Showing papers on "Modernization theory published in 1987"

Making it Underground: Comparative Material on the Informal Sector in Western Market Economies

Abstract: This paper examines the informal economy and its relationship to commonly held theories of industrial development. Although these theories stem from very different intellectual traditions, their general assumption has been that widespread informal economic activities are primarily a feature of Third World economies, in which they function as a refuge from destitution; such activities are presumably destined to desappear with the advance of modern, industry-led growth. Evidence is presented that indicates that these assumptions, including the identification of informality with conditions in the less developed countries, are wrong. Alternative interpretations of the resilience of these activities in Third World countries, despite rapid industrialization, and their continuity and apparent revival in the advanced economies and discussed.

Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America

Abstract: Is traditional farming a thing of the past? Have we fallen into a technological trap where the modernization of agriculture is the only solution to world food production? Focusing on the farming practices of Mexico and Central America, "Good Farmers" examines in detail the effectiveness of sophisticated traditional methods of soil, water, climate, slope, and space management that rely primarily on human and animal power.

Urbanization and Underdevelopment: A Global Study of Modernization, Urban Bias, and Economic Dependency

Abstract: The causes and effects of 3rd World urbanization have been addressed in theories of modernization urban bias and economic dependency but no single cross-national study has tested the arguments advanced by all 3 theories This paper uses panel regression analysis to assess the validity of the 3 perspectives in 61 underdeveloped countries between 1960 and 1980 The modernization theory asserts that industrial employment attracts people to urban areas where they work in modern-sector employment that facilitates national economic expansion The urban bias theory posits that the disparity in welfare between country and city increases rural-to-urban migration and thereby expands both urbanization and service/informal employment Dependency and world-system arguments assert that foreign investment promotes both urbanization and service/informal labor with foreign investment in agriculture pushing farmers townward and foreign investment in urban manufacturing pulling them there Results suggest that underdeveloped nations are experiencing a gradual transition from an agrarian to a service and informal economy a transformation that impedes economic expansion Unfavorable agricultural conditions alone will not push rural citizens to urban areas 2 theories help explain the relationship between relatives urbanization and economic growth If future studies of urbanization and underdevelopment are going to be useful then they must transcend current theoretical and ideological particularism

The Chinese Army After Mao

Abstract: Ellis Joffe has drawn on a lifetime of experience as an analyst of Chinese military affairs in this authoritative assessment of a highly elusive subject: military modernization and the politics of civilian-military relations in the post-Mao period. He has sifted vast amounts of evidence, primary and secondary, to show that during the past few years the Chinese army has been transformed into a relatively modern and professional force that will be the basis for future growth of China s military power. The author begins by describing the development of the People s Liberation Army in the Maoist era and explains the reasons for its decline. He analyzes the political changes and the shifts in strategic outlook of Mao s successors that have made possible a new policy of military modernization: a policy of raising the combat capability of the PLA through slow improvements of technology including buying some material abroad and a thorough upgrading of the nontechnological components of military power. Joffe examines all aspects of the PLA s modernization, focusing on the wide-ranging changes in doctrine, weapons, organization, structure, and modes of operation, and concludes with an analysis of the PLA s political role and the state of civil military relations. There is a particularly perspicacious chapter dissecting Deng s maneuvers to remove the military influence in politics that had burgeoned during and after the Cultural Revolution."

Modernization and its Discontents : A Perspective from the Sociology of Knowledge

Abstract: more detailed comments or discussions and help with the clarification of some difficult points. Art Stevens provided excellent research assistance. None of them is responsible for any errors. This essay represents an intellectual journey of sorts. It is at once the product of and an attempt to describe, the tension between the universe of those who study the Third World and the universe of those who inhabit this world. Like most other students of development, especially those from the so-called developing countries, I have long had serious doubts about the wisdom of many aspects of this body of knowledge, but was inclined to regard them merely as minor disagreements over a few policies or actions. Recently, however, I began to realise that these doubts derive from fundamental differences over 'ways of seeing' the world, rather than from a few specifics. It is this shift in comprehension that I shall attempt to develope here in the hope that it is relevant for current debates in the Third World. While I believe, as I must, that the ideas presented here are important for a more complete understanding of the problems of development and progress, I am aware that they would not have been very relevant (and indeed, might not even have taken shape in my own thinking) were it not for the widespread feeling of a crisis in development theory. The current uncertainty in the profession has been a catalyst for many new attempts, particularly 1 2 in Third World countries, to develope alternative approaches which can take into account more centrally the problems and failures of the process of modernisation. This essay is one more attempt in this direction. Simply stated, I argue that in order to understand the current crisis we have to look at the impact of the entire corpus of Modernisation and Development Theories rather than at particular instances of their application. As such, the ultimate objective of this essay is to provide a critical perspective on the development of modernisation theory in the last half-century. The essay also seeks to shift attention towards the intellectual, philosophical and moral bases of the theory, and away from specific policies or actions which emerged from it under different circumstances. This is done by seeing modernisation theories as artefacts of the culture which produced them and which contributed to their strengths as well as their weaknesses. To preface the succeeding remarks, …

Towards a Definition of American Modernism

Abstract: "ON OR ABOUT DECEMBER 1910, HUMAN CHARACTER CHANGED." SO DECLARED Virginia Woolf in a statement that virtually all subsequent writers on Modernism have felt obliged to quote. Though historians tracing the origins of Modernist culture have quarreled with Woolf s exact choice of date, they have increasingly come to agree that sometime around the turn of the century the intelligentsia in Europe and America began to experience a profound shift in sensibility that would lead to an explosion of creativity in the arts, transform moral values, and in time reshape the conduct of life throughout Western society. Modernism, Peter Gay reports, "utterly changed painting, sculpture, and music; the dance, the novel, and the drama; architecture, poetry, and thought. And its ventures into unknown territory percolated from the rarefied regions of high culture to general ways of thinking, feeling, and seeing." Indeed, notwithstanding the growing evidence that a new sensibility of "postmodernism" has recently made its appearance, many writers would contend that Modernism itself has served as the dominant culture of twentieth-century America from the period just after the First World War up to the present. I Although there is assuredly no consensus on exactly what Modernist culture is, there does seem to be a growing accord on what it is not. Perhaps the commonest misconception is the practice of equating it with "modernization," a concept emanating from Max Weber and still fashionable among many social scientists. Put simply, Modernism should properly be seen as a culture-a constellation of related ideas, beliefs, values, and modes of perception-that came into existence during the mid to late nineteenth century, and that has had a powerful influence on art and thought on both sides of the Atlantic since roughly 1900. Modernization, by contrast, denotes a process of social and economic development, involving the rise of industry, technology, urbanization, and bureaucratic institutions, that can be traced back as far as the seventeenth century. The relationship between these two important historical phenomena is exceedingly complex, with Modernism arising in part as a counterresponse to the triumph of modernization, especially its norms of

Rethinking development : modernization, dependency, and postmodern politics

Abstract: Introduction Toward a Theory of Modernization Some Characteristics of Modernization Notes For a Theory of Non-Democratic Representation Equity and Allocation in Modernizing Societies Equity and Allocation in Industrial Societies Sanrizuka A Case of Violent Protest in a Multiparty State Thinking About Violence Notes on the Underground Left Violence and the National State The New Mytho/Logics and the Specter of Superfluous Man

Government and Politics in South Asia

Abstract: This comprehensive but accessible text provides students with a systematic introduction to the comparative political study of the leading nations of South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The seventh edition is extensively revised and updated, benefiting from the fresh perspective brought on by adding a new author to the team. New material includes discussions of political parties and leaders in India, the Zardari regime and changes to the Pakistani constitution, the rocky relationship between Pakistan and the Obama administration, new prospects and dangers facing Bangladesh, continuing political violence in Sri Lanka, and the troubles facing Nepal as it attempts to draft a new constitution. Organized in parallel fashion to facilitate cross-national comparison, the sections on each nation address several topical areas of inquiry: political culture and heritage, government structure and institutions, political parties and leaders, conflict and resolution, and modernization and development. A statistical appendix provides a concise overview of leading demographic and economic indicators for each country, making Government and Politics in South Asia an invaluable addition to courses on the politics of South Asia

Globalization and Societal Modernization: A Note on Japan and Japanese Religion

Abstract: During the most crucially formative decades of sociology-namely 1890-1920Durkheim, Simmel and, more ambiguously, Max Weber argued that growing intellectual concern with the economic factor and the rise of economistic doctrines, notably Marxian socialism, were symptomatic of rather than genuinely analytical with respect to the changes sweeping the Western world at that time. Along such lines, I suggest that in registering with excitement the increasing prominence of and interest in religion in many parts of the world modern students of religion should be exceedingly careful about producing "religious readings" of contemporary circumstances, including readings that show that there is an inevitability about the apparent upswing of religion. In my view, far too much attention has been paid by sociologists of religion to issues which center upon the problem as to whether religion is rising or declining. The debate about secularization has clearly been the most visible form of such concern, but many other interests of sociologists of religion have been not much less driven by the question. Far more appropriate, I suggest, is the strategy of exploring the ways in which religion and related phenomena are significantly implicated in historical and sociocultural contexts whose significance can be justified on firmer ground than is involved in the implicit claim that for a student of religion something is of potential interest merely because it seems to fall into the category of religion. The "firmer ground" from which the substantive thrust of the present discussion proceeds consists above all in the increasing salience of the problematic phenomenon of globality in the affairs of individuals, societies and civilizations. The fact and the perception of everincreasing interdependence at the global level, the rising concern about the fate of the world as a whole and of the human species (particularly via the threats of nuclear disaster and AIDS), and the "colonization" of local by global life (not least, via the mass media) facilitate massive processes of relativization of cultures, doctrines, ideologies and cognitive frames of reference and raise profound problems as to the ways in and degrees to which individuals and sociocultural entities of various kinds and sizes can adapt to the world as a whole. As far as the practice of sociology (and a number of other disciplines) is concerned, my main argument in relation to these developments is that the problem of the shift from the mechanical to the organic, the feudal to the capitalist, Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, status-based society to contract-based society, and so on, has been subsumed in recent decades by the problem of globalization. That is not, however, to say that the problem of globality is simply a direct extension of the problem

Sex Inequalities in Urban Employment in the Third World

Abstract: The development process involves a restructuring of the labor force from traditional and subsistence-type rural employment to modern organized urban employment. For women this restructuring is often considered to increase their disadvantage; the modern sector is said to take over economic activities which were traditionally the means by which self-employed women earned their income--such as food processing retail trade and making cloth and clothes--while employers in the modern sector are said to favor men as employees. This volume investigates male-female inequalities in modern sector non-agricultural employment in developing countries. The case of the catering business in Ile-Ife illustrates the ways in which the modernization of an industry can exclude women even when the occupations involved are traditionally female. A key factor in the restricted employment of women is the existence of a well-defined hierarchy in the modern catering establishment. In a society like Nigeria where it is felt that women are inappropriate for supervisory jobs the top levels of the hierarchy tend to be male even in the kitchen. This also tends to exclude women from the lower levels since male bosses can be accused of sexually victimizing female but not male subordinates. Another important disadvantage of women is their greater difficulty of access to the capital required for ownership of their own business. Certain changes in the modernization process tend to discourage women as potential employees. The fixed location and fixed hours of work makes work more difficult to combine with womens domestic responsibilities. In a society like that in Ife where women are traditionally economically active and are expected to be active their gradual exclusion from economic activity by male dominated modernization is a real danger to their place within society.

Urban Cultivation Amidst Modernization: How Should We Interpret It?

Abstract: Many African cities are currently marked by the decline of the formal urban economy and the simultaneous upsurge of household cultivation by the urban poor. This has generated two types of critical responses, though for very different reasons. The modernization proponents view urban cultivation as a manifestation of rural habits, predominantly relied upon by recent migrants lacking integration into the urban economy and culture. The New-Marxist critics, on the other hand, blame such activities for contributing to the “double exploitation of labor” and for maintaining the status quo of capitalist social relations of production. This paper, based on a survey of 250 low-income households in Zambia, attempts to respond to both criticisms. First, it demonstrates that the modernization proponents' assumption regarding who cultivates and why are basically incorrect. The paper then provides evidence that urban cultivation is an innovative response from below which was initially strongly resisted by capitalist cou...

De economische ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse landbouw in de negentiende eeuw, 1800-1914

Abstract: The development of agricultural production and productivity is measured and explained with reference to the theories of 'modern economic growth' caused by specialization and technical change (S. Kuznets), and of 'traditional economic growth' induced by population growth (E. Boserup). In the first half of the century a process of 'traditional economic growth' took place; after 1850 this was gradually replaced by a process of 'modern economic growth'. The forces behind this transition are analysed. Special attention is paid to the eastern Netherlands, where a kind of 'peasant economy' was transformed into a modern, market oriented agriculture, a process which had been rather neglected in Dutch historiography. The relation between the modernization of the agricultural sector and changes in the social structure of the countryside is analysed, showing that after 1880 there was a connection between rapid economic growth and an increase in equality.

Peasants into Rebels: Community and Class in Rural El Salvador

Abstract: The venerable conservative credentials of “communitye” have been challenged vigorously and often in recent years. Perhaps nowhere has its conceptual renovation gone further than in studies of peasants and social change. Where once the solidarity of peasant communities was analyzed as an impediment to economic development and societal modernization, a growing body of work now portrays such solidarity as the basis of revolutionary upheaval from eighteenth-century France to contemporary Vietnam.

Social security and physical quality of life in developing nations: A cross-national analysis

Abstract: Much research has been done assessing cross-national variation in level of social security program development, but very little analysis has been done of the link between social security development and social welfare outputs such as physical quality of life. There is much debate as to whether any independent effect remains once differences in level of development are taken into consideration. Hypotheses derived from several general theories of inequality and welfare state development are tested. The analysis is based in part on a cross-sectional sample of 80 developing nations and in part on a pooled sample for 1970 and 1975. We find strong support for hypotheses derived from industrialism theory and demographic modernization theory. In addition we find support for hypotheses derived from dependency theory and ethnic conflict theory and some effect for social security spending. Also of note is our failure to find support for hypotheses derived from democratic theory or class (working class strength) theory.

China's Path to Modernization: A Historical Review from 1800 to the Present

Abstract: Preface. The Pinyin System. Maps. 1. China on the Eve of European Aggression. 2. The End of Isolation: 1800-1860. 3. Decline of the Old Order, Beginning of the New: 1860-1895. 4. China Turns to Revolution: 1895-1911. 5. The Republic That Never Was: 1912-1927. 6. The Nationalist Government: 1928-1937. 7. The Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rise of Chinese Communists to Power: 1937-1949. 8. From "Liberation" to "Independence": 1949-1958. 9. From Consensus to Factional Conflict: 1959-1966. 10. From the Cultural Revolution to Mao's Death: 1966-1976. 11. Den Xiao-Ping's New Model for China, 1976-1992. 12. The Blossoming of Deng's "Second Revolution": 1992-1999. Selected Bibliography. Index.

8. The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society

Abstract: The confrontation with the tradition through the critique of ideology could aim at the truth content of philosophical concepts and problems, at appropriating their systematic content, only because critique was guided by theoretical assumptions. At that time critical theory was still based on the Marxist philosophy of history, that is, on the conviction that the forces of production were developing on objectively explosive power. Critical theory could secure its normative foundations only in a philosophy of history. But this foundation was not able to support an empirical research program. The basic concepts of critical theory placed the consciousness of individuals directly vis-a-vis economic and administrative mechanisms of integration, which were only extended inward, intrapsychically. A capitalist path of modernization opens up as soon as the economic system develops its own intrinsic dynamic of growth and, with its endogenously produced problems, takes the lead, that is, the evolutionary primacy, for society as a whole.

Modernization, value change, and fertility in the Soviet Union

Abstract: This study is concerned with the complex linkages among modernization value change demographic change and public policy in the USSR. "It has two objectives. First it explores the relationship between value change and fertility. Second it examines the impact of public policies both intended and unintended on family values and fertility trends." The first part of the book examines the impact of modernization and value change on fertility. In Chapter 1 a theoretical framework for analysis of the Soviet fertility transition is presented the hypotheses to be tested are described previous work is reviewed and the data sources are discussed. The relevant data are analyzed in the next two chapters. "Chapter 2 explores patterns of social and demographic modernization since the turn of the century. Hypotheses involving linkages between modernization the erosion of traditional family values and natality are tested for the European areas of the USSR. In Chapter 3 the focus is on explaining current fertility differentials between nationality groups and regions." The second part considers how public policy has affected family values and fertility. The main focus of Chapter 4 is on the effects of socioeconomic development on traditional family values in the south of the USSR. Chapter 5 surveys the consequences of Soviet demographic policy and Chapter 6 presents a predictive model of Soviet fertility trends. Particular attention is paid to differences among the various peoples and regions constituting the USSR. (EXCERPT)

Forms of Mobility and Their Policy Implications: Thailand and China Compared

Abstract: As part of their development efforts, many developing nations are concerned about their patterns of population distribution and migration; a number have instituted policies to change the situation. A growing body of research suggests that temporary population movement-circulation-may serve as an alternative means for populations to adjust to the changing economic situations. This paper assesses the impact of development efforts on the various forms of population mobility in Thailand and China. In Thailand, rural development efforts, more investment in small urban places, and improved transport and communication networks have all contributed to a decrease in rural-rural migration and an increase of movement between urban places. Evidence also suggests that circulation between rural and urban places has increased. In China, where permanent migration is tightly controlled, development policies have led to a vast increase in temporary movement. Especially important has been institution of the agricultural responsibility system and investment in small city and town development, but urban reforms have also fostered increased labor mobility. Although China's political system makes both development policies and control of population movement much easier to carry out than in most other countries, China's experiences can hold special interest for developing nations like Thailand that are also concerned about the impact of modernization on population redistribution and the quality of life in both urban and rural places.

Comparative Education and the Problem of Change: An Agenda for the 1980s

Abstract: The 1980s have been a time of pessimism in comparative education. Earlier decades were characterized by optimism about education's ability to help eradicate poverty, contribute to the development of national economies, and assist in building national political consensus. In the 1980s, this optimism has faded. Many have begun to question education's ability to contribute to change; in some cases, scholars have argued that education has aggravated preexisting problems rather than contributed to their solution.' A literature has emerged that considers countries that have yet to achieve universal primary education "overschooled" and faults education for current economic and social malaise.2 In the 1960s, the literature in comparative education was filled with such terms as "modernization," "development," and "social transformation"; in the 1980s, our parlance has shifted to such terms as "basic needs," "income generation," and "employment." This language signifies a growing disillusionment with schools as a vehicle for change. Some have questioned whether education is really a necessity. Within comparative education, some have started to ask how much education is enough and how governments might either diminish demand for education or cut back on the provision of educational services.'

Economic History and Historical Demography: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract: A concern with the study of population has a long tradition in economics, beginning with the economic and demographic model proposed by T.R. Malthus in 1798 and 1803 (Peterson 1979: Blaug 1978, pp. 69–79). This was the basis, along with the wages fund doctrine, of classical labor market theory (e.g., Ricardo). More recently, development economists have devoted considerable attention to the problems of economic-demographic interrelations in the modernization process. To quote Simon Kuznets, “We begin with the growth of population, for it is people who produce economic growth and consume its yield; and the increase in population is a distinctive characteristic and condition of modern economic growth” (Kuznets 1966, p. 34). Part of the interest in the study of population arose out of a concern with present-day developing countries, but part also derived from an interest in understanding the historical experience of developed countries. (See, for example, Easterlin 1967, 1968; T.P. Schultz 1981; United Nations 1973, ch. XIV). Indeed, definitions of modern economic growth now include the demographic transition from high to low levels of fertility and mortality as a necessary and integral component of the modernization process.

The influence of television on cultural values -- with special reference to Third World countries.

Abstract: In focusing on the influence of television on cultural values particularly in third world countries the discussion covers the impact of the technology of communication on cultural values the impact of existing that is traditional cultural values on television and the impact of television programs on cultural values. It is not a problem to set up a television transmitting station in any third world country; the hardware is manufactured in developed countries and assembled in a third world country by technicians of the television manufacturing company. The key question is whether the third world country that has acquired this modern piece of technology can put it into operation run it. The operation of a modern television station calls for 3 types of professionals: engineers and technicians television journalists and producers and managers and administrators. Consequently if the host country is to benefit from this transfer of technology it needs to have a community of modern professionals. Also for a culture to successfully utilize television it is helpful if the other media of communication are developed. In sum at the time of the introduction of television in third world countries such countries should possess an advanced sector of education and mass media which could form the basis for initiating the multiplier effect for which television has the potential. When introducing television to a third world country one further needs to be aware of the impact that traditional values may have on the utilization of this medium. It can work to entrench traditional inequities in social relationships in the name of cultural uniqueness and from the perspective of disadvantaged minority groups it could be a form of "cultural imperialism." Thus when introducing television the governments of these countries need to consider fostering a set of values and norms that could assist in the modernization of these countries. These should be values that promote human social development rather than paternalistic traditional values which work to keep the uniqueness of cultural groups. The import and dissemination of television programs from foreign countries emerges as the most visible form of cultural domination. The reason for the overdependence on imported programs are the high cost of local productions the lack of trained staff and the lack of will and determination on the part of the management of governments of third world countries. Successful cultural assimilation of television in third world countries depends on the cultural values that it helps to develop and foster in society.