The Sociology Of Developing Societies

Sociology textbook on the social theory of underemployment - considers the economic development strategies and future prospects of developing countries from the perspectives of capitalism and Marxism, and discusses colonialism and social change, etc. References.

Essays examine the history, economies, political problems, revolutionary movements, class systems, social development, and cultures of the underdeveloped countries from a radical perspective.

Conceived as a response to the economic naïvety and implicit metropolitan bias of many 1950s and 60s studies of ‘the sociology of development’ , this volume, first published in 1975, provides actual field studies and theoretical reviews to indicate the directions which a conceptually more adequate study of developing societies should take. Much of the book reflects strongly the influence of Andre Gunder Frank, but the contributors adopt a critical attitude to his ideas, applying them in empirical situations within such African and American countries as Kenya, Guyana, Tanzania and Peru. Others pursue the lines of enquiry opened up by Latin American theories of economic ‘dependency’ and by the new school of French economic anthropology.

Essays examine the history, economies, political problems, revolutionary movements, class systems, social development, and cultures of the underdeveloped countries from a radical perspective

Taken from a series of short topic books designed to cover the requirements of A level sociology syllabuses, this book looks at development. It includes a selection of reading and documentary extracts, including statistical and quantitative data where relevant.

Originally published in 1980, this work answers the crucial question of how social change should be guided in the developing countries. Professor Varma begins by posing the problems of the general scope of modernization and the general criteria used in the modernization process. He examines carefully some of the models that have been used for this purpose in the past, providing extensive summaries of the views on modernization of theorists in various social science disciplines, including sociology, politics, economics, and anthropology, and stresses the importance of these views in guiding policy decisions. The book concludes with a comparison of the development processes of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Japan and India.

The Sociology of Development Handbook gathers essays that reflect the range of debates in development sociology and in the interdisciplinary study and practice of development. The essays address the pressing intellectual challenges of today, including internal and international migration, transformation of political regimes, globalization, changes in household and family formations, gender dynamics, technological change, population and economic growth, environmental sustainability, peace and war, and the production and reproduction of social and economic inequality.