Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Development2

THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT

OUTLINE

I. Evolutionary TheoriesII. Structural-FunctionalismIII. Economic TheoriesIV. Ecological TheoriesV. Conflict TheoriesVI.Theory of Dependency: The Development of Underdevelopment

EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES

THEORY OF SOCIAL CHANGEINDUSTRIALIZATION

URBANIZATION

SOCIALIZED INDIVIDUAL

ADVANCED/ COMPLEX SOCIETIES

ARCHAIC/ PRIMITIVE SOCIETY

CONTRACTUAL CIVIL AND

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS

INCREASING DIVISION OF LABOR

LITTLE DIVISION OF LABOR

ANOMIEORGANIC

SOLIDARITYMECHANICAL SOLIDARITY

“”

WE MUST SEEK IN THE PAST THE GERMS OF NEW LIFE WHICH IT CONTAINED AND HASTEN THEIR DEVELOPMENT.

Emile Durkheim (1964: 391)

FOLK – URBAN CONTINUUM

• A construct of two ideal polar types with the folk society on one end and the urban modern society on the other

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

STRUCTURAL – FUNCTIONALISM

• Within the social system is a complex integrated, mutually interrelated, and functionally interdependent parts. • Order, stability, and equilibrium in society

THE IDEAS OF TALCOTT PARSONS

• If the system is to constitute a persistent order or to undergo an orderly process of developmental change:• The social system must be so structured that it is compatible with the conditions of

the functions of its members and be integrated with the cultural system• The social system must have the support of the other system• The component members must be sufficiently motivated to meet its minimum needs

like nutrition and public safety• The social system must be able to control disruptive behavior or deviant behavior.• The social system must have minimum conditions of stability or orderly behavior to

withstand deviance and conflict.

ROBERT MERTON’S VIEWS ON FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS• Functions observed consequence which make for the

adaptation or adjustment of a given system, and dysfunctions as those observed consequences which lessen the adaptation or adjustment of the system

ECONOMIC THEORIES

ECONOMIC THEORIES

• Gunnar Myrdal• Output and Incomes• Levels of Productivity• Levels of Living• Attitudes and Institutions• Rationality

ECONOMIC THEORIES

• Watt W. Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth• The Traditional Society• The Pre-conditions for Takeoff• The Takeoff• The Drive to Maturity• The Age of High Mass Consumption

ECOLOGICAL THEORIES

HAWLEY’S THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

• Focuses on adaptations in social life as shown in a population that maintains itself within the limits imposed by the environment• Two types of relationships: Symbiosis and Commensalism• Classification of communities: Independent and Dependent• Three Patterns of Change: Expansion, Conversion and Contraction

• Ecological processes have far-reaching implications for development.

ODUM’S THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

• Mankind is a part of the complex “biogeochemical” cycles and has the power to alter these cycles.• Relationship between human and nature strategy of

“maximum protection” often conflicts with human’s goal of maximum production

ODUM’S THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

• Certain reforms and procedures in order to implement this idea of ecosystem management:• A firm commitment and enforcement of family planning, birth control and abortion• Regional land• Reorientation of tax procedures to lessen growth stimulant• Effective implementation of law and medicine on environmental and consumer

protection• Agreement on definition of optimum population and how this can be attained• Cost analysis for whole product cycles

ODUM’S THEORY OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

• Certain reforms and procedures in order to implement this idea of ecosystem management:• Development of a spaceship economy with emphasis on the quality of the capital

stock and human resources• Recycle and strict conservation of water and all mineral and biological resources• A by-product approach and management for waste disposal• Consideration of a total political concern for the urban – rural complex as one system• Emphasis on the modelling of long – term solution to grave problems• Emphasis on ecosystem ecology from grade school to the university.

CONFLICT THEORIES

“”

WITHOUT CONFLICT THERE IS NO PROGRESS. THIS IS THE LAW WHICH CIVILIZATION HAS FOLLOWED TO THE PRESENT DAY.

Karl Marx

THEORY OF SOCIAL CHANGES

• Society in a constant flux of change• Structure of Society determined by economic organization particularly

the ownership of property• Economic institutions dominant and relatively autonomous

• All human history is a conflict between opposing social classes and this will only end later in a revolutionary reconstruction of society or common deconstruction of the contending classes

THE IDEAS OF LENIN

• Imperialism as the “role of finance capital”• Basic features:

• Monopolistic control of production and capital• The creation of “finance capital” by a financial oligarchy as a result of the

merger of bank capital and industrial capital• Export of capital • Formation of international capitalist monopolies• Completion of the territorial division of the world as a whole among the greatest

capital powers

THEORY OF DEPENDENCY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT

Theory of Dependency: The Development of Underdevelopment• Rejects the idea that economic development passes through

stages with the underdeveloped countries in an original stage of history through which the developed countries passed through sometime in the past.