Sociology of Development

Soumya Kumar

Development
Development studies owes its origins to

modernisation projects
Modernisation project began in the 1940s
The leaders were USA and the former USSR
, ,


,

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Development
Sociology of Development takes as given that

causes of underdevelopment are linked to its cures

Development theories have been used to justify a
set of policies consistent with the modernisation
project that support capital accumulation
;

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Development

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Multilateral institutions were started
Bretton Woods conference

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Development

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World Map

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European situation
Marshall Plan
Aimed at economic reconstruction of Western

Europe
Also to control Communism
Physical infrastructure and financial capital
were the limiting factors in rebuilding
It had good human resource and institutional
capacity

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South?
Social capital was lacking
i.e., education and technical knowledge
No institutional capacity
South required modernisation, to achieve

economic growth

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Modernisation
Modernisation = development
linking human development to national

economic growth McMichael

Modernisation through nation-state
Traditionalism, localism, excessive display of
ethnic interests negative
Modernisation positive

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Modernisation
Talcott Parsons Pattern Variables
Achievement vs Ascription
Universalism vs Particularism
Specificity vs Diffuseness
Orientation towards self vs collective
These variables linked to economic growth,

said economists

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Assistance Models
Resource-constraint model of Walter Rostow
1949 President Truman announced Point IV

Programme
A plan to provide economic and technical
assistance to help people in developing
countries produce more
Stop export of raw materials and import
manufactured goods aka colonial model

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Assistance models
1950 Colombo Plan: aid to South and

Southeast Asia for economic developmentBritish Commonwealth countries

Point IV Programme and Colombo Plan
decolonisation linked to development
Rajani Palme Dutt
Gopal Krishna Gokhale

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Rajani Dutt

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Gopal Krishna Gokhale

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Assistance Models
Foreign aid multilaterally through UN
Canada started its Aid programme in 1959

Economic and Technical Assistance Bureau

1974 Australias International Aid
Programme
Japan in 1954 joined Colombo Plan
US dominated global economy mostly
bilateral aid.
Food for Peace i.e., PL 480
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US domination
Highest number of patents granted
Highest productivity per worker
Also in lawn mowers and televisions!

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US domination

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Agrarian Model
The Green Revolution
Wheat Programme succeeded because of

Norman Borlaug; esp in Mexico

Miracle varieties; Required increased
quantities of water, fertiliser, and later
pesticides; allowed 2 blades to grow instead of
one
Wheat farmers of Mexico commercial farmers;
corn farmers: subsistence-Myren

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Responses
Latin American countries enthusiastic

followers of industrial production

Especially- Brazil, Mexico, Argentina
UN Economic Commission for Latin America
import substitution industrialisation strategy
India too adopted heavy industrialisation
model

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Indian Response
Heavy industries and large dams are modern

temples of India said Nehru

Planned economy; largely public sector;
private participation also was present
Emphasis on self reliance as far as imported
items were concerned
Importance to higher education
Later Green Revolution

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Alternative Paradigms
Liberation theology
Camilo Torres in Colombia
Pope John Paul II also issued an encyclical

Populorum Progressio in 1967

1950s and 1960s : UN membership
increased; many African countries became
independent
Agitated for state and market policies

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Alternative Paradigms
State: development policies
Market: trade policies
Free market economy was not favoured
Trickle down approach: inadequate
Favoured advantaged classes
So also resource constraint model
Development is increasing peoples

freedom and wellbeing: Julius Nyerere, first

President of Tanzania
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Why alternatives?
Not because of inconvenience
Not because of political sensitivity
Termed backwardness as failure of

participation
The last was unacceptable

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Focus

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Revolutionary 1960s
January 1, 1959, Cuban Revolution
Communist revolutions haunted USs efforts in

Central America
US backed banana republics Central America;
courtesy Reagan administration
War in Vietnam: coloured aid programmes in
Asia
Intellectual impacts of the anti-Vietnam war
movement in US and Europe

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Why this resistance?

USAID: United States Agency for International

Development, 1962
In Asia, USAIDs emphases were on
countering the spread of communism,
particularly the influence of the Peoples
Republic of China.
In Africa, USAID focused on such initiatives as
the education of the leadership of the newly
independent countries and meeting other
economic and social imperatives
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Modernisation theory

David McClleland came out with his

Achievement Theory of Development in 1964
Individuals achievement motivation and
development are closely related said this
theory

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Studies said A modern man was open to new experiences,

was independent of authority figures, believed

in science, was oriented to social mobility,
planned ahead and was active in local civic
life
Alex Inkeles
This was a result of cross national study with
individuals in different walks of life
Modernity scale was developed to place them
and found cross-societal similarities
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Dominant Assistance Model

Alliance for Progress was established in 1961

in response to the Cuban revolution

Land reforms became a key issue
World Bank and USAID assistance was aimed
at moving countries to capitalist mode of
production and Western geopolitical camp
USSR wanted countries to move to Communist
bloc; loans could be repaid in local currency or
traditional exports
Central planning and technical assistance
were combined
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Responses from South

South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore and Hong

Kong made great leaps forward in exportoriented industrialisation

Neoconservatives hold these East Asian Tigers
as shining examples of open economy
Latin American countries started land reforms;
beneficiaries were large estate holders
India went through a period of low growth and
land reforms took place only in certain states;
by and large, dismal picture
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Alternatives
McClellands achievement theory of

modernisation came under severe criticism

Countries were pushed in to dependency and
not underachieving said sociologists
World Systems theory also criticised
modernisation concept
Continuing inequalities bothered even
traditional sociologists and economists
Neither orthodox Marxist model nor the
modernisation paradigm provided a viable
model
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1970s
Dollar was made a floating currency
This benefitted many developing countries;

especially Middle East

Increased exports, including agricultural
products
Developing countries became more
competitive
US and Europe responded by increasing
protections to the domestic market

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Modernisation in 1970s
Usually traditional economists focused on dual

economies agriculture diverting resources

from industries
Theodore Schultz, D G Mandelbaum and
others wrote about the rationality of peasants
Dependency theory and World Systems theory
focused on internal and international
inequalities
Dependency theory: core and periphery
World System theory: core, semi-periphery
and periphery
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Assistance types
Senate rejected foreign aid for two successive

years 1971
Too focused on military aid and no long term
gain for US
World Bank shifted its attention to: poverty
reduction, providing basic human needs; 1973
Loans were given to electric power and
transportation, agricultural development and
social services
By 1981 lending for agriculture and rural
development had increased to 31%
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agriculture
US asked its farmers to grow from one end of

fence to another
In developing countries: conversion of forests
and prairies in to croplands
Required heavy investments; credit was
plenty
Internal colonisation began
IRDPs continued to encourage Green
Revolution
Environment degraded rapidly
Small colonisers, after first attempts were
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forced to sell their lands to large landholders

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Responses
Government planners in the South

encouraged capital intensive projects and

borrowed money
Modernisation theory urged the adoption of
technology; so lenders and borrowers
interpreted it as more massive and expensive
the technology, the better
Large capital projects suddenly became
fashionable
Infrastructure gained primacy: if there were no
roads and no decent water to drink, poor
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questioning
Goals of modernisation were critically

questioned
More and more people were excluded from
the modernising projects, leading to sharper
inequalities
Women became more disadvantaged
International Womens Decade 1975-85:
brought world attention to womens situation
in the South
Development aid was tied to womens issues
Debt crisis, SAP and shrinking role of the State
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Debt crisis etc

Credit, Weber tells us, is a plan based on

expectations about the future

Repayment of loans in terms of dollars
became a big headache
Belief in technology big technology left the
Southern governments in huge debts
Development practitioners decided state was
inefficient as a modernising agent
Emphasis shifted from aid to trade
Failed states had to reform
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Structural adjustment
Structural adjustment means cutting expenditure

on social programmes to focus on exports

Thrust of development was on hastening
entrance in to the market economy
Income generation projects for rural women were
linked to projects aimed at linking peasant men
to international markets
Fiscal austerity and free trade leads to capital
accumulation!


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Agrarian situation

,
,

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response
Protests against Structural Adjustment

Programmes (SAP)

Rs 590 crores soft loan from WB:KHSDP

Rs.1300/- min health spending in LDCs
Rs 140 (1997-98); Rs 201 (2003-04)
Share of expr for PH Care stagnant: 7years
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Problem and solutions

Women and indigenous groups gained voice

during the 1980s, demanding that their
values and worldview were not negative half
of the traditional-modern dualism, but instead
a vital part of development
In the 1980s and 1990s, reducing poverty,
rural and urban, emerged as the key
developmental issue, as opposed to pure
economic measures
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Solutions
Sustainable livelihood became the mantra
People centred approaches
Both scholars and development professionals

increasingly recognised the need for

programmes targeted to excluded population,
particularly women
Not individual oriented change but
institutional change
Robert Chambers stressed the importance of
local knowledge
Outside change agents should learn from local
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people

Solutions
Outside economic and social intervention can

be destructive was emphasised

Norman Uphoff was an early proponent of
local agency through local institutions

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With Indias foreign exchange reserves at $1.2 billion in

January 1991and depleted by half by June,barely enough to

last for roughly 3 weeks of essential imports,India was only
weeks way from defaulting on its external balance of payment
obligations
Thecaretaker government in Indiaheaded byPrime

MinisterChandra Shekhar, andFinance MinisterYashwant

Sinhas immediate response was to secure an emergency loan
of $2.2 billionfrom theInternational Monetary Fundby
pledging 67 tons of India's gold reserves as collateral

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.TheReserve Bank of Indiahad to airlift 47

tons of gold to theBank of Englandand 20

tons of gold to theUnion Bank of
Switzerlandto raise $600 million. The move
helped tide over the balance of payment crisis
and kick-startedManmohan Singhs economic
reform process

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Forex reserve data from RBI

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1990s

1990s saw great economic boom
In 1997, the bubble busted; the miracle economies
of Asia suffered a severe economic financial crisis
China and India with their state controlled banking
sectors grew rapidly and were not affected by the
Asian crisis
Ethnic cleansing and civil wars showed that
transition required adequate institutional support

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1990s
Neoliberal modernisation project failed
The role of NGOs increased
The role of social capital for poverty reduction

was recognised
Sociology of development incorporates both
structural and actor perspectives
Structural theories conceptualise
development as a product of external forces
Empowerment theories view development as
resulting from internal processes
Redefinition of the goals of development
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Assistance model
World Bank started talking about

mainstreaming social concerns

People centered approaches were only
partially able to counter the negative effects
of privatisation
USAID shifted from a focus on agriculture to a
focus on natural resources
Natural resource management in developing
countries required local participation and
community, not just individual, engagement
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Assistance model
There was a strong push for privatisation of

not only state but also communal resources

Central state was both
,

As Ranis says, there was renewed emphasis

on the importance of institutions --- ranging all
the way from property rights, to civil service
reform, to financial systems

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Responses
Southern resistance to policy-based loans and

conditionality increased
Negative impacts of SAP: including increases
in infant mortality and decreases in life
expectancy
Inequalities increased
Calls for growth with equity increased
Participatory development, microcredit and
empowerment part of international portfolio
Indigenous people started re/claiming their
land, languages, governance structures
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New millennium
Globalisation has increased inequality
Development has become a global enterprise
Modernisation project became the cultural and

economic integration of the world

The market, rather than the state, is assumed
to be the dominant actor
International institutional intervention (UN,
FAO etc.,) shifted to the GATT and then the
WTO
Civil society counter movements to this
modernisation project imp component of
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New millennium
Free trade has strong supporters, still
Proponents of WTO seeks to lower the barriers to

the flow of capital, goods and services

Development loans: conditions continue:
decreasing tariffs and price supports
Empowerment still gets lip service
The expansion of assets and capabilities of poor

people to participate in, negotiate with, influence,

control and hold accountable institutions that
affect their lives (Deepa Narayanan)
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New millennium
8 Millennium Development Goals
Southern countries, particularly on the African

continent, link meeting the MDGs with debt

forgiveness
The willingness to invest in development is
limited
Particularly in the United States

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Sociology of development
Now more concerned with globalisation than

with development practice

There is a continuing need to theorise
development processes and practices to deal
with the major role of international
development
Reducing poverty includes increasing
income, increasing livelihood stability,
increasing voice among the poor
Globalisation forces pressures for
modernisation
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Is this a counterforce to development?

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Summary
Development has carried very different

meanings
Classic political economists, from Ricardo to
Marx, are development thinkers: they
addressed similar problems of economic
development
- Kurt Martin
Development thinkers tried to find appropriate
relationship between agriculture and industry
Cold War years: competing development
strategies western development economics
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and central planning

Summary

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Summary

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Summary

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Summary

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Summary
1990>
Post-development

Authoritarian
engineering, disaster

2000
MDGs

Structural Reforms
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Dimensions of development
theory
Context

Explanation

Historical context
Political circumstances
Assumptions about
causal relationships

Epistemolog Rules of what

constitutes knowledge
y
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Dimensions of development
theory
Methodology

Indicators and research methods

Representatio
n

Articulating or privileging
particular interests and cultural
preferences

Imagination
Future

Images, symbols of development,

desire
Policy, agenda, future project
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Development
Modernisation theory evolved from a marriage

of evolutionism and functionalism

Critical variables in modernisation are:
rationalisation and industrialisation
Modernisation is an open ended process

Edward Said pointed out that, the fictions of

modernisation theory rhyme well with

Orientalism
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Development
In the words of Edward Shils,
Modern means being Western without the

onus of dependence on the West The image

of the Western countries, and the partial
incorporation and transformation of that
image in the Soviet Union, provide the
standards or models in the light of which the
elites of the unmodern new states of Asia and
Africa seek to reshape their countries
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