Sociology of Change and

Development

BBA 261B

Elective Session
 Concepts Related to
Development
•  Social change refers to an process that
affects:
– Nature of social groups
– Institutions
– Social relations between both individual and the
group
• Different modes of change
– Development, Evolution, Progress (these three
factors affect every phenomena in society)
 Development
• Refers to a structural change in an entity
such as change in a society.
• Society evolves collectively which then
functions in a particular direction achieving
harmony among various social groups or
institutions leading to an overall development.
(Growth from simple to complex forms)
 Social Evolution
• A process of simplicity changing into situations of
complex events. Ex: Imagine a society with no
hierarchy or division of labour or even institutions
based on a fundamental principle which then
intensifies into placing people into different categories
such as work, class, social role to play etc.
• A phenomena which involves development of social
process such as beliefs, customs, norms,
associations and institutions in society.
 Social Evolution
• Charles Darwin – Origin of Species
• Herbert Spencer - maintains that social evolution is only a part of the general process of
evolutionary development in all living matter in the world. Society evolves from the simple
form into the complex one as it fulfills the functions of integration and differentiation in its
various organs and consequently, out of the same unit of society, different social systems
come into existence. According to Spencer, there are three stages in the evolution of
society; the first stage is known as ‘integration’, the second as ‘differentiation’ and the final
one as ‘determination’. 
• In the initial stages of social development, the different units of society have to be
integrated and a ‘system’ has to be built up. For example, if the family is taken as a basic
social unit, the first stage in social evolution was the bringing together of these families and
their integration into a larger unit known as ‘society’. 
• In the second stage of development institutions like division of labour grew up and this
process involved itself with differentiation in the sense that different classes, castes and
tribes appeared. In the ultimate stage, however, the different segments of society came
together and set up a new social structure based on harmony. This was the evolutionary
stage of ‘deter­mination’, for in this stage an order was established for the processes of
integration and differentiation, so that harmony could be achieved. 
 Social Evolution
• McIver and Page have stressed the importance of the process of differentiation in matters of social
evolution. They hold that social evolution stands for an internal change within the social system itself
and as a result of such change, functional differences can be brought about within the system.
According to them, primitive societies did not have many distinctions observed on the basis of
different functions and, besides the differences between tribes, clans, age groups and sex groups, not
much of differentiation was noted. 
• Division of labour in these communities was an undeveloped practice, and associations and
organizations did not exist in these societies. The community as such existed on the basis of a simple
solidarity and McIver and Page observe that the ‘undifferentiated character’ of the primitive society
saw in it ‘the prevalence of a simple form of communism. 
• Thus, the community devised a system of sharing the hunter’s spoils and, even with regard to matters
like sex that are treated as personal and intimate by us, customs and practices prevalent in those
days allowed a kind of sharing by the community. If there was any differentiation in such society, it
was based on natural distinctions of sex and age, and the multitudinous aspects of differentiation as
exist in modern complex society were at best latent, if not totally absent. 
• According to McIver and Page, associations and organizations in a modern complex society are so
many that they immediately strike a contrast with the simple, institution- based primitive society.
Historically speaking, diffusion of ideas from the beginnings of the earliest civilizations in
Mesopotamia, Persia, India and China perhaps caused the evolutionary development of human
thoughts and, therefore, of human society. 
 Social Evolution
• Franz Oppenheimer has asserted in his work, ‘The State, that the State evolved in the
process of applying certain principles for the satisfaction of man’s creature and basis
needs. According to him, there are two ways in which man can supply his basic needs. One
of them is work, which is an economic activity, and the other is robbery, that is, exploitation
as a political activity; and the State arose when the political means were organized. 

• Early huntsmen had no state in the sense that they had not exploitative political
organization. The State came into being with the Vikings and the herdsmen who learned to
exploit, to divide society into classes, to hold slaves and establish the concept of the
privileged class and the unprivileged people. 

• Oppenheimer’s analysis of the development of the State is unsatisfactory; maintaining that

the State only robs and exploits is a  oversimplication  of its functions, since the State
performs other functions too, like maintaining law and order and punishing those that
violate the law. Besides that, conditions as obtained in a State might have existed even
before the State as it is known came into existence; and in effect it becomes difficult to go
into the question of the beginnings or the origin of a State as a social organization. 
Theoretical Approaches

BBA 261B
Elective Session
 Theoretical Approaches
• Types of approaches:
• Modernization Theory
• Dependency Theory
• Neo-Liberalism Theory
• Environmentalism
• Gandhi and Schumacher
 Modernisation Theory
• Emerged in the 1950s
• Concentration on development of North American
and Western European industrial societies.
• Has cultural, political and economic component –
development dependent on importing technology &
numerous socio-political factors.
Core idea of the theory:
• "societies develop in fairly predictable stages through which
they become increasingly complex”
 Modernisation Theory
• Theory formulated by European social scientists
during the mid 20th century.
• After analyzing centuries of North American and
Western European history, positive changes during the
time were observed.
• The result was a theory developed connecting
industrialization, urbanization, bureaucracy, rationality,
mass consumption and more importantly democracy.
• During this process, pre-modern or traditional societies
evolve into the contemporary Western societies that
we know today.
 Modernisation Theory
• Democratic political institutions are bolstered
by increase in availability of formal schooling
and mass media.
• This process results in sophisticated and
accessible communication, transportation,
mobilization of population and them being
urbanized.
• The importance of the individual in economic
and social life intensifies.
 Modernisation Theory
• Complexity in division of labor in society
leading to bureaucratic organizations.
• Impact of religion declines due to
scientific and technological rationality.
• Rise of cash driven markets through
which goods and services are exchanged.
• Note* - Speaks of capitalist economies
 Modernisation Theory
• Due to its validation in Western academic
circles, the theory has been debated to be
used in countries all over the world that are
labelled as undeveloped.
• The core argument is that scientific progress,
technological development and rationality,
mobility, and economic growth are good
things and are to be constantly aimed for .
 Modernization Theory
• Criticisms –
– People of the minority and those from non-
Western countries point out that it does not take
into consider issues such as slave labor, western
effect of colonization, land and resource theft
which provided Western Nations the resources
necessary for development
– Therefore it is said that It cannot be replicated in
other places because of this, and it should not be
replicated in this way.
 Modernization Theory
• Criticisms -
– Scholars from Frankfurt School – theory
based on  extreme exploitation of workers
within the capitalist system.
– Increased social alienation.
 Dependency Theory
• Termed as Foreign Dependency
•  Core explanation of theory
– “failure of non-industrialized countries to develop
economically despite investments made into them
from industrialized nations.”
• world economic system is highly unequal in
its distribution of power and resources due to
factors like colonialism and neo-colonialism.
 Dependency Theory
•  it's not a proven fact that developing
countries will eventually become
industrialized if external forces suppress
them, effectively enforcing dependency
on them for even the most basic
fundamentals of life.
 Dependency Theory
• What is Colonialism and Neo-colonialism?
– Colonialism - the ability and power of industrialized and advanced
nations to take away valuable resources like labour or natural
elements and mineral from their own colonies- this era came to a
decline during WWII but it led to the neo-colonialism.
– Neo-colonialism - domination of more advanced countries over those
that are compratively less developed, including their own colonies,
through economic pressure, and through oppressive political
regimes. – can lead to developing nations being suppressed by
developed nations through finance and capitalism
• Criticism of Neo-Colonialism - developing nations can be quite indebted
to developed nations they don’t have a fair chance of escaping that
debt and moving forward.
 Dependency Theory
• When did this theory face high
acceptance and why?
– Highly popular among academicians in
mind-late 20th century due to rise of global
markets.
 CIA - Questions
• Pick a nation/country and explain how
it’s poverty has or has not been affected
by dependency effect.