory: differences between traditional vs. modern societies: So-called
modern societies (North American, European) have increased function capacities
because of social structural differentiation compared to traditional societies
○ Development, as a project, has its origin in the colonial era because European
dominant
Features of modernization theory
● Phased process (eg. economic stages of development)
● Homogenizing process (convergence)
○ Europeanization or americanization process
● Irreversible
● It is inevitable and desirable
● Lengthy process ( evolutionary, not revolutionary)
○ Modernization is systematic
○ transformative: traditional structures replaced
○ Imminent process due to systematic and transformative features
Rostow: Modernization Perspective
● The celebrated Western model of free enterprise
● Evolutionary sequence or ‘stages’ traverse a linear sequence:
1. Traditional Society: agrarian limited productivity
2. Preconditions for Take-off: state formation, education, science, banking,
profit-systematization
3. Take-off: normalization of growth, with investment rates promoting the expanded
reproduction of industry
4. Maturity: the second industrial revolution: from textiles and iron to machine tools,
chemicals and electrical equipment
5. Age of High Mass- Consumption: from basic to durable, good, urbanization and
rising level of white-collar vs. blue-collar work
Strengths of Modernization Theory:
● It has broad appeal in many disciplines and can inform research focus
● Provides clear analytical focus: traditional or modern
● Provides methodology focus: via concepts such as values, democratic principles
, Weakness of Modernization Theory:
● Treats countries as autonomous units isolated from global forces
● Assumes development is unidirectional
● Ignores multiple paths to economic growth eg. Taiwan has strong authoritarian regimes
● Requires elimination of traditional values, which are treated as homogeneous
● Traditional and modern values are not always mutually exclusive
● Model assumes development is all good
● It does not account for de-industrialization, which is taking place in many developed
societies
Dependency Theory (DT)
● Dependency: the unequal economic relations between metropolitan societies and
non-European peripheries account for the development of the former at the expense of
‘underdevelopment of the latter
● Dependency: the vulnerable state of being exploited by core countries
○ Depend on the core for trade, investment, loans, technology etc
● DT argues that trade is asymmetrical :
○ Poor countries are dependent on rich ones
■ They need manufactured goods and are forced to pay high prices
■ Must sell their raw materials and agricultural products very cheaply
● However, ‘dependency’ implies a ‘development- centrism’ where western development is
the term of reference
● Exp: France was interested in the nation-state and colonial countries
○ Creating a DEPENDENT relationship with the foriegn countries = dependent on
foriegn resources
○ Third-world countries need to break the relationship to DEVELOP INTERNALLY
The Development of Underdevelopment = Gunder Frant
1. The development of national and other subordinate metropoles is limited by their satellite
status ( exp: despite how big Lagos is it is still a satellite= limit how far it can develop)
a. Still being exploited by the external force
2. Satellites experience their greatest economic development when their ties to metropoles
are weakest
3. Regions with the most underdevelopment today had close ties to metropoles in the past
4. Latifundia ( plantations) were born as commercial enterprises to respond to demands in
national and global markets
a. Exp: Sugarcane industry wasn’t developed until met the global demand
5. Today’s subsistence-based and isolated latifundia are due to a decline in demands for
their exports
a. Exp: the competitive market for Bananas in Caribbean countries with Latin A
countries
Weakness of Dependency Theory
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