Education
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M01_PUNC9541_05_SE_C01.indd 1 12/5/12 3:08 PM The importance of the social environment in helping us to understand how people live the way that they do – and how this varies from time to time and from place to place – is now widely acknowledged. It is accepted that the social world in which we are brought up will influence the way we live. Sociology has played a central role in developing this way of understandingEducation the world around us. Through research and theory, sociologists explore the significance of wider social factors in shaping our lives as individuals, groups, societies and globally. While much of this work is carried out in universities, sociological research often informs policy and practice in many areas of life, including health care, education, family life, crime and justice. In Chapter 1 , we explore the idea of a ‘sociological imagination’ and considerPearson how the subject of sociology developed and attained academic rigour and acceptance. In this chapter we spend longer than authors of other introductory books in examining the origins of the subject, but we feel it is important to establish the background and positionfrom of the subject you are now studying. After this history, we introduce and discuss a number of key concepts that you will come back to throughout the book and your studies – in particular, we look at culture, socialization and identity. We consider the effects on individuals of cultural deprivation by describing examples of cases where children have been brought up without normal human contact – extreme cases such as children brought up in the wild as well as the recent horrific cases from Austria of girls being imprisoned in their houses for many years. Chapter 2 provides a detailed introduction to, and examination of, the different theoretical perspectives in sociology. This review follows a basicallypermission chronological pattern, starting by looking at the classic theories that helped establish sociology as a serious academic subject. In this section we look at the theoretical works and arguments of Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber and consider their continuing influenceprior in contemporary sociology. The second half of the chapter turns to more recent theoretical work, from, roughly, the second half of the twentieth century. Here we introduce interpretivist sociology and interactionism, feminist theorizing, structuralism and postmodernism. Our emphasis is in looking at how these theories can be applied to everyday contemporary life. Chapter 3 focuses on sociological withoutresearch. After raising and considering the debate as to how ‘scientific’ the study of society can be, we look at the major different methodological approaches to researching the social world and then at the specific methods by which sociologists go about collecting and analysing data and information, including questionnaires, interviews and observation.
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Education
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Sociological thinking permission . . . tourists are often good intuitive sociologists as they often seem to find everyday things interesting, even those we may have become so accustomed to we barely notice them. So, suddenly the design onprior a banknote, the manner in which people greet each other, the way people order food in cafés, how people queue for a bus, can all appear strange and worthy of attention. It is well worth trying to adopt the inquiring gaze of the tourist in our own societies. This can have the effect of giving us insight into how the world came to be the way it is, how it is maintained and perhaps alert us to the fact that it can withoutbe organised in a variety of different ways. Therefore, an appreciation of movement and change as well as understanding continuities is crucial, we would argue, to developing our sociological imaginations. (McIntosh and Punch 2005: 29)
distribution Introduction Key issuesfor We live in a digitally connected world where we are ➤ What is sociology? increasingly dependent on emails, texting and new not ➤ What are its origins as a discipline? technologies. How would you cope if you lost your mobile phone, had your laptop stolen and your TV ➤ What kinds of explanation does sociology File broke down? Th ere are many recent shift s in society offer for social and personal behaviour? which interest sociologists: the cult of celebrity, ➤ What is culture and how does it affect social materialist culture where we desire a never-ending range and personal behaviour? of commodities, the rise in cosmetic surgery and botox, mobile lifestyles and the gradual disappearance of local,
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small-scale, specialist traders to large supermarkets and . . . technological innovations generate unintended restaurant chains. If you have children (now or in the consequences and unanticipated (and oft en future) they are going to be unlikely to know how to use contradictory) eff ects. As socio-material a telephone box, how to put a roll of fi lm into a camera confi gurations, they usher in a whole range of Education or how to write a cheque. Instead, they will be familiar changes in social practices, communications with online shopping, electronic banking, ticket-less structures, and corresponding forms of life. Th e airlines, digital channels and multiple forms of same technologies can mean very diff erent things to recycling. Th ey will be more likely to order the evening’s diff erent groups of people, collectively producing fi lm entertainment from ‘Netfl ick’ via a television new patterns of social interaction, new connected to the Internet rather than renting a DVD relationships, new identities. RatherPearson than simply from the local ‘video’ store. Patterns of consumption reading them as adding to time pressure and have changed over recent decades and impact upon accelerating the pace of life, mobile modalities may ourselves, our bodies (see Chapter 13 ) and the be creating novel time practicesfrom and transforming environment (see Chapter 10 ). Hastings raises the quality of communication. interesting questions about the power and manipulation (Wajcman 2008: 70) of modern marketing and the corporate sector: Changing modes of communication and new When a supermarket chain attains such dominance technologies are a key feature of contemporary minority that it covers every corner of a country the size of world societies. By stepping back for a moment and the UK, threatens farmers’ livelihoods with its trying to see our surroundings at a distance, like a procurement practices, undercuts local shops and tourist in an unfamiliar environment, we can question bullies planners into submission, it becomes our taken-for-grantedpermission assumptions about patterns of reasonable to ask: does every little really help? Once change and continuity. Our ‘sociological imagination’ is the 100 billionth burger has been fl ipped and yet a way of thinking critically about the social world to enable us to understand how society works. another trouser button popped it is sensible to prior wonder: are we still lovin’ it? As the planet heats up Sociology provides us with a more accurate picture of in response to our ever increasing and utterly the social landscape of the society in which we live. It unsustainable levels of consumption, it is fair to off ers particular and exciting ways of understanding question: are we really worth it? ourselves, other people and the social world. It examines (Hastings 2012: 2) the social facts and forces that aff ect us all. It helps us to make sense of the changes that occur around us all the Society changes over time and sociology is keenwithout to time: changes such as the eff ect of new technologies on explore these processes of social change. For example: everyday life; the variations in employment patterns as
A closer look
Defining the majoritydistribution the world’s population and land mass terms such as developed/developing, and minority worlds despite using the majority of the world’s Western/non-Western, global north/ for resources. Furthermore, by using the global south are also used in some of In this book we tend to use the recent terms we are reminded that what the chapters. terms ‘majority world’ and ‘minority happens in our society, in a minority Majority world (in terms of world’ to refer to the developing world world context, is not necessarily the not population and land mass): Africa, and the developed world respectively. way most of the world’s population Asia, Latin America These terms invite us to reflect on live their lives and that, with greater theFile unequal relations between the access to resources, we tend to Minority world : UK, Europe, two world areas. The minority world experience more privileged lifestyles Australia, New Zealand, Japan, consists of a smaller proportion of (see Chapter 9 ). However traditional USA and Canada
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factories open or close; and the infl uence on education, matter of course. Before looking at what sociology is health and other services of economic and political and how it has developed, we shall consider how a philosophies and policies. In view of the insights into sociological approach can enable us to understand social life that sociology provides, it might seem strange social phenomena like the widespread riots in EducationEngland that it is not a subject that is taught to all children as a 2011.
Case study Pearson
The English riots of August 2011 from
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File ▲ Figure 1.1 Photo of English riots, August 2011 – picture research required
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Education On 4 August 2011 Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in Broken Britain Tottenham, England. On 6 August 2011 a protest march to After the riots, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, Tottenham Police Station led to the first night of rioting talked about the ‘moral collapse’ of ‘Broken Britain’ which soon spread to other parts of London. Between 6 and including: ‘irresponsibility, selfishness, behaving as if your 10 August riots, looting and arson attacks took place in choices have no consequences, children without fathers, London and other cities and towns including Bristol, schools without discipline, reward withoutPearson effort, crime Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. The rioters were without punishment, rights without responsibilities’. Many mainly young men, with estimates that between 10 and 20 public responses to the riots blamed poor parenting within per cent were female. Five people were killed and at least poor communities, ‘with single-mothers blamed for failing to 16 others were injured as a direct result of the violence. An bring up their children properly,from fuelling public discourses of estimated £200 million worth of property damage was welfare dependency and the (un)deserving poor’ (Allen and incurred, and the cost in insurance claims in London alone Taylor 2012). The public discourse of ‘chaotic families’, the is estimated at £300 million. The immediate police reaction breakdown of morality and loss of community values did not has been criticized as being inappropriate and ineffective. coincide with many of the rioters’ own reasons for getting Subsequently nearly 4000 arrests and 2000 prosecutions involved in the events (see Table 1.1). As Solomos argues, have taken place, including the imposition of substantial the government ‘sought to portray the riots not as a form of prison sentences. protest that could be linked to social and economic inequalities but as the product of the absence of morality and community permission Stop and think in sections of the urban underclass’ (2011: 2).
➤ What do you think were the main reasons for the riots? Race and policing ➤ In what ways do you think the government and the priorWhilst the initial trigger was directly linked to racial tension rioters might explain the causes? Why might their between the police and the local community after the explanations differ? shooting of Mark Duggan, it has been acknowledged that racial conflicts were not relevant for all the places where the riots occurred. Solomos (2011) argues that further research How can sociology help us to make sense of the riots of is required to explore the possible links between race and August 2011 and what can this tell us about sociologywithout as a outbreaks of collective violence. Poor relations with police discipline? Sociologists strive to analyse and explain social and widespread grievances about police treatment of ethnic phenomena. By reaching an understanding of such events, it minorities is often considered to have been a catalyst for the is then hoped that social policy can be developed which may disturbances. However, mistrust of the police and antipathy help prevent a recurrence. Sociologists endeavour to towards their stop-and-search tactics was not only raised as consider social issues from a variety of perspectives in order an issue by black and Asian young people, and many have to gain a nuanced awareness of the multiple factors that argued that these were not race riots. Nevertheless, it is may combine for a particular event to occur. The riots important not only to consider the role of policing in why provide an effective example of the complexity of society, and how the riots occurred but also in the ways that they and the usefulness of usingdistribution a sociological approach to will be responded to both in the short and the longer-term understand complex social processes. The following range of (Murji and Neal 2011). causes have been identified by politicians, the media and a variety of expert commentators.for Social inequality and social exclusion Many of the rioters themselves refer to the lack of Criminalitynot and gang culture opportunities and disillusionment regarding employment and Public and political debate has tended to emphasize the role recent social changes. Even with a university education, it is of individual criminality and looting in order to distract from increasingly difficult to secure employment. The spending the linksFile to urban deprivation, racial inequality and youth cuts of the UK coalition government have included cuts to unemployment (Solomos 2011). Initially it was claimed that youth services, the ending of the Education Maintenance 28 per cent of those arrested in London were part of gangs, Allowance and the trebling of university tuition fees. It is no but more recently that estimate has dropped to 13 per cent coincidence that the majority of those arrested were under for England as a whole (Guardian-LSE 2011). 25 years. Growing inequalities between the haves and have
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Education nots has contributed to the increased frustration for The above illustrates the diversity of possible causes for disenchanted youth who feel alienated and marginalized the riots. Sociologists argue that many of the reasons are during this era of austerity and economic hardship. A interrelated and that multiple factors combined to lead to pervasive sense of injustice emerged frequently in the the violence and disorder of August 2011. It is certainly not rioters’ own accounts of August 2011 (Guardian-LSE 2011). as simple as politicians like to suggest. The government has a vested interest in trying to blame particular ‘troubled Consumer society families’ rather than address the fundamentalPearson underlying Moxon (2011) argues that whilst consumer culture did not causes relating to the ever-increasing social and economic directly cause the riots, the shape that they took in terms of inequalities: the extensive looting of material goods, needs to be Public discourses of feralfrom youth and failing families elide understood within the context of living within an increasingly and mask questions of structural disadvantage, consumerist society. In the minority world we are constantly individualising inequality as the outcome of personal ‘ills’ bombarded with advertising and marketing encouraging us rather than systematic material inequalities. to consume in order to shape our identities and enhance our (Allen and Taylor 2012) social status. Looters took trainers, clothing, flat screen TVs and laptops perhaps partly as a result of the ‘envy of the This is one of the central questions of sociology: celebrities and footballers who consume so conspicuously to what extent are individuals or society to blame for social and publicly, but whose power to consume is unavailable to problems? This brings to the fore the relationship between the bulk of us’ (Moxon 2011: 2). The well-known sociologist structurepermission (wider social processes) and agency (action of Zygmunt Bauman also referred to the riots as: people), between ‘personal troubles’ and ‘public issues’ (Wright Mills 1970) which will we consider later in this . . . the mutiny of defective and disqualified consumers, chapter. Sociologists argue that social problems have people offended and humiliated by the display of richesprior underlying social roots, often linked to a diversity of social, to which they had been denied access. We have been all economic and emotional processes of exclusion and coerced and seduced to view shopping as the recipe for discrimination (Murji and Neal 2011). In contrast, good life and the principal solution of all life problems – governments prefer to turn to individual explanations, but then a large part of the population has been blaming particular criminals, gangs or ‘chaotic families’ in prevented from using that recipe . . . City riots in Britain order to avoid having to provide a collective, political are best understood as a revolt of frustratedwithout consumers. solution for wider social issues. (Bauman 2011) As we have seen there are multiple and complex Some of the rioters themselves admitted to being swept explanations for the England 2011 riots which move ‘from along by greed within a culture of ‘wanting stuff’, describing and between themes of criminality, moral nihilism, social it as a ‘free-for-all’ with no perceived consequences breakdown, gangs and lawlessness to themes of social (Guardian-LSE 2011). Thus for some it was linked to a sense exclusion, hopelessness and the anomic consequences of a of excitement and thrill, going along with the crowd in a consumerist and materialist society’ (Murji and Neal 2011). moment of opportunism. Interestingly there were some key differences of causes cited for the riots between the public opinions generated via Social media technologiesdistribution a Guardian/ICM poll and the views of the rioters themselves Baker (2011) points to the emotional sense of injustice as Table 1.1 indicates. The issues which both groups agreed coupled with ‘confidencefor through numbers’ which on were unemployment (79 per cent), media coverage (72 contributed to a shared resentment and mobilization of ‘the per cent), greed (70–77 per cent), boredom (67 per cent) mediated crowd’. She argues that social media played a key and racial tensions (55 per cent). Poverty, policing, role in increasingnot the speed and scope of the riots. In government policy, the shooting of Mark Duggan, social particular, the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) service enabled media and inequality were perceived as more relevant users to send free messages to all their contacts in order to causes by the rioters, whereas criminality, moral decline, Fileencourage participants to join others on the streets. poor parenting and gangs were cited more often by the However, as well as facilitating the sharing of information for general public. This illustrates the importance of directly the rioters, social media was also used by the police asking the people who were involved for their views of the afterwards to identify the rioters and to help organize the causes rather than only relying on media or political ▲ clean-up process. accounts.
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Education shops; in others the police were the explicit target. We Table 1.1 Key differences between the general public’s thus find a very varied mixture of ‘historic’ community versus rioters’ perceptions of the causes of the riots tensions; a general rebelliousness amongst ‘disaffected’ Causes of the riots Rioters Guardian/ICM young people; and criminal opportunism. If we must (%) poll (%) identify a singular cause, it is the conjunction of three things: disaffection with economic prospects; serious Poverty 86 69 levels of mistrust between young peoplePearson and police; and Policing 85 68 a realisation that when faced with large and mobile Government policy 80 65 numbers of rioters, the police are often powerless to stop The shooting of Mark Duggan 75 51 looting and arson. Social media 74 64 from(Gorringe and Rosie 2011: 3) Inequality 70 61 Thus, as sociologists, we can appreciate the range and Criminality 64 86 complexity of the longstanding tensions, the underlying Moral decline 56 82 reasons and the more immediate causes which combine to Poor parenting 40 86 result in social disorder. In order to comprehend such social Gangs 32 75 phenomena we have to place them within the particular social and historical context, considering both macro and (Source: Reading the Riots, Guardian-LSE 2011) micro issues. This is where the strength of a sociological perspectivepermission lies, in the bringing together of the personal and the historical in what C.Wright Mills termed ‘The Sociological The important thing to recognize is that: Imagination’ (1970: 3): ‘Neither the life of an individual nor . . . there were multiple riots with varying causes. . . . In the history of a society can be understood without some areas we saw deliberate targeting of ‘designer’ priorunderstanding both’.
without The sociological perspective Although sociology deals with everyday life and common sense, that does not mean that it limits itself to The case study of the English Riots in August 2011 explanations that simply depend on feelings of what reveals that the relation between history and biography, makes sense. Such opinions would rely on what Bauman the individual and society, is integral to thinking (1990) has called ‘a personalised world-view’ and should sociologically. As we have seen from the range of be distinguished from a sociological perspective. explanations for the riots, sociology does not offer a Sociology and sociologists have a very strong relationship fixed, straightforward response. Sometimes this can be with common sense in that the object of study is often confusing and a little frustratingdistribution for students studying the common-sense view of social reality held by sociology for the first time but there are good reasons members of society. It is the way that they study the why it is not alwaysfor possible to give ‘the answer’ to experience of ordinary people’s daily lives, the questions problems. The world we live in, how our lives are they ask and the concepts they use that distinguish organized, how we relate to each other, how and why sociologists from other people and disciplines. things do notnot always work well, are all very complex. The theories and methods used by sociologists are Rather than offering simplistic (and probably the concern of Chapters 2 and 3, but we should note unrealistic)File solutions, sociology strives to capture the that in studying people going about their everyday lives, complexity of society, and different sociologists may put sociologists employ a scientific and theoretical forward different ways of understanding issues. A perspective that seeks to establish some kind of factual sociological approach goes beyond a common-sense picture of what is going on. This sociological perspective understanding of the social world. relies on rigorous procedures and is informed by
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rational argument, criticism and existing knowledge. In The sociological imagination enables us to grasp this sense sociology is a combination of common sense, history and biography and the relations between the statistical enquiry and social theory and provides a two within society. That is its task and its promise. distinct, but partial, view of what is going on: To recognise this task and this promise is theEducation mark of the classic social analyst . . . No social study that Sociology as an approach to understanding the does not come back to the problem of biography, of world, can be differentiated from other approaches history, and of their intersections within a society, in that it attempts to be scientific, that is to produce has completed its intellectual journey. empirically warranted and verifiable statements (Wright Mills 1970: 12) about the social world and is basically distinguished Pearson by its distinctive assumptions, concepts, questions, Wright Mills demonstrates that by unifying methods and answers. biography and history we are forced to place our own (Cuffet al. 1990: 9) individual experiences and attitudes in the context of social structure and that societies themselves are not The idea of ‘the sociological perspective’ as a way of from unique but have to be placed within an historical interpreting and analysing social life should not be context. Thus, we have to go beyond personal taken to indicate that there is a universal agreement as experience and common sense for answers to our to exactly how sociological investigation should proceed. questions. The most vivid example can be seen in As we highlight below, the discipline of sociology Wright Mills’s distinction between ‘personal troubles’ encourages creative debate, controversy and diversity. and ‘public issues’. Whether we are looking at poverty, unemployment, war, divorce or the problems of urban Stop and think living,permission there are aspects of our lives over which we have some control – ‘personal troubles’ for which we bear ➤ What common-sense assumptions do you have some responsibility and to which we can offer some about (a) yourself; (b) your country and community; private solution. However, there are other conditions and (c) your family? priorthat offer no such remedy, because the troubles that we ➤ What evidence is there for these assumptions? experience (no matter how personally) are beyond our ➤ Can you test them? control; they have historical and structural causes and as such represent ‘public issues’ that can be changed only ➤ How widely shared are they? by large-scale economic developments or social reform. without Writing 20 years later, Zygmunt Bauman reiterates the importance of Wright Mills’s early insights into the In the writings of Berger (1967) and C.Wright Mills crucial relationship between history, society and (1970), and more recent contributions from Kingdom biography: (1991) and Bauman and May (2001), we get a very strong notion of what sociology is, often as a result of Deeply immersed in our daily routines, though, stressing what it is not. They make clear that sociology we hardly ever pause to think about the meaning of is an antidote to personal and subjective observations what we have gone through: even less often have we and a complete rejection of explanations that are the opportunity to compare our private experience grounded in naturalisticdistribution or individualistic assumptions with the fate of others, to see the social in the about ‘human nature’. The emphasis is quite clearly on individual, the general in the particular, this the individualfor as a social animal within the context of a is precisely what sociologists can do for us. social environment. As this emphasis challenges popular We would expect them to show us how our and sometimes deeply held notions of human nature individual biographies intertwine with the history and individualnot responsibility, it is not surprising that we share with fellow human beings. (Bauman 1990: 10) sociology meets a certain amount of resistance. FileAnticipating what has become known as the ‘structure In minority world societies, where the cult of the versus agency debate’, C.Wright Mills pointed out in his individual and the notion of voluntary action are crucial introduction to The Sociological Imagination that the aspects of our cultural history, and the coverage of primary role of the sociologist is to reveal the complex politics is often reduced to the antics of personalities relationship between the individual and society: rather than their policies, it is not surprising to hear
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prime ministers proclaiming that ‘There is no such that social life is largely routine, predictable and thing as society. There are individual men and women unconscious. We normally take for granted the and there are families’ (Margaret Thatcher, 1979–1990) ‘patterned regularity’ of social life because we are or referring to ‘the classless society’ (John Major, steeped in the familiarity bred by habit. On a superficialEducation 1990–1997) as if it were a matter of agreed fact. In such level, these patterns may simply be descriptions of how a climate, sociology must struggle to assert the concepts people normally behave within their culture, perhaps on which its perspective is based; if it does not, it will dressing in an ‘appropriate’ manner for different disappear among the clamour of those whom John occasions, such as interviews or funerals. On another Kingdom (1991) has called ‘the new individualists’. As level, it may be noticed that some forms of behaviour Burns reminds us, ‘Sociology began as virtually a are exclusive, for example the majorityPearson of people do not resistant movement against the trend towards enter higher education, while patterns may also emerge individualism’ (1992: 20). that change over time, such as the rise in the recorded levels of crime. from Second, the compilation of data allows us to identify Stop and think possible correlations between the patterns of behaviour so that we begin to notice that certain patterns of ➤ What do you think the British Prime Minister, behaviour are more commonly discovered among Margaret Thatcher, meant when she proclaimed ‘There is no such thing as society’? What are the particular groups of people. Some social groups are less broader (a) moral, (b) political and (c) sociological likely to pass exams than others, people who live in implications of such a statement? urban areas may be more prone to burglary than those who inhabitpermission the suburbs or the countryside, and the children most likely to be found anywhere but school in term time come from backgrounds where education is The sociological perspective not highly valued. This does not mean that sociology in practice priorcan predict exactly who will fail their exams, get burgled or bunk off from school, but it can make ‘tendency Sociology as an empirical enterprise statements’ about the likelihood of the correlations reproducing themselves. Sociology has had to fight to establish itself as a social science. Using the principles of the scientific method Sociology as explanation established by the natural sciences, sociologistswithout have developed methods of data collection that enable them Social correlations need to be explained, and the to claim that sociological knowledge is as reliable as that emphasis in sociology is on social conditions rather found in any other sphere of the social sciences. This than biological, psychological or genetic factors. This is does not mean that sociology can produce infallible not to deny that we are, as a species, the product of laws of the human universe (many natural sciences have millions of years of biological evolution or that failed to do this), but it can endeavour to follow the individual differences call for psychological explanation. rules of the scientific method to establish verifiable data However, sociologists resist any generalization that and valid correlations thatdistribution may be used to confirm or suggests that behaviour can be reduced to biological deny a hypothesis (or to create a new one). In essence, explanations alone. Not only do such claims have very sociologists demandfor that theoretical positions be tested powerful ideological connotations, but they also fly in against evidence and that this evidence be gathered by the face of the clear evidence linking behaviour to social the most logical method in an objective manner and circumstances and cultural experience. The power of interpreted notin an impartial way. The application of the culture and the importance of the learning experience scientific method to sociology is examined in Chapter 3. are examined later in this chapter, but the areas we have In generalFile terms, the use of the scientific approach used so far as examples are clear cases where social enables social researchers to establish two things. circumstances are an essential part of any explanation: First, through observation and measurement a educational failure, crime, truancy and mental statistical record of how things are can be compiled. breakdown are all issues that call for sociological Such statistics are based on and confirm the assumption illumination.
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In the popular imagination, pure evil may still be the most appropriate explanation for senseless crime, Stop and think madness may be conveniently dismissed as a disease of ➤ Think of some of the key events in your own life. the mind, and some individuals are simply ineducatable. To what extent was their outcome affected byEducation Sociology teaches us that educational success is related (a) social factors (where you live, what school you to gender and class, that recorded crime is committed went to); (b) biological factors (your gender, race); largely by young people, that black people are more and (c) psychological factors (your intelligence and likely than whites to be diagnosed as schizophrenic by personality)? How easy is it to distinguish between British and North American psychiatrists, and that the these different factors? number of British children truanting from school is Pearson currently running at about 30,000 per year – in some parts of inner-city London the rate is as high as 40 per In this section we have talked of the sociological perspective as if it were a uniform and standardized cent. It is not surprising that when things happen to us from that we were not expecting, we take it personally or body of concepts, theories and fi ndings. Th is would give blame it on chance. However, if we are aware of the way the impression of a discipline free from criticism and in which the odds are stacked, then the element of internal division, but it would be wholly incorrect. One chance is drastically reduced: your failure to pass your of the main diffi culties that students of this subject exams is something you share with a lot of other people, experience is the failure of sociologists to agree with one your house was the third to be burgled in your street another and the diversity of opinion that exists within it. that week, and your children have discovered that their Without exaggerating these diff erences, there are obvious disagreements over methodological procedures classmates who still attend the local community permission comprehensive school are now regarded as deviant. and theoretical perspectives, which provide the conceptual backdrop to what sociology is all about and which we explore in Chapters 2 and 3 . prior Th us sociology is a diverse and rewarding area of study; it off ers the opportunity to ask questions, to consider diff erent perspectives, to evaluate evidence and to refl ect on those attitudes previously thought of as ‘common sense’. As a result, we begin to see ourselves and the social world we inhabit in a diff erent way. As an without echo of Berger’s claim that the fi rst wisdom of sociology is that ‘things are not what they seem’, Bauman has summarized the position brilliantly: When repeated oft en enough, things tend to become familiar, and familiar things are self-explanatory; they present no problems and arouse no curiosity . . . Familiarity is the staunchest enemy of inquisitiveness distribution and criticism – and thus also of innovation and the courage to change. In an encounter with that familiar world ruled by habits and reciprocally reasserting for beliefs, sociology acts as a meddlesome and oft en irritating stranger. It disturbs the comfortingly not quiet way of life by asking questions no one among the ‘locals’ remembers being asked, let alone answered. Such questions make evident things into File puzzles: they defamiliarize the familiar. Suddenly, the daily way of life must come under scrutiny. It now appears to be just one of the possible ways, not the one and only, not the ‘natural’ way of life. Cartoon by Mike Keating (Bauman 1990: 15)
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A closer look Education Who is in society? understands humans as not standing To take the context of the home, alone in society, but as being part of research by the animal–human What do we think of when we hear a complex web of living creatures. In Interactionist, Maria Desougi, has the word ‘society’? If you close your animal–human interaction we study found that companion animals not eyes and try to envisage what society the contribution that non-humans only effect the wellbeing of their must look like, what kind of images make to our world, and the relationships human family members, both in do you see? Perhaps a parliament that we have with them. These positive and negativePearson ways. But can filled with people debating the latest relationships are varied and complex, themselves be affected by changes in events and making new laws for us to rich with meaning and deeply the family. If one of the human live by. Or a city street with influenced by our history and culture. family membersfrom becomes ill and has commuters pouring out of trains and For example, you might want to to go to hospital, the non-human buses on their way to work in consider if you went to a café for companions may grieve their towering office blocks. Maybe you lunch and they were serving cat absence, become anxious or even see a school filled with pupils and kebabs and dog burgers, would you refuse to eat. The companion animals teachers learning about art and eat them? If not, why not? Why is it may change their patterns of relating science, or perhaps you even see a acceptable in contemporary Britain to to a sick family member, lying beside, group of friends, gathered together eat lambs and calves, but not to eat or even on top of them, offering the for a celebration. But here is the big cats and dogs? Would you go out and sick human toys or food. In the question, when you think of the word buy a lamb to keep at home permissionas a pet, home, it is not simply a case of ‘society’ are all the beings you see take it to training classes and walk it humans caring for their companion human? Is it only human beings who down the street on a lead? In other animals. Animals are also agents of make up society, or could society be times and places people have eaten social action, with their own needs, something larger and more expansive dogs and kept lambsprior as companion desires, and ways of expressing than we tend to imagine? What if animals. So after all we eat and keep them. Because as we humans society is not just about people, what in farms some animals, while others relate to the non-humans within if it is made up of many different live with us in our homes as companions. society, they are actively relating forms of life and sentience? What makes the difference and how back to us. Animal–human interaction is a do we relate to non-humans in these (Source: Maria Desougi, PhD Student, new area within sociology, which verywithout different contexts? University of Stirling)
Using sociology profi le is largely due to its inclusion in the school curriculum, its status as a degree-bearing discipline and Stop and think the regular appearance of its experts on television and distribution radio documentaries. As we have seen, sociology ➤ What did you think sociology was about before you enables us to have a deeper understanding of the social started to study the subject? world in which we live. It encourages us to develop key for ➤ What do other people think sociology is? (Carry out skills including: ‘the opening up of critical insight, a brief survey of your friends and family.) participation in the power of ideas, the capacity to analyse and manipulate data, and acquisition of sound ➤ Why donot you think some people – including politicians and journalists – might feel threatened knowledge of the social world’ (McLennan 2011: 3). by a subject that encourages the questioning of Th is not only enhances our self-development and File‘human institutions and human realities’? self-knowledge but connects us to others: What it consistently demonstrates is that our Sociology is an increasingly popular subject in schools individual situations and fate are closely and and colleges throughout the minority world. Its public inextricably bound up with those of others. Some of
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these others are seemingly ‘people like us’, but many essential part of professional training courses for are also (apparently) very diff erent, and sociologists teachers, social workers and people who work within seek to understand these diff erent social relations the National Health Service (NHS) and the criminal in order to grasp what makes everyone justice system. In the United States and in continentalEducation tick. . . . Sociology was born in the heat of Europe trained sociologists are employed as consultants a changing modern world around 200 years ago, in areas such as industrial relations; it is clear that and it constantly forces us to think about whether having a degree in the subject is no barrier to future society is progressing or not; about who are the career prospects. Given that sociologists are well winners and losers of social change; about whose equipped to understand and explain social problems, side we are on; and about how things can be they are well placed to point to possiblePearson solutions. changed for the better. Sociology is thus intimately Ministers in both Labour and Conservative Cabinets bound up with questions of social justice. of recent times have held university degrees in the (McLennan 2011: 3) subject, while Ralph Dahrendorffrom and Anthony Giddens, Hence it is no surprise that a sociological understanding formerly Professors of Sociology and Directors of of the world is important to a range of other disciplines the London School of Economics, have both been including social policy, criminology, social work, elevated to the House of Lords for their contribution education and nursing. Sociology is regarded as an to public life.
A closer look permission Studying sociology It has surprised me how much It’s given me a better understanding inequality there is in society and of why people are the way they are. First-year undergraduates from Stirling how it affectsprior people’s lives. (David Blackwell) University in Scotland highlight their (Ross Verhaere) initial impressions of studying A final year undergraduate from It gives a whole new outlook on sociology after one semester: Stirling University reflects on the life and situtions which arise. usefulness of four years of studying Sociology allows a rich analysis I always find myself asking why sociology: of seemingly ‘everyday’ now rather than just accepting it topics, meaning you view your withoutis how it is as I used to. As a body of knowledge sociology surroundings in a different light. (Kirsty Ross) has the potential to reform and It has sparked many debates with It has made me think about improve society. I genuinely classmates and friends. society around the world a lot more: believe sociology is as important (Janet Rodwell) how something in our society that to health and wellbeing as It is a really diverse and complex seems perfectly normal and that medical, or any other science. For subject which surprised me. It we take for granted is completely as anyone who has read Wilkinson does help you gain a better irrelevant or means something and Pickett’s The Spirit Level understanding of the world. different in other societies. (2010) will appreciate, there are distribution (John Williams) (Shona Keith) many pressing public policy issues It made me aware of vaious It makes you think differently and competing visions of how argumentsfor that come with each about yourself and others around these arise and how they should problem in society and that you. Makes me perceive people be addressed. Sociology’s gift is ‘solutions’ for these problems are differently and evaluate how that it develops a student’s ability notnot clear cut. others may perceive me. to think critically about how and (Mary Robins) (Lorna Graham) why society and the world more I have started to look around Sociology has made me take a generally has developed and is File more and see things that I didn’t step back and think about what I organized. The theories and see before. am saying before I say it. concepts I have encountered (Lesley Turner) (Mark Coles) throughout my time at university ▲
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are a series of explanatory as social actors. In my view, safe at work and making more Education frameworks which provide a developing these techniques is money can temper concerns of language we as social scientists essential if students are to think diminished privacy. My hope now can use to question the prevailing sociologically. So a sociological is to gain permission from the social order and challenge imagination enables us to see the participants to distribute an abridged inequality and injustice wherever world differently and a short version of the report to local taxi they exist. Whether from micro, course on Marx Weber and ranks to raise awarenessPearson of and meso or macro sociological Durkheim for everyone would do stimulate debate around some of the traditions, such concepts and little harm and may even help issues which have arisen from it. theories can be seen as an enlighten the work of our With the world of work looming armoury or toolbox from which we journalists, broadcasters and once again,from a fellow student and I can draw the most appropriate social commentators to better have been considering the many weapon or tool for the job. inform wider society. options available. Aside from Now nearing the end of my In light of this, I saw my continuing on to Masters or studies, being equipped with a recently completed final year Doctorate level, we realize that we broad sociological knowledge has dissertation as an opportunity to will soon be able to answer calls resulted in one previously investigate an issue I felt strongly for research in our own right, and unforeseen circumstance; it is about. As a part-time taxi driver I contribute to national debates in often difficult to watch was able to assimilate personal various publications. Additionally, mainstream television news and experience and insight to permissiondirect we are investigating the possibility current affairs programmes my recently acquired sociological of starting a social enterprise without a sense of frustration. I knowledge. I developed a topic which should enable us to apply came to realize there is a dearth centring on the effects of the our learning in the real world, with of critical analysis in the media on recent profusionprior of technologically real effects. Given the current really important issues ranging enabled surveillance equipment in political climate of state from world economic crises and taxis (or soon to be). After a retrenchment in welfare, there is a social unrest to Britain’s chronic lengthy period of deep thought pressing need and opportunity for housing shortage. What is and informal exploratory interviews, ingenuity in the provision of surprising is that news reports I was able to focus the research sustainable and well-informed typically fail to locate events in onwithout issues important to other public services at arms length historical context and omit to drivers and, through a series of from the state. Whilst we may not demonstrate awareness that social semi-structured qualitative change the world, we hope to problems such as housing interviews, teased out a number change lives by targeting shortages are often structurally of key findings which were not marginalized groups and prescribed. Moreover, students of without revelation or surprise. For spreading the word that sociology sociology are taught that the example, I found that self-employed really can be good for your health. social world is ostensibly socially people are not necessarily immune (Michael McGrath, Fourth Year constructed and as such can in from alienation at work; Taylorism Sociology Undergraduate, May 2012, distribution University of Stirling) theory be reconstructed by them is not yet dead, and that feeling for
Th ere are some careers where a sociology degree is a resources. Furthermore, the wide range of skills that requirement,not for example working as a sociological studying sociology helps you to develop, can be a researcher or a lecturer or teacher of sociology. However defi nite bonus in the process of job hunting. Employers thereFile are many more opportunities where the are oft en as interested in a candidate’s ability to think knowledge and understanding you acquire in studying critically, work as part of a team, or communicate well, sociology is highly valued, for example work in local as they are in a specifi c body of knowledge. Th e government, for the police or prison service, social diversity of skills of a sociology graduate are outlined on work, work in the voluntary sector, or in human the UK’s offi cial graduate careers website,Prospects :
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● appreciating the complexity and diversity of Given that in the current economic climate it is diffi cult social situations; to secure well-paid employment even with a university ● applying sociological theory to society’s degree, postgraduate qualifi cations are becoming organisations including schools, shops, hospitals increasingly necessary to obtain specialized careers.Education As and offices; McLennan points out: ‘Most employers of fi rst-degree ● researching, judging and evaluating complex graduates just want people who are adaptable and who information; can think’ (2011: 2). Th e variety of transferable skills ● making reasoned arguments orally (in tutorials that sociology enables students to develop, means that and presentations) and in written work; sociology can be practically applied to many ● strong IT skills gained through the presentation employment opportunities. Pearson of projects and dissertations; Finally, it is worth asking whether the study of any ● knowledge and understanding of research subject should have to be justifi ed in purely vocational methods, analysis and statistical techniques; terms. Sociology retainsfrom its popularity with young and ● developing opinions and new ideas on societal issues; old alike because it asks questions about the very things ● working collaboratively with others; that directly aff ect our lives. It has an immediate ● using effective methods to communicate your relevance because it provides insights into the workings ideas and conclusions; of the world we inhabit. Although he was writing in the ● statistical and other quantitative techniques; 1960s, Peter Berger explained that sociology could be ● the ability to understand, scrutinise and re-assess viewed as ‘an individual pastime’ because it transformed common perceptions of the social world; the meaning of those familiar things we all take for ● relating sociological knowledge to social, public granted:permission and civic policy; ● understanding ethical implications within sociology Th e fascination of sociology lies in the fact that its and assessing the merits of competing theories; perspective makes us see in a new light the very ● organising your work and meeting deadlines. prior world in which we have lived all our lives. ( www.prospects.ac.uk/options_sociology_your_skills.htm ) (Berger 1967: 32–3)
A closer look without A view from sociology aware of different issues and the me that there are so many difficulties facing individuals inequalities. Recognizing and graduates within society. I feel that I learnt understanding how they arise In this box, recent sociology an awful lot about people and the does actually help to confront graduates evaluate the usefulness of structures within which we live. these challenges in a positive and studying sociology. A focus on the workings of constructive manner. contemporary society has Joanne provided me with an insight which Jackie At university, thedistribution individual I feel has improved my When I did my teacher training, courses were of varying interest to understanding of the world. I realized how much sociology me. Somefor in particular stand out contributed to my understanding as having helped to form my Meeta of education. It made me realize opinions and provide me with a Learning about culture, race, class that people in societies do not muchnot more tolerant and open and sex has been invaluable behave the way they do by view of society. At first, the issues during every step of my working nature only, but they also learn tackled such as race, feminism life. Although I have worked behaviour. In my training, it was File and poverty gave me an mostly in administration and apparent that education was not unexpected cynicism about the computer support, what I have just concerned with academic, but world, but also made me more learned from sociology has taught also with social learning. When ▲
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teaching children about the ideas might be dull and process it is. Even at the personalEducation acceptable ways to behave, I irrelevant. I was wrong. Sociology level, as you encounter for the could see that I was part of the just isn’t like any other subject. first time the hideous limitations socialization process. They present their view, their truth, of your thinking. Face to face you As a social worker, I continue only Sociology says ‘this is view, must stand with the massive to be part of this process as I act this is what they say is truth’. assumptions of reality and in loco parentis to the children Meeting sociological ideas for normalcy with whichPearson you have with whom I work. Some of these the first time is a journey, but not walked every day of your life. children are estranged from their an easy one. There are moments, Assumptions die hard and I families. Again, I have found that on the street, on the bus, when feared that without mine I would a sociological outlook has helped the familiar world around you be lostfrom in a dark meaningless me to appreciate the various seems to shift. Everything you world forever. Then the very ideas forces and pressures at work in ever thought and believed begins which had damned me to a society and this has helped me to to melt away and that is not deconstructed darkness, came to be less judgemental in my work without its agony. I bemoaned to save me. I was lucky enough to and more understanding of my my tutor that Sociology was attend a primary school for a clients’ situations. reducing the assumptions of my project. It was there, watching the This view has also been useful safe and solid reality to liquid, and teachers and pupils interact, that in my general life. I would say that that paradoxically I was enjoying for the first time I saw it. I studying sociology has made me it. Yet Sociology itself is unafraidpermission glimpsed the dance. As if an more open-minded, more of paradox. It is not so rigid that it invisible ball was passing accepting of difference, and more insists we only view the world effortlessly from person to person able to question societal norms. through the perspective in which as they wove the construction of (adapted from ‘Viewpoints from three sociology its interests are priorinvested. With their worlds around them. It didn’t graduates’ in Ballard et al. 1997: 372–4) enormous intellectual courage it matter how dimly shone the light It was our first term at University. perceives a multiplicity of of sociological ideas upon my I was concerned that I would worldviews, without fear that that world. It was enough to see the regret the decision to go joint and which is uniquely its own will be world anew. (adapted from Desougi 2005: 28) study some Sociology, I thought undonewithout in the process. And a
The origins of sociology sociology to be recognized by the academic community as ‘the science of institutions, their genesis and their European sociology has its recent origins in the functioning’. intellectual aspirations and social upheavals of the Th e work of the early sociologists has to be seen nineteenth century; its foundationdistribution as a discipline is as a product of their direct experience, as middle-class usually attributed to Auguste Comte (1798–1857). intellectuals, of an age characterized by social change. Comte invented thefor word ‘sociology’ and also the Societies that had remained relatively static for centuries term ‘positivism’. He established the Positivist Society now found themselves embroiled in the dramatic in 1848 and saw positivism as the search for order transformation involved in the development of and progressnot in the social world. He felt that a science capitalism. As Nisbet (1970) has pointed out, many based on experimentation and open to testing was the of the terms that we now use in everyday discourse onlyFile valid form of human knowledge and, in the face (e.g. industry, ideology, bureaucracy, capitalism, crisis) of a great deal of academic prejudice, devoted himself take their modern meaning from the attempts by to the establishing of sociology as the study of social nineteenth-century social commentators to make some facts. A year aft er Comte’s death, Emile Durkheim sense of ‘the collapse of the old regime under the blows (1858–1917) was born; he continued the fi ght for of industrialism and revolutionary democracy’
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Early sociological theorists differed widely over the provided a vision of what was possible; and indeed, nature, development and impact of capitalism (Chapter gave us many of the critical insights to forge a 2 looks at differing analyses of capitalism offered by the contemporary canon that can be used to make a founding writers of sociology, in particular Max Weber’s real difference in the quality of human lifeEducation at the famous study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of close of the twentieth century. What those who Capitalism). They were, however, clearly aware that begin to practice sociology in the twenty-first anyone trying to make sense of industrial society had to century must do is consolidate the canon, make it take account of the emergence of capitalism as the ever more coherent even in the face of dominant economic system in the minority world. specialization in the academic world, and, if one is All these changes came together to create a dynamic still guided by the goals of thePearson Enlightenment, to and sometimes chaotic environment into which the use sociology to inform public debate, political early sociologists were born. Many of their ideas were policy, and social action to reconstruct society. (Turner 1997: 77) products of the changes to which they were witness, and from the major areas of sociological enquiry were more or less established during this period. The themes of religion, urbanism, capitalist development and political stability Stop and think became essential areas of sociological speculation, while the issues of poverty, crime, industrial relations and ➤ In what ways may the following be understood in family life have retained their place as objects of social terms of ‘globalization’?: enquiry ever since. This connection between the (a) fast food (b) sport discipline and its historical origins was reflected clearly permission in both sociological theory and social research. (c) Pop music (d) Nike sportswear Confronted with a rapidly changing, fragmented and (e) the deaths of Chinese cockle pickers in rootless mass society, the early theorists developed their Morecambe Bay in 2004 systematic critiques of the modern world. Whether it is prior (f) the bombing of the Madrid express in 2004 Comte anguishing over the collapse of authority or (g) Hollywood movies Durkheim looking for a new moral order, there is a (h) the Bhopal disaster in 1984. strong conservative element in much sociological theory. This may be contrasted with Marx’s celebration of social conflict as an inevitable consequence of class society and Weber’s more pessimistic viewwithout of the eventual rationalization of society and the replacement Contemporary sociology of ‘magic’ with the ‘iron cage’ of bureaucratic order. Many of these perspectives are dealt with more fully Although the origins of the discipline of sociology are later, but the crucial point is that without the clearly linked with minority world industrial societies, momentous social and political events of the post- and the changes that took place within them, the Enlightenment there would have been no great social increasing globalization of the modern world has taken crisis to observe, there would have been no middle-class contemporary sociology beyond the traditional ‘nation- intellectuals to recountdistribution it, and there would have been no state’ conception of society. No modern societies are social theory. self-contained in the way that we might associate with In Turner’sfor review of the contribution of sociology’s traditional societies. Essentially, globalization refers to classic writers, he argues that despite their great the interdependence of societies across the world – differences in outlook they were united by an essential there is a constant flow of goods and information belief innot the power of ‘abstract and analytical thought to around the globe. Perhaps the most obvious changes understand the social world’. This sense of purpose is as have been in terms of economic globalization – Filecrucial to sociology’s future as it was to its emergence in illustrated by the activities of transnational corporations the nineteenth century: (TNCs) – and cultural globalization – apparent in the increasingly international flavour of the media and the Disciplines that have a theoretical canon make a worldwide interests and activities of particular media difference in the world. The founders of sociology companies.
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Th e massive changes associated with globalization society’ began its life as an exploration of the ways in (which are introduced and discussed more fully in which the principles of the fast-food industry were Chapter 9 ) have meant that sociological analysis has had coming to dominate American everyday life but quickly to move beyond the study of single societies. Whether moved on to examine the ‘global existence and Education we are concerned about poverty, terrorism, crime or the implications of McDonaldization’. In his more recent formation of contemporary identities, we must recognize work, Ritzer has introduced the notions of glocalization that whereas early sociological concerns tended to be to refer to the opportunities for cultural diversity, which bound by regional and national boundaries, it is no longer stem from an interaction between local cultures and possible to talk sensibly about social issues without global systems of communication, and grobalization , considering the impact of global infl uences. For example, which reveals the opposite tendencyPearson towards cultural George Ritzer’s concept of the ‘McDonaldization of imperialism and homogeneity (Ritzer 2004).
A closer look from
Impact different ways that the potential accessible via a website. A creative findings can be applied. In other example of trying to engage young A new requirement of many funders words, what are the policy, practice people with their research is the work (such as the ESRC: Economic and and academic implications of their of Rosalind Edwards and Susie Weller Social Research Council) who pay for proposed study? Some groups may at London South Bank University. social research to be conducted, is benefit directly, others indirectly.permission It is They have been working on a that the findings have a practical use. important that not only academic longitudinal study exploring change This is often referred to as ‘impact’: books and papers are produced, but and continuity in young people’s the usefulness of research outcomes. that the results of the work are sibling relationships and friendships. When sociologists come up with ideas presented in an accessibleprior format for In order to disseminate some of their for a new research project, they must non-academics, such as a short research findings they developed a identify who will benefit from the briefing paper for busy policy-makers short YouTube video, using study. Possible beneficiaries include: who want clear, concise summaries participants’ photographs and individual service users, organizations of the most important results, or extracts from some of their interviews (state, voluntary, charity), policy-makers booklets with training implications for (see the project website http://www. and local government, and academia practitioners.without For research with timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/research- (lecturers and students). When writing children and young people, a visual projects/siblings-friends/ and an application for research funding, DVD or CD-rom of the relevant YouTube clip at http://www.youtube. sociologists have to consider the findings could be developed or made com/watch?v=El0ph9yVl3I ).
Sociology of everyday life and this association with daily existence can also carry distribution a ‘connotation of ordinariness’ (Bennett and Watson As we have seen, traditionally sociologists were 2002: x). As a consequence our familiarity with interested in exploringfor class confl ict, social problems everyday food practices can mean that we oft en pay and large-scale processes of social change. More recently little attention to the meanings attached to them, such there has been a shift towards a focus on everyday life: as the social signifi cance of making somebody a cup of ‘Questions notsuch as “How do we compose a shopping tea. Th e cycles of routines that surround food on a daily list?” or “Why do we queue?” might seem ridiculously basis – from shopping to preparing, to consuming and trivialFile but, once unpacked, reveal intriguing sets of cleaning up – are part of a ‘seen-but-unnoticed life’ rules’ (Scott 2009: 2). For example food has become a commented on long ago by sociologist Alvin Gouldner popular focus for sociological research over the past ten (quoted in Jacobsen 2009: 2). Recently, sociologists have years. Food is a mundane and regular part of people’s started to explore the meanings of food within schools, lives. Food practices serve the fulfi lment of a basic need foster and residential care, and family settings (James
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et al. 2009; Punch et al. 2011). In their study of food interconnected world where digital networks have become practices in residential care for children, Punch et al. more intensified and extensive. We can communicate (2012) found that the ways in which people ‘do’ food, with people locally and globally in a variety of forms and and the routines and rituals that this involves, can be at a fast pace. As Wajcman points out: ‘In the resultingEducation deeply embedded and reflect how they care for “Network Society”, the compression of space and time themselves and others and how different generations made possible by the new communication technology define their social positions in relation to one another. alters the speed and scope of decisions’ (2002: 347). They noted that food practices in residential care can In what ways has the computer age and mobile/ thus be experienced in deeply ambivalent ways – as wireless technologies shaped our daily interactions? rooted in the mundane and the unseen yet closely To what extent have the boundariesPearson between public and linked to more conspicuous displays of caring and private or between work and home been transformed in responsibility and relations of power and resistance. recent decades? To what extent have new technologies Like food practices, new technologies also form part transformed the nature fromof friendships and peer interactions of the fabric of our everyday lives. We do not usually for young people? Furthermore, how do we influence stop to consider the meaning of such simple acts as the way technology is used? What opportunities and sending an email or a text. The following section constraints are created via the use of social networking contemplates some of the ways in which new patterns of sites and micro-blogging such as Twitter? These are all communication are changing our daily interactions. interesting questions that sociologists can help to answer. Sociology is concerned with relational processes Stop and think which are not linear or fixed. Just as technology shapes ourpermission lives, we shape the ways technology is implemented and used. We may use the Internet in different ways ➤ In what ways do new technologies shape your everyday life? Consider the impact of emails, social with different people or in different contexts. How we networking sites and mobile phones on the ways present ourselves online is likely to vary, and we may you manage your study, work, home and social life.priordevelop multiple identities which we play out in a range ➤ To what extent do computers, the Internet and of ways. For example, the style and tone of our emails is wireless technologies provide opportunities for you likely to differ considerably according to the nature of or make your life easier? our relationship with the recipient. Technological ➤ What are the downsides of new technologies? For change has not only led to new ways of communicating, but also to new forms of language being developed: text example, how much time do they absorb?without How often do you check your messages (emails, texts, Facebook)? speak and tweeting. New conventions are emerging and ➤ In what ways would your life be different if you did the rules of engagement are changing, as Zhao argues: not have access to new technologies? The advent of the Internet and the ensuing social transformation has thus reconfigured the lifeworld Social change and new technologies we live in, specifically, the ways in which we connect with others. In this new environment, face-to-face The increased automation of production and the interaction is only one of the many contact options intensified use distributionof the computer are said to be individuals can choose from for ‘social relating.’ revolutionizing the economy and the character of Face-to-face relationships used to be the context employment.for In the ‘information society’ or within which all other forms of contact (e.g., postal ‘knowledge economy’, the dominant form of work and telephone contacts) were embedded. Typically, becomes information and knowledge-based. At the people came to know each other in face-to-face samenot time leisure, education, family relationships situations first and used mail and the telephone and personal identities are seen as moulded by the afterward to help maintain the relationships. Now, pressures exerted and opportunities arising from this trajectory of acquaintanceship development can Filethe new technical forces. be entirely reversed. For example, it is possible for (Wajcman 2002: 347) people to get to know each other first in online chat Perhaps one of the most significant recent impacts on the room, then move to e-mail exchange, to telephone way we live is technological change. We inhabit a more contact, and, finally, to in-person meetings. In such
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cases, face-to-face interaction is the outcome rather new material and cultural practices’ (2008: 66). For than the basis of mediated communication. There example, on the one hand, email enables us to deal with are also instances in which social relationships are things rapidly compared with the longer time required developed and maintained in total absence of for postal correspondence. Yet, on the other hand, Educationsome corporeal copresence. of us can end up feeling overwhelmed by the sheer (Zhao 2006: 471) quantities of emails that are generated. Lecturers, for Nevertheless, we have to remember that not everyone instance, may receive far more email questions from shares our ability to ‘log on’ and connect at ease with students compared with the amount of students who others around the world. Access to computers and the would have attended their office hours in the days Internet is far from equal. In a middle-class family in before email was available. Thus emailPearson simultaneously Europe or North America there may be good quality, saves us time but also adds to our time pressure by high-speed Internet access on the household computer taking up more of our time. Wireless technologies may or perhaps each child has their own personal laptop for enable us to control when andfrom where we respond to use in their increasingly digitized and media-rich messages, but may also feel oppressive given that we are bedroom. In many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin almost always contactable. An interesting sociological America access to such technology may be severely question would be: what are the positive and lacking (see Chapter 9 for a discussion of the digital detrimental effects of new technologies for everyday divide). Some rural communities in economically poor work and home practices? The role of sociology is to parts of the world still lack electricity, let alone the explore the processes and consequences of social change education and training to develop the required skills for from a variety of perspectives, considering both the using computers and the internet. opportunitiespermission and the constraints. As well as a digital divide between the information It may be that, with ‘seamless connectivity’, the rich and the information poor, there is also a generation separation of home and work that we take for gap. The younger generation tend to have more granted in modern societies is in the process of expertise or creativity in using new technologies prior reformulation. . . . Rather than ICTs pushing us (Livingstone and Brake 2010). Computer literacy is now inexorably into a life in the fast lane, perhaps they regularly taught alongside more traditional skills of can be harnessed and reconfigured as an ally in our reading, writing and arithmetic. Computer consoles, quest for time control. such as playstations, can allow children to be physically (Wajcman 2008: 74) alone yet playing online with their friends in a form of ‘playing alone together’. For the vast majoritywithout of you reading this book, you are likely to have different The individual and society practices of communicating and socializing with your friends compared with your parents’ generation. A As we have seen, sociologists are interested in the Friday night out with friends may well be arranged via relationship between the individual and society. A Facebook rather than a telephone landline. The evening sociological perspective encourages us not to see things may also evolve through information gathered via only from our own individual experiences but also to electronic messages so plans may change quite rapidly. recognize that as individuals our actions are shaped by During the night out youdistribution may spend significant periods the society we live in. On the one hand, we can argue of the evening sending and receiving texts or ‘tweets’ that individuals are affected by social influences, by their from absent friendsfor and your interactions with your class, gender, race, by society as a whole. On the other mobile phone are unlikely to be considered rude by hand, individuals are not puppets that are controlled by your peers. Sociologists, interested in patterns of change society and do not go through life without influence and continuity,not are keen to explore the ways in which over what they are doing. Some sociologists are more our virtual interactions shape our identity and impact interested in how we interact with each other, how we uponFile our sense of belonging and sense of self. make sense of our lives at the micro level of society. Digital technologies have led to the speeding up of Other sociologists are most interested in the way in the pace of life, yet as Wajcman explains: ‘Rather than which society shapes our lives at the macro level of simply saving time, technologies change the nature and society. Nevertheless, the majority of sociologists would meaning of tasks and work activities, as well as creating argue that we need to look at both the macro and micro
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aspects of society. Thus we have to explore the ways in definition has been questioned in the second half of the which the social structures of society shape how we act twentieth century. This sort of approach has encouraged and what our experiences are, whilst at the same time a division and distinction between what is seen as high we must consider that as human beings we are culture and mass culture. In lay terms, a classicalEducation conscious of what we do and we are active in creating symphony or Shakespeare play is seen as high culture; the world around us. This tends to be known as the as something of enduring aesthetic merit. In contrast, structure/agency debate: society consists of social a TV soap opera or Top Ten single is likely to be seen structures as well as people who are active and can as an example of mass, or popular, culture; as a assert their agency. Macro-sociology tends to exaggerate commercial product of little aesthetic merit. the power of social structures and processes whilst However, there is another sensePearson in which the concept micro-sociology concentrates more on the conscious of culture can be used. Sociologists prefer a much and self-determining individual. Most sociologists broader, less subjective and impartial definition that combine macro and micro perspectives, striving to refers to the values, customsfrom and acceptable modes of accommodate the idea of the individual as an active behaviour that characterize a society or social groups agent within the powerful social and cultural influences within a society. Indeed, culture and society are closely that play upon them. entwined concepts in that one could not exist in any Social structures are ‘enduring social arrangements meaningful way without the other. As Giddens puts it, that influence individuals and selves’ which are ‘no cultures could exist without societies. But equally, ‘recurrent and relatively stable patterns of social no societies could exist without culture. Without culture conduct’ (Plummer 2010: 219). Hence social structures no one could be “human” at all’ (1997b: 18). Culture, such as education, family or the economic system are then,permission refers to the non-biological aspects of human basic elements which shape or constrain social life. By societies – to the values, customs and modes of analysing the structures of society we can then move behaviour that are learned and internalized by people towards an understanding of individual action. The rather than being genetically transmitted from one following sections consider the ways in which society priorgeneration to the next. shapes our actions by looking at the key concepts for This general notion of culture is related directly to understanding social structures: culture and social behaviour through the moral goals of a society socialization. The application of these sociological (its values), the status positions of its members (social concepts is then explored by assessing the power of roles) and the specific rules of conduct related to culture through cultural diversity and deprivation. society’s values and roles, which are known as norms. In without other words, those general values that society holds in Culture high esteem are reflected in the norms governing our everyday attitudes and behaviour. Many sociologists regard the culture of modern Stop and think societies as differentiated and fragmented. They see such societies as embracing a range of beliefs, values and ➤ What does the term ‘culture’ mean to you? customs rather than a unified cultural system. Within ➤ What activities would you describe as ‘cultural’? such diversity, however, some sociologists (among distribution others, those writing from a feminist or Marxist standpoint) would argue that contemporary societies do Culture can havefor two meanings. On the one hand, it possess a dominant culture or ‘ideology’. In contrast, refers to certain activities and traditional arts such as others would suggest that such societies have a ‘core ballet, literature and painting. Trips to a theatre, art culture’ that is more or less shared by everyone. gallery notand opera house are seen as examples of cultural involvement (and often recalled by resentful members Socialization Fileof school outings). This view of ‘culture’ is only one definition of the term. It is what Matthew Arnold (1963) The emphasis on culture, rather than biological instinct, called ‘the best that has been known and said in the as the key to understanding human behaviour implies world’ and concentrates on the intellectual aspects of a that learning plays an essential part in creating social civilization. The subjective and elitist nature of this beings. In sociology, the term given to the process by
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which we learn the norms, values and roles approved by The cases that we mention later in this chapter of our society is ‘socialization’. The survival of children into children who were deprived of such social interaction in adulthood and the future of culture itself depend on their formative years are clear evidence of the crucial a society’s successful organization of this process. role played by the socialization process in the Education Unless a society is to rely for its survival on the fear structuring of identity and the development of the induced by the armed police forces or other agencies of individual. control, socialization is the key to social cohesion and cultural endurance. The rules and customs governing Culture and identity normal social interaction must become internalized by The emergence of identity in modern society the members of that society in such a way that they Pearson become part of the individual’s view of the world and of According to some writers (e.g. Beck, Giddens, themselves without the individual feeling brainwashed. Foucault) the latter part of the twentieth century saw As Berger makes clear, this balancing act can work only people losing faith with thefrom certainties of religion, social if it is achieved by stealth on the part of the society and progress, class, community and so on and turning through acceptance on behalf of the individual: instead to a contemplation of (and obsession with) the self. If the world ‘out there’ cannot offer security and Society not only controls our movements, but becomes increasingly shaped by global forces, then it is shapes our identity, our thought and our emotions. easy to see why people seek expression (and control) in The structures of society become the structures of their lives through local, regional and ethnic identities our own consciousness. Society does not stop on the and become immersed in ‘identity politics’. According to surface of our skins. Society penetrates us as much Martin Shaw, our response to this sense of as it envelops us. Our bondage to society is not so permission powerlessness is to turn away from the big picture much established by conquest as by collusion. (Berger 1967: 140) (public sphere) to the subjective and personal world of our individual existence (private sphere): ‘Most people, Gradually, as part of the process of ‘growing up’, priormost of the time, are concerned overwhelmingly with individuals absorb the standards and expectations of a their private existence’ (Shaw 1995: 31). society so unconsciously that they become transformed The notion of identity emerged alongside the into social beings almost without noticing it. The ideology of individualism (see above) and the modern requirements, rules and standards of a society have obsession with the self. A sense of identity can be seen become part of their own identity, motives and desires to function on three levels: so imperceptibly that they are experienced aswithout natural and unique although they are clearly social and uniform. ● Personal – Life is given a sense of purpose or Individuals begin at an early age to become aware of direction especially through a clear set of values the existence of others and to take this knowledge into and priorities. account as they form their own identities. A society may ● Social – Successful interaction with others (essential not be capable of survival without its members’ conformity, in mass society) relies upon people understanding but equally individuals cannot develop clear ideas of one another and fulfilling personal and social who they are without some level of social interaction. expectations. The successful accomplishment of such distribution social interaction and the ‘people-handling’ skills involved not only contributes to social relationships Stop and forthink (and social stability) but also reinforces positive feelings of self-worth/social value, which are vital ➤ Norms of conduct are often learned from an early aspects of identity maintenance. age and unconsciously absorbed so that they not ● become part of our ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions Potentiality – Whereas the two points above refer to about appropriate social behaviour. List as many those continuous and special aspects of identity that Filenorms of conduct as you can. delineate who we are, individuals also need to have ➤ How do these norms differ for different social groups? some idea of who they might become and whether Consider the differences between (a) young and they have the ‘right stuff’ to achieve it. Achievement old; (b) women and men; and (c) poor and rich. is a self-confirming activity that provides personal fulfilment and increases positive feelings about the
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self. However, failure can undermine self-confidence and cause a crisis of identity. Stop and think Theories of identity formation ➤ Under the headings of ‘physical’, ‘personal’ and ‘social’, identify the processes that have playedEducation the There are too many theories of identity to consider here, greatest role in the formation of your ‘major’ but it is worth distinguishing between two general identity components. perspectives on identity before moving on. ● Essentialism – An essentialist perspective is one that emphasizes the fixed and usually biological basis of Identity and socializationPearson behaviour. According to this view, an individual’s identity may be fixed by their genetic makeup, One of the growing areas of interest in sociology is the personality traits or basic instincts/drives. It would notion of the active subject. The emphasis is not on the be wrong to imply that all essentialist arguments are deterministic forces of fromthe social structure but on the simply a matter of genetics, as there are spiritual conscious individual capable of self-awareness and explanations that stress essential qualities (good/ reflection. These ideas stem from Cooley’s idea of ‘the evil), psychological ones (aggression/sex) and even looking glass self’, Mead’s work on the ‘self-concept’ and sociobiological and functionalist perspectives within Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ (see Chapter 2). These sociology that stress the similarities between animal writers suggest that the identity of an individual is not behaviour and that of humans. In all of these the outcome of some essential personality but a more approaches, identity is determined by some universal fluid creation that develops over time through the characteristics over which people have little control. interrelationshippermission between the self and those who Consequently essentialists are often criticized as comprise the outside world. In other words, our ‘reductionist’. identities are a social construction and open to change. This does not mean, however, that we are completely ● Constructionism – At the other end of the spectrum priorfree to choose whatever persona we fancy, and the role are explanations that stress the social construction of of culture in the formation of identities is a crucial one. identity, the cultural variety in identity formations The process of socialization helps us to become and the opportunities for changing/choosing recognizable individuals, but it does so by providing us identities. The emphasis in this perspective is upon with options for group membership that shape our learning, culture and socialization; the social roles identity. The self-concept then is deeply embedded in required by society and the influence upon the without the process of becoming social, and the resources from individual by the groups to which they belong are which our identity is created are found in key aspects of crucial. According to this view, the notion of social life such as family, work and community. individual identity cannot be separated from the idea Most of us were brought up in areas that could be of society – without one, the other does not exist. characterized as predominantly middle or working class Whereas psychologists tend to talk of identity as and that have predominantly white or ethnic minority being ‘part of the personality’, sociologists stress identity populations. Most of us still mix mainly with people from as ‘the recognition of who one is and how one is similar class and ethnic backgrounds. Most of us grew recognised by others’distribution (Plummer 2010: 216). For up with people of a similar age and will still have as our sociologists identity is not fixed but a multi-dimensional closest friends people of a similar age. Although there process whichfor involves learning, choice and change. are many exceptions to these generalizations, modern, As Jenkins suggests, it is about knowing who we are as large-scale societies have almost invariably organized individuals and as members of collectivities: ‘it is not themselves by separating their schools and neighbourhoods somethingnot that one can have, or not; it is something that by race, class, religion and age. Sociologists refer to these one does’ (2008: 5). The processes involved in identity categories as social divisions which merge in particular Fileformation are a combination of the physical, the ways to form our identity. Social identity is not a simple personal and the social. In this process of ‘growing up’, outcome of upbringing but a combination of various the individual does not simply assimilate the influences and sometimes contradictory commitments that the upon them but reflects, negotiates and incorporates individual self may have towards a range of identities; (or rejects) them. a Catholic male homosexual from a working-class
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background in Ireland who is the head of a suburban for the differences between the sexes. In her analysis of girls’ comprehensive school in Yorkshire will have to women’s work, Ann Oakley (1974a) argues that ‘roles in juggle with a range of separate and competing claims on traditional non-industrialized societies are often defined his self-image that raise questions of gender, sexuality, to some extent by sex status’ but goes on to emphasizeEducation region, nationality, class and ethnicity. that there is no simple or universal rule for the division The major agencies of socialization are covered in of labour by sex. Instead, we find that the rules detail in later chapters, where we look at the regarding sex-appropriate tasks vary enormously from contribution of the family, the school, religion and the one culture to another. To demonstrate this argument mass media to the reproduction of culture as it is she contrasts two African societies – the Mbuti pygmies handed on from one generation to the next. Here we of the northern Congo and the Lele Pearsonfrom the south. shall look at the way in which the concept of culture has been applied by anthropologists, psychologists and Love and marriage sociologists in their attempts to identify its significance from for individuals as well as society. The importance of culture is also obvious when we consider the relationship between men and women in Stop and think their pursuit of one another. Courtship, marriage and sexual activity reveal patterns of normal behaviour that ➤ Who are the key people involved in the are anything but universal, despite the fact that the socialization of children and young people at the desires and emotions involved are powerful natural following ages: (a) 0–4 years; (b) 5–10 years; drives genetically transmitted to ensure the survival of (c) 11–15 years; and (d) 16–21 years? the species.permission From a minority world perspective, the ➤ Consider the relative importance of primary and notions of free choice, romantic love and jealousy may secondary groups at these different ages. lead to the conclusion that monogamy is a natural response to the questions of courtship, marriage and priorsexual reproduction. However, the briefest review of both minority world history and other cultures The power of culture demonstrates how relative such arrangements are. Arranged marriages are often associated with the Hindu Cultural diversity religion, but this practice is widespread, often touching on cultures where we would least expect to find it. Until How would you feel about being offered dogwithout meat for the First World War (1914–18) the use of ‘dynastic marriage’ breakfast? What would be your reaction to a professor for political purposes was a crucial aspect of European giving a lecture wearing nothing but a loin cloth? Would history. For centuries it was regarded as normal practice you be surprised to find people of your grandparents’ for royal marriages to act as a form of international generation using cocaine? Whether we look at fashion, diplomacy to maintain bonds of alliance and peace food or leisure activities, anthropology and history between states, nations and cultures (Baignent et al. 1986). reveal a wide range of cultural diversity over all forms of Marriages were also arranged between wealthy families in behaviour and belief, which suggests that human order to increase their wealth, status or family honour. activity cannot be reduced to simple biological or social distribution Some marriages are still arranged in Japan, where the models that have been fixed for eternity. What is question of marriage partner is regarded as so important, regarded as normal and acceptable behaviour by one especially for family honour, that it cannot be left to the society or culturalfor group may be punished as a crime romantic preferences of the daughter. A ‘go-between’ is elsewhere. As Matza (1969) reminds us, ‘one man’s employed to discover likely partners with good prospects deviation is another’s custom’, and it is clear that cultural not from families of honourable status and background. standards are relative to time, place and social position. This is as much an issue of parental concern for the Women’sFile work and men’s work daughter as it is a matter of family honour, because the bride changes family membership on her wedding day The diversity of sex roles is often used as an example of and belongs to her husband’s family thereafter. To the power of cultural conditioning and is regularly signify this ‘death’ in her parents’ eyes on her wedding quoted as evidence against conventional explanations day, she wears white, the Japanese symbol of mourning.
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World in focus Education Two African societies: again they do not distinguish geographical neighbours but the between the worlds of domestic general similarity between them Mbuti and Lele activity and public production; when it comes to distinguishing The Mbuti are a hunter-gatherer people nor do women have an unequal between the domestic world and the who ‘have no rules for the division of status to men because of the economic: labour by sex’. Although there are nature of the work they carry out. The situationPearson among the Lele (and some very loose practices of ‘women’s The division of labour and of life among the Mbuti) is the same as work’ and ‘men’s work’, these are in general is geographical. The that in the majority of traditional related not to general types of activity men inhabit the forest and cultivate African societies: the work done but to specific tasks (men gather honey, raffia but are excluded from the byfrom the women is essential to the women gather vegetables), while the grasslands, where the women economic survival of the society. most important task of hunting is cultivate groundnuts, collect Despite the ritual allocation of carried out by men and women firewood and tend the fishponds. some tasks to men and some to together. Child care is also shared Segregation also affects village life, women, men’s work and women’s but is carried out by the middle-aged where men and women keep to work are equal in status and men and women or by the older boys different parts of the village and importance . . . the separation and girls. There is no division by sex enjoy segregated leisure and between home and work is not a between the worlds of domestic mealtimes. As Oakley points out, the feature of human society as such labour and economic production. main point here is not simplypermission the but of industrialised society The Lele practise a very rigid massive cultural difference in sex- specifically. division of labour by sex, although specific behaviour between two (Oakley 1974a: 13) prior
Even if love and marriage do not necessarily go other. I nodded wisely in agreement; there was no together, we might be tempted to assume that love and point in trying to explain that there was another sex do. In ‘dynastic marriages’ it was not expected that way of looking at it. the marriage would be fulfi lling, but ‘courtlywithout love’ (Barley 1986: 135) provided the opportunity for satisfaction outside All this discussion has been based on the premise marriage. Th e well-publicized indiscretions of the that sexual attraction, courtship and marriage are purely British royal family in the 1990s suggest that such heterosexual activities. However, homosexuality has arrangements are still tolerated. However, in west always been part of social life, even though the cultural Africa, Nigel Barley’s (1986) discussion of adultery with and moral response to it varies enormously; while a Dowayo elder reveals that even simple rules regarding homosexual practice is an off ence punishable by death sexual attraction are by no means universal: in Iran, it is possible for gay couples to get married in All Dowayos, maledistribution and female, were to report on Scandinavia. Th e issue of non-heterosexual families is the appointed day and vote. It is the Chief’s raised in Chapter 11 . responsibilityfor to ensure a good turn-out and Mayo Monogamy and polygamy humbly accepted this as his lot while Zuuldibo sat in the shade calling out instructions to those doing Th e practice of adultery has meaning only within the work.not I sat with him and we had a long societies that practise monogamous courtship and discussion on the fi ner points of adultery. ‘Take marriage. In such cultures, the breaking of these rules FileMariyo,’ he said. ‘People always tried to say she was can provide the grounds for divorce, justifi able homicide sleeping with my younger brother, but you saw how and punishment by the criminal justice system. upset she was when he was ill. Th at showed there However, in other cultures, the practice of having more was nothing between them.’ For Dowayos sex and than one partner is not only tolerated but also aff ection were so separate that one disproved the institutionalized in polygamous marriage.
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Among the Nyinba people of north-west Nepal the Romulus and Remus, Mowgli and Tarzan have etched minority world notion of romantic love is thought of as into the minds of many of us distorted and romantic selfish and greedy and the inevitable cause of sorrow. images of children reared in the wild by animals. Instead they practise fraternal polyandry, whereby the According to legend these children come to little harm,Education wife is shared by the brothers of the family she marries retain their human characteristics and develop strong into. Such marriages are often arranged, but even when identities to become singing and dancing role models of they are based on the sexual attraction of the bride for the silver screen. The reality could not be more fantastic one particular brother she must still become the wife of or further from the picture portrayed by Greystoke and the others, spending her wedding night with the eldest The Jungle Book. Since the fourteenth century, more brother irrespective of her preference. For the purposes than 53 recorded cases have been foundPearson of feral of family stability, it is also important that the wife children, including the Irish sheep-child, the Lithuanian shows no favouritism to any individual brother and that bear-child and the Salzburg sow-girl. Other unlikely she demonstrates this impartiality by bearing at least parents include wolves, baboons,from leopards and an Indian one child for each man. Strict penalties are maintained panther (Malson and Itard 1972: 80–82). Some of these for anyone caught ‘fooling around’ outside the marriage. cases may be ‘the stuff of myth rather than experiences’ A more commonly practised version of polygamy is (Maclean 1977), but Armen (1974) recorded the polygamous marriage, which allows a man to have behaviour of a boy reared by gazelles in the Sahara and several wives. Despite this being against the teachings of noted that the boy not only shared the physical the Bible and the laws of their societies, Mormon characteristics of gazelles (sense of smell, speed, fundamentalists still believe that it is a sacred duty for a far-sightedness, etc.) but also seemed to participate in man to take several brides, even though the Mormon their socialpermission habits, rituals and games; as Armen made Church rejected the practice in 1890. no attempt to capture and return the child to ‘civilization’ it is difficult to know how long the child Stop and think managed to survive in the wild by reliance on those priorskills learned from gazelles. ➤ Our discussion of cultural diversity has looked In 1991 a six-year-old boy, covered with body hair at sex roles and love and marriage. Describe and running wild with a pack of monkeys, was captured the extent of cultural diversity in the areas of in the Ugandan bush and placed with a local orphanage, (a) fashion; (b) child-rearing; and (c) recreational where he revealed that he had run away from home at drug use. (In responding to this, consider diversity the age of three and been reared by the monkeys. John over time and from place to place.) without Ssabunnya’s story was doubted at the time but subsequent research established that he had learned the ways of monkeys and could communicate with them. Culture and development He was raised with the other members of the Wasswa family and became a cherished member of the orphan Socialization, and in particular the quality of the cultural community. In 1998 a similar story caught the attention experiences of children in the early years of the socialization of the world’s press, but this time it did not come from process, is crucial for physical, intellectual, emotional the African bush and it did not involve primate foster and social development. This point is demonstrated distribution care: at the age of four Ivan Mishucov opted for a life on clearly if we look at what happens when children are the streets of Moscow in preference to the alcoholic deprived of these cultural experiences. The cases that we chaos of his family and became the adopted leader of a shall look at illustratefor different degrees of exclusion pack of dogs. In return for food, which Ivan begged from culture and include examples where children have from strangers, the dogs offered warmth and security. been partially deprived of what a culture has to offer as not Eventually the police managed to separate the boy from well as those extreme cases of children who have grown his guardians and placed him with a foster family, who up beyond the frontiers of human civilization. File coped with his canine behaviour and helped Ivan make Feral children slow progress with language and social skills. In the world in focus boxes we can see not only how important Children who have been reared in ‘the wild’, outside early socialization is but also the extent to which it may human society, are termed ‘feral children’. The legends of be changed by later exposure to human contact.
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World in focus Education Kamala and Amala: hoped that he could return the feral consequently very, very slow in all children to the fold of God’s love and its progress. the wolf-girls of human kindness in the safety of his (Maclean 1977: 60–61) Midnapore orphanage. Gradually, however, the new His account of this struggle to In late September 1920, the environment began to work its civilize the wolf-children has been Reverend Singh responded to changes. Over the next seven diligently researched by Charles Pearson appeals for help from local villagers months, Mrs Singh’s belief that ‘love Maclean, who reveals how far from in Bengal. They were being terrorized was the key’ produced small signs of recognizable human beings these by ghosts in the form of ‘man- adaptation to human society. Amala, children had become as a result of beasts’, and the Reverend Singh set in particular,from showed signs of their bizarre upbringing. From the up a hide from which to observe and intelligence and initiative and learned start both girls behaved more like destroy the creatures. At first, he tells to recognize the names of food and wild animals than human children. us in his journal, he saw three wolves drink. Vegetables were still refused They appeared frightened by daylight followed by two cubs but was then but the children learned to use their and slept naked on the floor during astonished by the apparition that hands when eating and drinking and the middle of the day. They howled followed: began to play games when food was at night and shared the eating habits the reward. A year later they had Close after the cubs, came the of dogs; they ate carrion as well as mastered the skill of sleeping in ‘ghost’ – a hideous-looking being, raw flesh and gobbled cockroaches,permission a bed. hand, foot and body like a human lizards and mice alive. They ran on In September 1921, Amala died being; but the head was a big ball all-fours and relied heavily on sense as the result of illness and the of something covering the of smell, showing a clear preference Reverend Singh claims that her shoulders and the upper portion for the companyprior of dogs over the ‘sister’ showed remorse and even of the bust leaving only a sharp friendship of other humans. They cried over the body. Kamala now contour of the face visible. Close snarled and growled in fear when began to show signs of learning basic at its heels there came another approached and even attacked the skills by copying other children. In awful creature exactly like the orphanage children who dared to get June 1923, she stood for the first first, but smaller in size. Their too close. time and eventually learned to walk eyes were bright and piercing, without After three months the Reverend upright and moved into the girls’ unlike human eyes . . . Singh had to record in his diary that dormitory. By the time of her death The first ghost appeared on the the children had made no progress. in 1929, Kamala had showed the ground up to its bust, and placing They did not laugh or smile and definite effects of her socialization in its elbows on the edge of the continued in their nocturnal and the orphanage. She had grown afraid hole, looked this side and that antisocial habits. He was forced to of the dark, learned to sit at a table side and jumped out. It looked all conclude: and came to prefer the friendship of round the place from the mouth They had cultivated the animal other children. She understood of the hole before it leaped out to distribution nature and condition of life almost language and developed a basic follow the cubs. It was followed by to perfection in the animal vocabulary of over 30 words, through another tiny ghost of the same world . . . if they were to grow in her combinations of which she kind, behavingfor in the same manner. humanity, they would have to demonstrated a basic grasp of a self- Both of them ran on all fours. fight with their fixed animal concept. She proved to be pretty (Maclean 1977: 60–61) character, formed during those hopeless at household tasks but did Thenot children and wolf cubs were years with the wolves in their care show signs of recognizing the protected by the mother, who was and in the jungle i.e. the whole difference between right and wrong quickly killed by the archers in the animal environment. Theirs was to the extent that the Reverend Singh Filehunting party. The offspring were not a free growth as is the case of decided that this ‘sweet and obedient then trapped in sheets and taken into a human child of that age . . . it child’ deserved to celebrate New captivity, where the Reverend Singh was hampered growth, Year’s Day by being baptized.
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Extreme deprivation famous as the legend of the Elephant Man, and Helen Keller’s story has become widely known through her In the cases above, contact with human beings was own books and the fi lm of her life. replaced by infl uences from other animals, so that the Th e most authentic account of such cases, however,Education children learned diff erent survival skills through the remains François Truff aut’s brilliant fi lm of Dr Itard’s processes of imprinting, identifi cation and imitation. We attempts to educate Victor, the Wild Child of Aveyron. now turn our attention to examples of human beings Identifying this fi lm as the inspiration for his own who have experienced extreme isolation and deprivation, research interest into wild children, Michael Newton usually as a result of being abandoned, and whose described his fi rst impressions ofL ’ Enfant Sauvage : development is retarded rather than diff erent. Again, many Pearson of these stories have excited the literary imagination. Th e fi lm was elegant, beautiful, rationally delicate Alexander Selkirk, abandoned as a castaway on a desert in its calm delineation of the central relationship island in 1704, became the inspiration for Defoe’s between the young physician and the speechless Robinson Crusoe, while Swift based Gulliver’s meeting wild child he sought to fromeducate. It captivated me, with the Yahoos on his own encounter with Peter of agitated me: it woke me up. Hanover in 1726. Th e true story of John Merrick is now (Newton 2002: 9)
World in focus
Anna and Isabelle when acting alone, could contributepermission environment and education in the to making her a complete person. stages of child development. In the USA in the 1940s two girls were (Davis 1949: 205) The task seemed hopeless at first, separately discovered who had been After four years of care and attention but gradually she began to respond. living in almost total isolation from in a special school, priorAnna managed to After the first few hurdles had at human contact. In both cases the girls learn to walk, to repeat words and try last been overcome, a curious thing were illegitimate and had been hidden to carry on conversations, and to keep happened. She went through the usual away to protect the family’s honour. herself and her clothes clean. She stages of learning characteristics of They were discovered at around the discovered the worlds of play and the years from one to six not only in same stage of development (age six colour and had begun to develop proper succession but far more rapidly years); both were provided with intellectually and emotionally before than normal. In a little over two supplementary care and special without she died at the age of ten. months after her first vocalisation education. In the more extreme case, Isabelle had the meagre advantage she was putting sentences together. Anna had survived with the barest of being in regular contact with her Nine months after that she could minimum of human contact. Apart from mother, a deaf mute who had been identify words and sentences on the being fed enough to keep her alive, she incarcerated with her in a darkened printed page, could write well, could was given no love or attention or any room by Isabelle’s grandfather. add to ten and could retell a story opportunity to develop physically Although she had learned to after hearing it. Seven months beyond through exploration or movement but communicate with her mother through this point she had a vocabulary of left instead on filthy bedding in the a personal system of gesture, Isabelle 1500–2000 words and was asking attic in clothes that were rarely distributionwas severely retarded physically and complicated questions. Starting from changed. Not surprisingly, Anna had intellectually. She was fearful of an educational level of between one failed to develop physically and strangers and reacted violently towards and three years, she had reached a appeared to be deaf and blind. She was for men. However, the specialist attention normal level by the time she was apathetic, expressionless and incapable of doctors and psychologists enabled eight and a half years old. In short, of coordination and communication. In Isabelle to recapture the lost years of she covered in two years the stages his report on the case, Kingsley Davis not her early life through ‘a systematic and of learning that ordinarily require summarized the situation: skilful programme of training’. six. She eventually entered school Here, then, was a human organism Isabelle’s response to this intense where she participated in all school Filewhich had missed nearly six years of socialization process was as rapid as it activities as normally as other socialisation. Her condition shows how is remarkable and clearly demonstrates children. little her purely biological resources, the essential role played by the (Davis 1949: 206–7)
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Thirty years after the discovery of Anna and Isabelle, The results were disappointing in the end, for another well-known case came to light. For most of her despite her wide vocabulary Genie failed to use 13 years Genie had been imprisoned in a darkened grammatical structures. She had words, but could room of her father’s house, where she was either tied up not make correct English sentences. Her failureEducation or caged. Her isolation appears to have been relieved appeared to prove Lennenberg’s thesis of the critical only by interruptions for food and punishment. If she period for language acquisition. Yet in one sense, made a noise her father would respond with growls and Genie really did learn to communicate through barks and often beat her with a stick. words, if communication means simply making When she finally escaped with the help of her oneself understood, though her linguistic mother, Genie was found to be malnourished, attainments were perhaps notPearson sufficient to enable a incontinent and barely able to walk. She appeared to be fully fledged conversation . . . Nonetheless, she almost blind, salivated constantly and could not speak. mastered the essential facets of language: she could Like Isabelle she reacted violently to challenging produce novel sentences,from play with words, listen, situations and would urinate and masturbate in public. take turns in conversation, speak spontaneously and Under the guidance of a psychologist, Susan Curtiss, refer to people or events displaced in time. Genie learned to dress, eat correctly and use a toilet, but (Newton 2002: 224) she had probably spent too many years of her bleak The issue was complicated further by the evidence of early life in isolation to ever catch up on her lost damage to the part of Genie’s brain that governs language; childhood; she never developed her ability with had Genie’s brain not been physically impaired, we cannot language beyond that of a four-year-old, although her say how far she may have progressed. Such speculation IQ score improved from 38 to 74 in the space of six andpermission other important questions raised by this case remain years. unanswered due to Genie’s father committing suicide At the time Genie was seen as an opportunity to test and her mother bringing the support programme to an out Chomsky and Lennenberg’s new theories on end with a court case in which she sued the children’s language acquisition; while they both agreed that the priorhospital for damages (Pines 1981). In a more recent origin of language, the ground rules of grammar and the case, a 44-year-old woman called Lola Vina Costello was capacity for speech are uniquely human characteristics discovered in a pit in the basement of the family home with which we are biologically programmed, in northern Spain. She had been there since 1957 and Lennenberg suggested that, for language to develop, it was suffering from severe photophobia (fear of light) had to be learned during a ‘critical period’ between 2 and physical atrophy. Consequently, she had lost her and 13 years of age. In Newton’s summarywithout of the case, powers of sight, hearing and speech and behaved more Genie made great progress in her acquisition of like an animal than a human being (The Times 10.2.97). vocabulary but did not appear able to develop her Such cases are not only historical relics, as the case natural linguistic potential despite being subjected to study below, from Sheffield, reported in the Independent intense linguistic experimentation: in November 2004, illustrates.
distribution
Case studyfor
not Doctor blames parents for ‘worst case The emaciated boys, one of them close to of malnutrition’ death, were among five children rescued from File a terraced house in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, A doctor who treated twin babies rescued from a house last June. The parents, David Askew and Sarah of ‘utter squalor’ told a court yesterday that it was ‘the Whittaker, both 24, were each sentenced to seven years worse case of malnutrition he had ever seen outside the at Sheffield Crown Court after admitting five counts ▲ developing world’. of cruelty.
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Case study continued
Education
Pearson
from
permission
Figure 1.2 The house of ‘utter squalor’ prior PA Photos
Police officers involved in the rescue said they also living amid dog and human excrement, with urine- had difficulty not being physically sick in the filthy soaked mattresses and soiled clothes . . . bedrooms and kitchen, but were astonished to find The judge heard that relatives who babysat for the a neat living room, filled with state-of-the-art withoutelectrical couple had found the children in a terrible state and had appliances. told them to sort it out. Social services had never been The Recorder of Sheffield, Alan Goldsack, told the involved with the family. Askew tried to distance himself couple: ‘The reality is that behind the closed doors of from the cruelty, saying it was Whittaker’s responsibility your home your children were being slowly starved to to look after the children. He told police that the house death. Most members of the public will not begin to ‘could do with tidying up’. Whittaker had become understand how in the twenty-first century children can pregnant at 15 and had a number of miscarriages and slip through the net in the way yours did.’ The court terminations. heard how the horror atdistribution the three-bedroom house was The children are now in local authority care. The court discovered when, at [her] daughter’s behest, Whittaker heard all five were thriving, although one of the twins phoned for an ambulance because one of the twins was may have permanent problems with his sight and ‘lifeless’. Paramedicsfor found the boy skeletal and grey, hearing. suffering from hypothermia, hypoglycaemia (deficiency of (Ian Herbert, the Independent , 24.11.04) glucose in the bloodstream) and severe malnourishmentnot . . . Question Both boys’ growth was consistent with a four- to five- 1. Suggest both social and personal/psychological month-old baby, according to doctors. The other children explanations for the actions of Askew and Whittaker. inFile the house – now aged eight, four and three – were Which type of explanation do you find more convincing?
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As David Skuse has pointed out, the value of these studies is not simply that they demonstrate the importance of nurture over nature or of the environment over inheritance but that we can go Education too far in the direction of ‘super environmentalism’ and imagine that behaviour is fi xed by experience as opposed to genetic blueprints.
Extreme deprivation in early childhood is a condition of great theoretical and practical Pearson importance . . . Most human characteristics, with the possible exception of language . . . are virtually resistant to obliteration by even the most dire early environments. On removal to a favourable from situation, the remarkable and rapid progress made by those with good potential seems allied to the total experience of living in a stimulating home and forming emotional bonds to a caring adult. (Skuse 1984: 571–2)
However, the best-known recent cases of extreme deprivation have been two examples that came to light permission in Austria and have attracted massive and worldwide media coverage. Natascha Kampusch escaped from her captor in August 2006 aft er being held a prisoner for many years. She was kidnapped when aged ten and heldprior for more than eight years. In describing her ordeal to Austrian police, she said her captor kept her in a Figure 1.3 Police photo of Josef Fritzl’s cellar concealed soundproof chamber in his cellar and made PA Photos/Police Niederoesterreich her call him ‘master’; she said she dreamed of chopping off his head with an axe. Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, without In May 2008 police arrested a 73-year-old man, Josef killed himself aft er Natascha escaped. In her interviews Fritzl, who had kept his daughter locked in a specially Natascha described her kidnapping and how she was built cellar in his house since 1984 ( Figure 1.3 ). shoved into a darkened underground chamber, in which Elisabeth Fritzl, now aged 42, was imprisoned in the she remained for six months before she was taken cellar for 24 years and had seven babies by Josef. Of the upstairs and allowed to bath and read newspapers. Over children, three were kept in the ‘upstairs’ part of the the next several years, Priklopil became her teacher and house and lived a relatively normal life with Josef and mentor as well as her captor and tormentor – giving her his wife (who claimed to know nothing of the cellar and toys and presents but also withholding food from her. its occupants). Th e other three – Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, He never let Nataschadistribution out of his sight and told her he and Felix, 5 – were kept in the cellar downstairs and had would kill her if she tried to contact anyone for help. never seen anyone else apart from each other (the other Aft er her escapefor (when he turned his back on her baby died shortly aft er birth). When they were while she was vacuuming his car), Natascha was discovered, they were stooped, anaemic and barely able looked aft er by psychiatrists, therapists and doctors, to communicate apart from through a sort of growling with somenot suggesting she may have developed language. It will clearly take many years for Elisabeth ‘Stockholm syndrome’, whereby a person who is and her children to make the transition to ‘normal’ life. Filekidnapped gradually comes to sympathize with their Th ese two cases have shocked Austria, not to captor. Since then, Natascha seems to have recovered mention the rest of the world, and are clear examples of from her ordeal and has become something of a media extreme deprivation. However, both Natascha and personality in Austria, even hosting her own talk show Elisabeth were kidnapped and imprisoned aft er they on television. had been through the early, formative years of acquiring
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language and culture – Natascha was 10 and Elisabeth changes over time, in particular looking at the changing 11 when they were kidnapped, so their cases are not the nature of social processes and the intended and same as children brought up without any meaningful unintended consequences of social change. In relation human contact in the early stages of their lives. to the celebrity industry, sociology strives to explainEducation both the process of production (how people become famous) and consumption (how celebrity culture is used Stop and think and why). The sociological explanations which emerge are the theories that account for how and why society ➤ The ‘nature/nurture’ debate as to how much we works in particular ways. Thus ‘theory’ is nothing more are influenced by our environment and how much Pearson we are the product of our biological and genetic scary than an explanation for social processes (see inheritance has been long and fiercely argued. In Chapter 2 for a more in-depth discussion). Students what ways might a sociological perspective add to tend to struggle with ‘theory’ as they assume it is this debate? How could you use the case studies complicated, but it does notfrom have to mean grand above to illustrate your argument? theorizing which explains the whole of society, but small-scale theories about why and how certain aspects of society operate. A detailed look at celebrity culture This section has shown that through social illustrates ways of thinking sociologically about the experiences we learn how to behave and how to be production and consumption of celebrity in human in any particular society. Sociologists do not contemporary minority world societies. believe that we can explain and fully understand human behaviour in terms of the individual or in terms of some permission natural, biological instinct. Socialization is the life-long Stop and think process of learning to be human. Socialization is an ➤ Which aspects of celebrity culture do you engage important concept for sociologists because it emphasizes with and why? For example, are you more likely to the importance of the social context, rather than the priorwatch films that have your favourite celebrities in individual or biological in shaping our actions. Later them? Do you watch talkshows, celebrity reality TV chapters explore different ‘agents’ of socialization such or do you follow the production of new celebrities as the family (Chapter 11), the school (Chapter 15) and in reality TV programmes such as Big Brother, X the mass media (Chapter 17). The mass media has Factor, The Voice or Britain’s Got Talent? Do you a strong influence on our lives and this is illustrated buy celebrity endorsed products or celebrity through the contemporary fascination with celebritywithout focused magazines such as Closer, Heat, Now, culture. We end this chapter with a sociological Star, Hello or OK? exploration of celebrity culture as it demonstrates many ➤ Why do you think both the public and private of the themes discussed so far. worlds of celebrities appeal to the general public? ➤ Why are ‘ordinary’ people able to achieve celebrity status albeit temporarily? Why are there many A sociological look at celebrity ‘wannabe’ celebrities with apparently limited talent? culture distribution The recent pervasiveness of celebrity is partly due to Celebrity is an forindustry that creates highly visible new processes of producing celebrities via talent shows products that most of us buy at one time or another and reality TV formats, and partly because of new social and which play a significant part in our everyday media which have increased the visibility of celebrities lives. not (Turner 2004). Furthermore, there is currently an (Turner 2004: 26) enhanced interest in the private lives of celebrities as InterestFile in celebrities is not new, but sociologists would ‘the advent of certain uses of television and other argue that the contemporary interest in celebrities and technologies simply exacerbates this opening-up of the their lifestyles has become more intense and extensive ‘back stages’ that were previously unavailable for private over the past fifteen years or so. As we have seen, a key scrutiny’ (Evans 2005: 50). Another recent trend is that role of sociology is to explain how and why society being famous is almost seen as a career in itself, linked
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to establishing one’s personality in a public arena via a backgrounds in terms of class, gender, sexuality and mixture of luck and opportunity, resulting in public ethnicity. The show locks them up in a house without recognition being valued for its own sake (Evans 2005; access to the media or communication technologies, Turner 2004). Ordinary people can get lucky in their and with very little to do as they are not allowedEducation search for fame, such as being picked as a contestant for magazines, books or computers. Big Brother allocates Big Brother or having their skills spotted on a talent them competitive tasks to carry out which determine show. Others may capitalize on an opportunistic their weekly food supply, then sits back and watches as moment or on being connected to famous people, such the relationships develop or deteriorate whilst 24-hour as Liz Hurley quickly became well-known as Hugh cameras record their interactions. It has proved to be a Grant’s girlfriend after being photographed in a successful global format screenedPearson in 21 countries and revealing black dress with safety-pins and Pippa watched by over two billion viewers (Turner 2004: 59). Middleton’s rise to celebrity status was largely due to her The ‘ordinary’ people which appear on Big Brother are choice of dress at her sister’s wedding. As Evans points striving to become ‘extraordinary’from celebrities in their out: ‘Celebrities are cultural products that are search for fame and public recognition. manufactured in routinised ways, planned according to In the world of celebrity, given the the prevalence of a tried and tested formula that results in predictable and paparazzi and the importance of physical appearance repetitious output’ (2005: 51). With some celebrities and notions of beauty, high value is placed on looking today we even struggle to remember why they were good. Celebrities tend to have a group of people that famous in the first place such as Paris Hilton, Kerry surround them in order to ensure that they are Katona or Abi Titmuss. presented in the best possible light. Depending on their This contrasts with the past when celebrity status was statuspermission and wealth, they are likely to have hair, make-up more scarce and more directly linked with talent, ‘star and fashion stylists, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, quality’ and was often the result of hard work (such as and other coaches relevant to their profession as well as training and high quality performances). Nevertheless, a manager/agent and public relations adviser. The celebrity culture has a hierarchy which distinguishes priormanufacturing process of producing a celebrity can between more traditional A-list celebrities such as involve substantial backstage work by a varied team of Hollywood filmstars, the medium ranked B-list and professionals. The created celebrity persona can then be C-list, and the bottom-ranked D-list celebrities whose used to market particular commodities, such as fame is likely to be more fleeting and tends to be related perfume, clothing, hair and beauty products as well as to reality TV formats. Thus notions of power, status and the marketing of their own song, film or biography. It is wealth are linked to the ranking of celebrities.without Celebrity no coincidence that before the release of a film or new status is also often gendered in particular ways as well as album, the celebrity provides interviews and appears on related to class background. Given the connections to chat shows. Celebrities are used to attract audiences and structures of power, status, class and gender, it is no consumers in the capitalist pursuit for profit. As surprise that explaining celebrity culture is of interest to Hesmondhalgh notes: sociologists. Celebrity culture gives rise to a range of . . . fame is socially produced, through the polarizations that are complex and contradictory. We concerted and organised efforts of groups of media may see celebrities as extraordinary or ordinary people, personnel, rather than something which happens down to earth or fake,distribution deserving of their success or randomly, or as a result of individual talent. lucky without merit, objects to be admired or ridiculed (Hesmondhalgh 2005: 132) and, as Turnerfor (2004: 9) reminds us: ‘The celebrity is also a commodity: produced, traded and marketed by However, this manufacturing machine receives criticism the media and publicity industries’. for emphasizing the ‘phoniness and constructedness’ not (Turner 2004: 6) of celebrity. An obvious example of this The celebrity industry and is Katie Price’s creation of her celebrity persona ‘Jordan’ Filethe production of ‘fame’ which is based on fakeness directly related to her cosmetically enhanced body (see Holmes 2006). She It is worth remembering that Big Brother is actually an boldly capitalizes on her over-emphasized ‘stereotypical- interesting sociological experiment given that it puts a in-the-extreme’ femininity and actively seeks publicity group of unfamiliar people together from a mixture of in relation to her private life. Despite receiving huge
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amounts of negative press, she has created a range of social media, combine to create opportunities for the successful businesses including her own magazine, four expansion of celebrity culture. The profileration of autobiographies, children’s books and television websites and magazines discussing celebrity lifestyles documentaries about her daily life. lead to both positive and negative consequences forEducation A similar example of a fabricated celebrity is that of celebrities ‘as objects of ridicule as well as admiration’ Myleene Klass whose rise to fame has been managed in (Turner 2004: 73). On the one hand, it enhances their a more positive light by emphasizing hard work rather profile but, on the other hand, it provides a critical than her partying antics. She first appeared as a singer medium where their flaws are exposed. Hence there are on Popstars, forming the band Hear’Say in 2001. After downsides to the pursuit of fame, as illustrated in the two years with the band, then some work as a musician, physical attacks in 2011 on two of ThePearson Only Way is Essex her TV and radio presenting started in 2005, followed stars as they were leaving a London nightclub. For D-list by being the runner up on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of celebrities in particular, they have to face the fragility of Here! in 2006. She has featured as a model in a recent their fame which is likely tofrom be transient. However, all Marks and Spencer advertising campaign, and has a celebrities are subject to the uncertainties of audience series of business ventures including nail products, a reaction and may have to cope with an unanticipated children’s clothing range, music albums for mothers and fall from grace. Their often fraught relationship with the babies and parenting books. Thus both Katie Price and media reflects the polarization between admiration and Myleene Klass construct a relationship with their humiliation: audience in a variety of gendered ways, whilst also . . . the tabloids deal with the celebrity industries raising questions about the relationship between the through a see-sawing pattern of scandalous authentic and the manufactured. Their attempts at exposurespermission and negotiated exclusives – at one point image-control might not always be successful or in the threatening the professional survival of the way they intend it. Nevertheless, self-promotion and celebrities they expose, and at another point reinvention are necessary in order to sustain the interest contracting to provide them with unparalleled between the celebrity and the consumer. The theory of prior personal visibility. the sociology of media organizations argues that (Turner 2004: 76) processes of publicity, promotion, advertising and marketing become essential in the maintenance of What’s the point: why do we consume celebrity status (Hesmondhalgh 2005). This celebrity culture? organizational sociology approach is highly marked when a Big Brother housemate is evicted, as wewithout see An interesting sociological question is to ask about the them: ‘cycled through channel and network news, talk social and cultural function of celebrity culture. There and interview format programmes as well as in channel, are different ways of engaging as an audience or network, or sponsors’ promotions, or as presenters in consumer of celebrity culture. Some fans blur the new programming ventures’ (Turner 2004: 59). boundary between reality and representation, almost The Internet and social media, such as the micro- believing that the onscreen character is a real person, blogging of Twitter, enhance the possibilities of whilst others are highly critical of the celebrity celebrities to sustain a relationship with their audience. apparatus (Holmes 2006). The majority of consumers A recent example of thisdistribution was the high-profile marriage are somewhere in between the cynical resisters and the of Demi Moore with Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her other extreme of obsessive fans or stalkers. Most of us junior, which was forplayed out via public messages and are likely to view celebrity culture with ambivalence, photos on Twitter. In 2009 Ashton became the first moving between positive and negative interpretations of person on Twitter to reach one million followers, but the complex world of celebrity, sometimes indulging in their publicnot split in 2011 saw them rapidly cut down on the entertainment it provides, other times scorning the their Twitter participation. The publicity surrounding excessive, materialistic, capitalist processes that it their marriage led to Demi’s struggle to cope afterwards symbolizes. and Fileneeding to be hospitalized for anorexia and Turner argues that as postmodern society suffers substance abuse. from a loss of community we turn to celebrity ‘as a Thus, aspects of social change, such as new digital means of constructing a new dimension of community and computer-based technologies, and new forms of through the media’ (2004: 6). In an extreme form it has
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been suggested that the interactions between some fans powerful; it is an attempt to address or deal with and celebrities is a ‘para-social relationship’ which a severe imbalance of power. substitutes for ‘real relationships’ and offers a sense of (Littler and Cross 2010: 399) belonging, recognition and meaning (Turner 2004). On On the one hand, we can identify with the humanEducation a less intense scale, celebrity culture can feed into side of celebrities’ weaknesses and flaws, yet on the individual and collective constructions of identity. An other hand, we distance ourselves from the superficiality example of this is the rapid process by which Kate and excessiveness of their lifestyles. Thus there is often a Middleton has become a fashion icon as her outfits are complex relationship between the consumer and quickly sold out and reproduced for the mass market. celebrity ‘marked by a fine line between identification Celebrity culture forms part of capitalist, consumerist and distancing’ (Johansson 2006:Pearson 356). At times we may societies which pursue celebrity-endorsed commodities take delight in following celebrities’ public meltdowns, and in which celebrities become commodities such as Vanessa Feltz during the first Celebrity Big themselves. Holmes and Redmond indicate that Brother in 2001 when shefrom scrawled on the house table celebrities ‘embody the benefits of capitalism’ (2006: 22). with chalk and screamed obscenities at Big Brother or The conspicuous consumption practices of the rich and Britney Spears shaving her head and mental health- famous, such as Simon Cowell or the Beckhams, are in related hospitalizations in 2008. Some consider that stark contrast to the everyday life of most of us. This ‘bringing down’ the famous is ‘a sort of just desserts or points to one of the reasons we may be curious about social levelling for their showy affluence and/or “lack of celebrity lifestyles, as it enables us to escape the talent” in the first place’ (Redmond 2006: 32). This mundanity of everyday life despite the inequality which process is often related to class and gender such as Big it represents. As Littler and Cross explain: Brotherpermission contestant, Jade Goody, the ‘working-class girl . . . the gross inequalities between the ‘ordinary who had to show her desire to improve and who was civilian’ and the ‘extraordinary celebrity’ speak of publicly persecuted for her “failings” in the most the social and financial divides between rich and extreme way’ (Allen and Taylor 2012). poor, haves and have-nots. Consequently, the prior Often inappropriate celebrity behaviour can be proliferation of celebrity discourse over the past two followed by a public apology or confession as they decades can be understood . . . in relation to a struggle with the rise back to popularity. For example, broader context of the rise of neo-liberal capitalism US actor Charlie Sheen has moved from public rants and its savagely widening global disparities of (initially directed at Chuck Lorre, the creator of Two wealth and power. without and a Half Men) and high-profile bouts with drug (Littler and Cross 2010: 396–7) addiction towards a clean-up process of apology and A key role of celebrity is as a source of gossip displays of family reunification. Redmond discusses the which fulfils a useful social function as a talking point suffering and damage of fame which leads to the coping or for banter among friends or colleagues. Celebrity difficulties of some celebrities: gossip can be ‘an important social process through The intensity of the glare and the totalized nature of which relationships, identity, and social and cultural the surveillance that they are put and put themselves norms are debated, evaluated, modified and shared’ under creates a vision regime that leaves little if any (Turner 2004: 24). Thusdistribution gossip can strengthen social space for them to be offscreen, out of print, switched bonds and contribute to group cohesion and a sense off. The famous are caught in the collapse of the of belonging tofor a wider community (Johansson 2006). public/private and are often forced to be continually It may also serve to make us feel better about the in role, in performance, as media beings. boredom of our own routine lives, particularly as we (Redmond 2006: 34) witness the darker side of the glamorous lifestyles: not The celebrity scandal-to-forgiveness cycle was also drug and alcohol addictions, public meltdowns, periods illustrated in the revelations of Tiger Woods’ sex in rehab. File scandals followed by his apology and promise to seek The enjoyment of celebrity misfortune or help for sex addiction. The cyclical processes of the rise humiliation fulfils a specific cultural function and fall of fame and celebrity status is reflected in precisely because it offers vicarious pleasure in the Cheryl Cole’s adulation on the UK X Factor 2008–10 witnessing of the powerful being made less which quickly turned to public humiliation when she
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was sacked from the US version of the show in 2011. Th us as Turner explains: ‘celebrity – as a discourse, as Littler and Cross suggest that Susan Boyle, whose celebrity a commodity, as a spectacle – is marked by status was discovered in 2009, is one of the fastest contradictions, ambiguities and ambivalences’ (2004: examples of the highs and lows of the ride to fame: 109). By taking a closer look at celebrity culture, a rangeEducation of sociological themes can be explored including the Th e vastly increased speed of the adulation/ economic organization of late capitalism, identity and abjection cycle is exemplifi ed by the case of Susan belonging, intimacy and detachment, authenticity, the Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent 2009 contestant and blurring of public and private worlds, the paradoxical favourite to win, who went from YouTube darling relationship between ordinary and extraordinary, (100 million hits worldwide) to ‘tragic SuBo’ within cultural decline, the demise of community,Pearson emotional three or four weeks. (Littler and Cross 2010: 396) investment and desire (see Redmond 2006).
from A closer look
‘Famous-for-knowing- Schadenfreude towards ‘failing’ Originally she was a pop singer stars is an integral part of the with girl group Atomic Kitten. the-famous’ cycle of celebrity culture: it has ● Paris Hilton : her family own the The phenomenon of celebrity become part of the raw material Hilton chain of hotels but she is a reality TV (like Celebrity Big of capitalist accumulationpermission that is rich socialite lacking any notable Brother and I’m a Celebrity, Get used to create further celebrity talent. Me Out Of Here! ) is a particularly profit. ● Tara Palmer-Tomkinson : rich good example here. These (Littler and Cross 2010: 409) party girl, runner up in 2002 I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! programmes often play on Some celebrities areprior famous ● Abi Titmuss : famous for being Schadenfreude by encouraging for being famous: ‘entertainers John Leslie’s girlfriend who stood ironic laughter over the like Dannii Minogue or Pamela by him when he was accused of ‘washed-up’ nature of the former Anderson whose media visibility rape. She was voted as the stars and D-list celebrities who are is out of all proportion to their world’s most pointless celebrity by subjected to various degrees of professional achievements’ a magazine poll (for discussion of debasement (whether being made (Turnerwithout 2004: 8). Others included her being ‘famous for being made to act as ‘servants’ for other in this recent manufacturing of famous’ see Holmes and contestants or eating bugs). celebrities are: Watching and laughing at Redmond 2006: 19–21). celebrities ‘debase’ themselves, ● Kerry Katona : best known for ● Natasha Giggs : famous for hav- however, serves to pump up their being in reality TV such as winner ing an 8-year affair with her celebrity profile and invent it of the I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out brother-in-law and footballer, Ryan anew. In terms of the political of Here! and 2004 runner-up of Giggs, appearing on Celebrity Big economy of celebrity, Celebrity Big Brother 2011. Brother 2012. distribution
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Summary
● Sociology helps us to make sense of the world in which we live. It asks questions about and seeks answers Educationfor the things that directly affect our lives, such as riots, celebrity culture, social media and new technologies. In studying people and the societies that they live in, sociology relies on rigorous procedures and is informed by rational argument and existing knowledge.
● There is no uniform and all-embracing sociological perspective. Sociologists disagree over research procedures (methodologies) and theoretical perspectives; these different approaches and positions emergedPearson as the subject of sociology developed.
● Modern (minority world) sociology is generally seen as originating from the economic, social and political upheavals and revolutions of the nineteenth century, in particular as a result of developments such as the Industrial Revolution and the move to the factory system of production; urbanization;from the growth of capitalism; and the wider acceptance of liberal democracy and the support for the rights of individuals.
● Culture and socialization are two key concepts used in sociology. Culture is used to refer to the values, customs and styles of behaviour of a society or social group and socialization to the process by which people learn the norms, values and roles approved in their society. Socialization depends on social interaction, and without this individuals could not develop as social beings.
● The importance of these concepts is shown if we look at individuals who have been deprived of socialization and of cultural experiences – children brought up in the wild or shutpermission away and ignored by their families and having no contact with other humans.
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The case study extracts referring to the Englishwithout riots in The information on capitalism links with Chapter 2. 2011 link with Chapter 14. The section on socialization links with Chapter 11. The sections on new technologies and celebrity culture links with Chapter 17.
Further readingdistribution
Bauman, Z.for and May, T. (2001) Thinking Sociologically , book looks at how sociology can throw new light on familiar Oxford: Blackwell. aspects of everyday life. The different chapters consider An accessible and ‘theoretical’ introduction to sociology that a range of sites, including the home, the street, the pub and discussesnot in some depth the relationship between sociology the neighbourhood. The other books in the series are entitled and common sense. Social Differences and Divisions, Social Change and The Uses Bennett, T. and Watson, D. (eds) (2002) Understanding of Sociology . FileEveryday Life , Oxford: Blackwell. Berger, P.L. (1967) Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic This is the first book in a series of four that aims to provide an Perspective , Harmondsworth: Penguin. introduction to the sociological study of modern society. This A classic introduction to the study of sociology. ▲
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Further reading continued
McIntosh, I. and Punch, S. (2005) Get Set for Sociology , Scott, S. (2009) Making Sense of Everyday Life , Cambridge:Education Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Polity Press. This is a very accessible and engaging text which provides a An insightful exploration of the mundane micro-level practices clear introduction to the central concerns and approaches of of everyday life. Scott makes the familiar strange, encouraging sociologists. It also has a useful section on developing key us to rethink daily rituals and routines such as shopping, skills to study sociology at university, including how to get the gardening, queuing, eating out and drinking. best out of lectures and workshops, how to revise and do Wright Mills, C.W. (1970) The SociologicalPearson Imagination , exams for sociology, and how to write sociology essays (with Harmondsworth: Penguin. good and poor examples of undergraduate essay work in the Given that this is an introductory chapter, there are no appendix). particular substantive studies that provide an overview of the Plummer, K. (2010) Sociology: The Basics , London: area. However, the introductory books by Peter Berger and C. Routledge . Wright Mills have had a tremendousfrom impact and been an This short introduction to the development of sociology important influence on many people currently working in highlights its key contributions as a discipline. sociology. They are still well worth reading; perhaps more than any other introductory studies they capture the excitement and challenge of studying the human world.
permission Key journal and journal articles prior Key journal (such as transport and production) to provide us with Sociology more time. This is the official journal of the British Sociological Association Widerberg, K. (2006) ‘ Embodying modern times: which is recognized as one of the leading journals in the field investigating tiredness’, Time and Society 15(1): 105–20. of Sociology. An exploration of the body, time and work in modernity. Widerberg without argues that a ‘sped-up life’ and a ‘life of doing’ at work and at Journal articles home leads to tiredness: a restless body and irritation. Wajcman, J. (2008) ‘Life in the fast lane? Towards a Zhao, S. (2006) ‘The Internet and the transformation of the sociology of technology and time’, The British Journal of reality of everyday life: toward a new analytic stance in Sociology 59(1): 59–77. sociology’, Sociological Inquiry 76(4): 458–74. A fascinating look into why we feel rushed and short of This paper provides an interesting exploration of the ways in time, despite new technologies speeding up processes which the Internet has changed our interactions with each other.
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for Websites not www.britsoc.co.uk www.socresonline.org.uk The website for the British Sociological Association (BSA) The Sociological Research Online website is a mine of useful providesFile information about sociology as a subject, including information that provides details on sociology departments its history, where to study sociology, and guidelines on good in the UK and other countries. The site is also host to the practice in doing sociology (such as appropriate language to use). key journal: Sociological Research Online .
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By now it was quite light and we’d been joined by three other Activity 1 Westerners, who had obviously had the same idea, andEducation an old Sky burials Buddhist monk carrying a large prayer flag, who had come down from the monastery on the opposite side of the hill to preside Steve Mair describes a burial ceremony in Tibet and demonstrates over the burial. First the monk made himself comfortable in a how the disposal of the dead is dealt with in a radically different makeshift altar behind us, and then commenced a soft, rhythmic manner from the way it is dealt with in the contemporary minority chanting while setting up a gentle staccato beat on a goatskin world. drum and blowing down a conch-likePearson trumpet . . . Fly away Peter After he’d been praying for ten minutes or so and with the crisp morning air filled with these strange mystical sounds as well During a six-week visit to Tibet, Steve Mair set off from Lhasa as the sweet smell of burning juniper bushes that one of the early one morning to attempt to witness one of the world’s from workmen had lit all around us, the sun suddenly appeared over most startling spectacles. Photographs were forbidden. the hills to the east instantly bathing the whole tableau in warmth And unnecessary. and light. At this point seven of the workmen finished their tea, It was six-thirty on a cold Tibetan morning and still pitch black put out their cigarettes, donned grubby and bloodstained when, stumbling and yawning, we set off out of town towards overalls, and set off towards the large rock that was thirty feet in the nearby hills . . . front of us. At last the ceremony began. Previously I’d had no intention of trying to see a sky burial Five of the workmen sat down behind the bodies, facing us, since, although what I’d heard about this custom fascinated me, permissionwhile the remaining two drew the large knives from their belts I thought that to intrude on other people’s grief was obscene, to and threw the covers off the bodies. One of the bodies was of a say the least. Joe had felt the same, and besides we had been plump female, perhaps in her forties, while the other was that of told that we would not be welcome there and had even heard a skinny, old man. Mercifully they were Iying face down so we stories about rocks being thrown at Westerners who did try to go.prior couldn’t see their faces. This was just as well since I think by now This turned out to be true, but it was Westerners who had tried, most of us had begun to feel a little queasy: I certainly had. stupidly, to take photographs of the burial after being warned not For most of the time we watched the ‘butcher’ who to do so. was working on the woman. He began by making a cut from However, two days before, we’d met a New Zealander who the nape of the neck down to the buttocks and then on down said she’d been to see a burial that morning, withoutand that no hostility the back of each leg up to the heel. He pulled off the skin from the had been shown to her. Also, and most importantly, she said that back in two pieces and threw them to the ground with a loud there were no family of the deceased present during the ritual. slap. At this point the squeamishness left me as the red meat and So that was it, that there were no relatives present was the white fat of the body was revealed: it was just like Smithfields, deciding factor (they apparently arrive later, after it’s over, just to a side of beef waiting to be cut up. From then on, I watched in see that the job has been done and their loved ones properly total fascination. dispatched). Joe and I both made up our minds to try to witness As he proceeded to cut up the torso, the knife pierced the a burial before leaving Lhasa. gut, and the blood and juices flooded out over the rock and Now here we were,distribution on a hill outside Lhasa, standing in the down its side. He chopped off the limbs and removed the bones, Tibetan pre-dawn chill with the man by the fire silently stropping which he tossed in turn to the five men sitting down. They were his butcher’s blade. For a few moments it was quite eerie as we crushers and, using large stone hammers, they began to reduce stood gazing forat the two covered bodies until finally, in sign the bones to a fine powder . . . language, we asked if we could stay. They asked if we had Although we all sat and watched this strange spectacle cameras.not We assured them we didn’t. They warned us again we in silence and awe, I came to realise they were just ordinary should not take photographs, we said we understood, and then workmen doing a difficult and messy job. They could have after a little discussion they motioned us to sit. been a gang of tarmac layers in the north of England . . . File We sat for half an hour in almost total silence, trying to After half an hour all that was left of the bodies were the imagine the ceremony, while the Tibetans continued to smoke heads. These were first scalped, cutting off all the hair, and then and drink tea and from time to time produce more large knives to the skin peeled off to leave just the bare skulls. They placed the be sharpened . . . skulls in one of the shallow grooves that dotted the rock and
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smashed them open with a large stone. After tipping out the two and packed away their tools. Myself, Joe, and the three halves of the brain they tossed the pieces to the crushers to do other Westerners rose stiffly to our feet (we had sat virtually their job. without moving for over an hour), thanked the Tibetans, After 40 minutes the work was complete and both bodies had who now showed little interest in us, and started back downEducation been reduced to a small, unrecognisable rubble-heap of flesh and the hill, still in total silence, each of us trying to assess what powdered bone mixed with tsampa, the coarse flour made from we had just seen. barley that is the Tibetans’ staple diet. By that time a dozen or In a land where wood is scarce and at a premium, more vultures had gathered on the slope at the side of the rock and the ground is as hard as rock, and where the Buddhist and were silently waiting. As the two butchers wiped the blades beliefs of the people proclaim the continuity of all life (birth, on their overalls and made their way back to the fire one of death, and rebirth) they had developed thisPearson unusual method the crushers picked up a piece of flesh and tossed it amongst of disposing of their dead. We had experienced no feelings the birds. of disgust or horror, merely a sense of wonderment, and It was as if a dinner gong had sounded. A cacophony of also privilege, at having been allowed to witness this unique screeches erupted from the previously silent birds and suddenly Tibetan custom. from the sky overhead turned black as 60 to 70 of the largest vultures On the way back to town I finally asked Joe what he had I’ve ever seen (I’d seen quite a few in India) descended on to the thought of it all. ‘Bloody incredible,’ he said, ‘there’s no need for slope by the rock . . . photographs at all, it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my For a few seconds they milled around on the slope until one life.’ I totally agreed. of the throng finally flew up on to the rock and began feeding. ( Guardian 18.10.86) This seemed to be the signal as all at once the rest of the birds Questions jumped, hopped, and flew on to the rock which became at once a permission brown, seething unidentifiable mass as, with wings folded and 1. What aspects of the sky burials are very different from heads down, they began tearing at the food. The noise was your own notions of a ‘decent burial’? terrible as they greedily devoured the remains, squawking and squabbling over the larger pieces, but after 10 minutes or so they prior 2. What similarities are there between the Tibetan burial had finished . . . rituals and those practised in contemporary Britain? The ‘burial’ was over. It had taken less than one hour from 3. What possible explanations might there be for the type of beginning to end, and there was not a morsel of food left on the burial ceremony described by Mair? rock, just a few dark stains. By now the men had removed their overalls and 4. How does Mair’s account illustrate the relationship of were smoking and drinking tea again as they cleanedwithout culture to history and economic necessity?
Activity 2
Identity formation: Who am I? 3. There are 20 numbered blanks on the page below. Please write 4. 20 answers to the simple question ‘Who am I?’ in these blanks. 5. Just give 20 different answers to this question; answer as if you distribution 6. were giving the answers to yourself – not someone else. Write your 7. answers in the order thatfor they occur to you. Do not worry about logic or ‘importance’. 8. 9. 1. not 10. 2. 11. File
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12. Questions 13. 1. Was this a difficult or easy exercise to complete? What 14. can that tell you about the significance of identity in modern culture? Education 15. 16. 2. Reflect on the influence of institutions and relationships in your answers and the extent to which identity is 17. shaped by them. 18. Adapted from E.A. Baumann, R.G. Mitchell, Jr and C.H. Persell (1989). 19. Instructor Resource Manual to accompanyPearson Persell, Understanding 20. Sociology, 3rd edn, New York: Harper & Row: 44, 305.
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Global divisions permission Globalisation, some argue, creates a world of winners and losers, a few on the fast track to prosperity, the majority condemned to a life of misery and despair. (Giddens 1999: 15) prior Clearly, the capitalist system is dependent on a process of exploitation and oppression that results in social injustice and inequality – in both power and wealth. (Leech 2012: 41) without Introduction Key issues When studying sociology, it is important to be able to ➤ Why are Africa, Asia and Latin America consider a global perspective in order to recognize that predominantly poor? How can we account for global inequalities? what happens in our society, or even in other Western societies, is not necessarily the norm. Probably most ➤ What is development?distribution Is development a of you reading this chapter stand among the most wholly beneficial process, or does it have prosperous people in the world. If you are studying at negative effects? for a university in Europe, then you are likely to be among ➤ What are the positive and negative the privileged few in global terms. Certainly you will consequences of globalization? Does not be one of the many people in the world who are everyonenot experience those outcomes in unable to get enough food and nutrition in order to similar ways? survive healthily. Our position of advantage in the world ➤ What are the central issues in relation to means that we have better access to basic services such Filegender and development? as electricity, drinking water, decent housing, education and health care than most of the global population. A ➤ How do we understand childhoods in the majority world? sociological perspective reminds us that many of the achievements that we attribute to our personal abilities
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Figure 9.1 In most countries a combination of tradition and modernity can be seen side by side © Samantha Punch
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are also products of this privileged position that we hold ‘minority world’ (for the developed world) because they in the worldwide social system. Th e aim of this chapter remind us that most people in the world live in the is to enable us to consider the ways in which our life economically poorer continents of Asia, Africa and chances and our experiences of the social world diff er Latin America and that only a minority of people liveEducation dramatically according to the kind of society into which in the wealthier areas of the world (Europe, Australia, we are born. In particular, it may encourage us to refl ect New Zealand, Japan, the USA and Canada). Th e majority on our own location in the world and the nature of our of the world’s population live in the majority world, relationships with distant others. which also has a greater land mass. Th e minority world Th e chapter begins by defi ning the terms used to consists of fewer people and a smaller land mass, and describe diff erent areas of the world. It explores the nature generally refers to the minority of peoplePearson who have of global inequalities by considering both economic and more privileged lifestyles. Th e terms also invite us to social diff erences. Th e historical background to global refl ect upon the global inequalities that exist between inequalities is highlighted with a discussion on colonialism, many of the people who livefrom in Africa, Asia and Latin before outlining some of the more contemporary causes America compared with the rest of the world (see also such as debt, aid and unequal global trading. Th e chapter Punch 2003). then discusses the notion of development, looking at how Th ese are relatively new terms that have come into diff erent parts of the world have developed over time. use in the past ten years or so. Th e more traditional Key sociological theories of development are presented, terms ‘third world’ and ‘fi rst world’ have come to be including the classical perspectives of modernization problematic. As labels, ‘third world’ and ‘fi rst world’ theory and dependency theory, and contemporary indicate some sort of ranking. Th us, ‘third world’ has alternative approaches to development such as participatory becomepermission quite derogatory, implying that ‘third-world’ development. Th e following section examines the multiple countries are in some way ‘worse’ than or ‘inferior’ to facets of globalization: economic, cultural and political. ‘fi rst-world’ countries. Th is suggests that ‘third-world’ It discusses the extent to which processes of globalization countries should be constantly striving to be what are perceived to increase or decrease global inequalities. prior‘fi rst-world’ countries already are, as if our model of In order to fully understand both processes of living in these richer countries is the norm to which all globalization and of development, we need to consider poorer countries should aspire. Th e traditional terms the ways in which they impact on people’s everyday life. fail to recognize that the ‘fi rst world’ is also undergoing For positive changes to take place, all people should a process of development and is by no means ideal, and have their needs taken into account and be given they ignore the privileged historical background that opportunities to participate in their own development.without has enabled richer countries to prosper. Other terms Consequently, the fi nal two sections of the chapter focus are used such as ‘north’ and ‘south’ and, more recently, on the roles and contributions of women and children the ‘global north’ and the ‘global south’. Th ese terms in processes of development and globalization. try to be more neutral by referring to the geographical distribution of the world’s richer and poorer nations, Stop and think but they are not always correct, as Australia and New Zealand are located in the south. Terms that are used to ➤ What do you know about Africa, Asia and Latin denote diff erent parts of the world tend to have negative America? What imagesdistribution do you have of these places? connotations for the poorer countries by emphasizing ➤ Consider the possible reasons why different parts what they lack, for example developing , less developed, of the world arefor so unequal. low -income, un developed. Although the terms ‘majority world’ and ‘minority world’ may seem confusing at fi rst, they do make us stop and consider the unequal power not relations between the two world areas. Definitions: the majority and Furthermore, as Panelli and colleagues point out, it is minority worlds worth remembering that File A range of diff erent terms are used to describe diff erent . . . there are both limitations and benefi ts of areas of the world. Th is book tends to use the recent adopting the terms Majority and Minority worlds. terms ‘majority world’ (for the developing world) and While providing useful conceptual tools, their
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potential drawback is that they divide global even those that promise a richer material life. The regions in an exclusive binary manner, when the members of poor societies often accept their fate, world is not so neatly separated into clear cut and although it may be bleak, in order to maintain mutually exclusive categories. family vitality and cultural heritage. Such attitudesEducation (Panelli et al. 2007: 221) bolster social bonds, but at the cost of discouraging There are increasingly a number of countries that development. (Macionis and Plummer 2008: 280) fall in between the majority and minority worlds. Most notable are China, India and some Latin American This is changing, and poor countries are modernizing countries, such as Venezuela, which are somewhere in and developing local industries, but still many the middle of the two polar ends. China, in particular, traditional ways of life continuePearson to exist. The average is an enormous and significant country that has the number of children per family tends to be higher in potential to reshape the world order. These intermediate the majority world. Partly this is because traditionally countries are fast changing the picture of the world in subsistence economies,from several children would be and challenge the majority/minority world divide. required to work on the family land in order to help Nevertheless, while acknowledging this difficulty, this farm what they need to eat, which would be a labour- chapter broadly compares these two world regions, intensive process. Another reason is because some of focusing on some of the key differences between poor the children would not be expected to survive due to and rich countries. The minority world is generally poor nutrition and a lack of adequate basic services richer than the majority world, but we need to be wary (safe drinking water, sanitation, health centres), which not to overgeneralize and to recognize that both world meant that they could be vulnerable to disease and areas are extremely diverse. However, to a certain extent, couldpermission die at an early age. what it means to be poor in the minority world is A key characteristic of the majority world is poverty, different from being poor in the majority world, and and as a result many people suffer from poor diets, that is what this chapter explores. Hence, although insecure housing and vulnerability to illness and famine. the chapter focuses mainly on the experiences of the priorMany are also illiterate and uneducated because of majority world, it is important to remember that some limited access to adequate schooling. In the minority very poor people in the minority world may live world it can be very hard for us to grasp the extent similarly impoverished lifestyles. of absolute poverty that many people in the majority world face. We sometimes get a glimpse of famine and starvation in countries such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, without Global inequalities but it is hard for us to really understand how many people in the world have a daily struggle to survive due to constant poverty and extreme conditions. It is Until recently, poor countries of the majority world have important to remember that many countries in the tended to be primarily agrarian societies, where most majority world have experienced the effects of people lived in rural areas and worked in agriculture. colonialism, and this has tended to have a negative Still today, almost half of the world’s population lives in impact on their development. For example, most South rural areas (Elliot 2006). Many people in the majority American countries were colonized for over 300 years world continue to farm the land and survive from what distribution by Spain, and Brazil was colonized by Portugal. they produce. This is known as subsistence farming. Poorer countries have been exposed to many years of Agrarian societies in the majority world, such as exploitation at the hands of richer countries, and this Bangladesh, Bolivia,for Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, has limited their ability to progress economically (for tend to have little industry. These countries rely more on further details, see the section below on global divisions a limited number of raw material products for export not and the impact of colonialism). rather than on producing their own industrial goods. As In order to highlight some of the stark contrasts Macionis and Plummer point out, poor countries in the between rich and poor parts of the world, consider for a majority world tend to maintain traditional lifestyles: File moment how your life might have been different if you Kinship groups pass folkways and mores from were born into a majority world country. For example, generation to generation. Adhering to long- assuming that you were born in Europe or North established ways of life, people resist innovations – America, compare your life chances with someone who
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Table 9.1 Broad characteristics of the majority and was born in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries minority worlds in the world today. Your life expectancy would be half of that in the minority world. Most people in Sierra Leone Majority world Minority world will not reach 45 years old: the life expectancy is 39Education years Agrarian and rural More urbanized for men and 43 years for women (CIA 2008). Limited industrialization More extensive industrialization In Sierra Leone, 157 children out of every 1000 die More ‘traditional’ More ‘modern’ before their fi ft h birthday, which contrasts with 6 out Large populations Smaller populations of every 1000 children in the minority world. In Sierra Poverty Wealth Leone you would have only a 1 in 50 chance of going on Low-carbon footprint High-carbon lifestyles to further education; if you are female,Pearson you would have Colonized Colonizers virtually no chance, as 76 per cent of females in that country are illiterate. By contrast, in the UK almost from
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Figure 9.2 Some women in India have to spend many hours of their time searching for firewood © Samantha Punch
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every other person has some kind of further education. people in absolute poverty, the lives of at least 800 In Sierra Leone, there is only one television set per million are continually at risk. Th ese people do not 60 people, compared with over two televisions for every necessarily know where their next meal is coming from three people in the UK. In Sierra Leone there is only and are in an extremely vulnerable position. AbsoluteEducation one telephone line between 240 people. How would poverty refers to a lack of resources that is life-threatening, you cope with limited or no access to a television or such as lacking the adequate nutrition necessary for telephone? Not only are media communications scarce long-term survival. People who are in absolute poverty may in poor countries, but also many other basic services, be relying on aid, food relief or their own meagre returns such as sanitation facilities, safe drinking water, such as from scavenging on rubbish tips ( Figure 9.3 ). education and health care, are inadequate or lacking. Th eir lack of income means thatPearson they will not have Many things that we take for granted in the minority access to adequate food, which in turn can lead to world can be so diff erent in other parts of the world. For malnutrition. Malnutrition contributes to more than example, if we want to drink water, we just turn on a tap half of the deaths of childrenfrom under fi ve in the majority inside our home, but in places such as rural India and world. People in absolute poverty are also likely to be Bangladesh people may have to travel long distances vulnerable to diseases; many of these diseases could to reach a communal drinking well. Alternatively, they be easily prevented with access to immunization and may have no access to safe drinking water and may dehydration sachets, improved access to safe drinking simply get water from a nearby dirty river. Th ey may water, better sanitation conditions and increased not even be able to boil that water to purify it because education. Whilst absolute poverty refers to those they may have no gas or electricity. Many people in who do not have enough to survive: the majority world have to cook on open fi res using permissionRelative poverty is based on the idea that the nature fi rewood, which can be in short supply ( Figure 9.2 ). of poverty will be diff erent in diff erent social Daily events such as eating and drinking can take up cirumstances and therefore will change as society most of some women’s day, because turning on a tap itself changes. . . . In practice, . . . all defi nitions or a cooker are not options for them. prior and measures of poverty depend on the social Th ere are two key types of global inequalities that circumstances in which they arise. For the most need to be considered: economic and social. Economic part poverty is therefore contrasted with standards inequality refers mainly to levels of income. Worldwide of living that most people enjoy or take for granted there are an estimated 1.3 billion people living on less in society, oft en seeking to identify those falling than $1 a day, which is approximately 20 per cent of the without below some average measure. world’s population (UNDP 2006). Of these 1.3 billion (Alcock 2008: 39–40)
A closer look
Children in the majority ● One million children die from attributable directly or indirectly distribution measles each year. to malnutrition. world ● Each year nearly 12 million ● Each year 1.8 million children die children under five die in the as a result of diarrhoea. ● Every day 30,500 children under for majority world; of these deaths five die from preventable diseases (Source: UNDP 2006) and illnesses. over six million (55 per cent) are not
File People who live in economic poverty also suff er infrastructure and inadequate shelter. Half from social inequalities, including a lack of access of the population of the majority world, to education and health care, inadequate access approximately 2.6 billion people, do not have to safe water and sanitation, lack of adequate access to basic sanitation:
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Figure 9.3 Living a precarious existence in Calcutta, India © Samantha Punch prior
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Figure 9.4 Many houses in the majority world are insecure and unstable, made out of makeshift materials, and with whole families living cramped in one small room © Samantha Punch
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Case study
Education Inadequate access to basic services all to school. The nearest town is five hours away by bus, but the local bus runs only on Mondays and Thursdays, in rural Bolivia so if they fall ill on another day of the week, the only This case study illustrates some of the ways in which a means of transport is horseback to get to a doctor in lack of resources and basic services can affect people’s the town. everyday lives. The two girls pictured in Figure 9.5 , In Figure 9.5 they are on their Pearsonway to fetch water from Marianela and Luisa, are nine and five years old and live the river, but it is dirty river water that they have to drink. in a relatively isolated rural community in southern Bolivia. In their community there are no toilets, no showers, no They are small for their age as a result of poor diet and sewage systems, no electricity, no televisions and no lack of adequate nutrition. They have to walk over an telephone lines. It is interestingfrom to compare this with rural hour each way to school every day, but often they are Scotland, where even in the most isolated areas people unable to go because they are expected to contribute have access to electricity and phone lines, and can even to the planting and harvesting of crops. They have five receive their post and have their rubbish collected on a siblings so their parents cannot afford to send them regular basis.
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Figure 9.5not Two girls on errands in Bolivia © Samantha Punch
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Most of the 1.1 billion people categorized as lacking Many African countries are now relatively worse off access to clean water use about 5 litres a day – than they were at independence more than forty one-tenth of the average daily amount used in rich years ago. World recession, indebtedness and a countries to flush toilets. On average, people in shortage of foreign exchange, coupled with limitedEducation Europe use more than 200 litres – in the United achievements in agricultural development, poor States more than 400 litres. When a European health and welfare, rapid populations growth and person flushes a toilet or an American person crumbling infrastructures, have all contributed to showers, he or she is using more water than is the poverty in many African countries today. available to hundreds of millions of individuals (Binns et al. 2012: 27) living in urban slums or arid areas of the developing However, some poor countries in LatinPearson America world. Dripping taps in rich countries lose more experience as much poverty as in Africa, so we need to water than is available each day to more than 1 remember that there are inequalities within continents. billion people. It is important to recognize that neither the majority (UNDP 2006: 5–6) from world nor the minority world is homogeneous. There Therefore, global inequalities can be both economic are also great differences between and within countries; (income levels) and social (access to adequate health for example, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela services, housing, sanitation and education). The are richer and more industrialized than Paraguay, difference in under-five mortality rates between the Honduras, Peru and Bolivia. There can also be huge majority and minority worlds has increased. As can be inequalities between people in the same country, such seen in Table 9.2, in sub-Saharan Africa 171 out of 1000 as between those living in rural and urban areas, or children die before they are five years old, compared betweenpermission the working and middle classes. with six in the minority world. If you are born into a Global inequality is about an unequal distribution minority world country, you can expect to live more of wealth and inadequate distribution of resources. than 30 years longer compared with people living in It is not about absolute shortages. For example, countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Latin America has priormillions of people in India suffer from malnutrition, higher literacy rates than Africa and Asia, where only but India exports beef, wheat and rice. Therefore, India’s 60 per cent of the adult population can read and write. malnutrition is not a problem of production, as there is Imagine what it would be like, as an adult, not to be able enough food; rather, it is a problem of poverty, as many to read and write – 40 per cent of the population in people cannot afford to buy the food that is available Africa and Asia is in that position. Even whenwithout looking (Macionis and Plummer 2008). at life’s little luxuries, such as owning a television, you We have seen that many people in the majority world can see even greater differences between the majority are poor and undernourished, but it is worth and minority worlds. remembering that many people in the minority world As shown in Table 9.2, Latin America fares better on are overnourished; that is, we eat too much. On average every count compared with South Asia and sub-Saharan in the minority world, in rich countries like ours, we Africa. Latin America is more economically developed consume about 3500 calories a day, which is more than and industrialized than Asia and Africa. The economically we require to survive (Macionis and Plummer 2008). poorest continent in thedistribution majority world is Africa: This excess can lead to obesity and related health
for Table 9.2 Economic and social indicators of poverty Indicator Sub-Saharan Africa South Asia Latin America Minority world not GNP per capita $611 $600 $3649 $32,232 Under-fives mortality rate per 1000 171 92 31 6 LifeFile expectancy 46 years 63 years 72 years 79 years Adult literacy rate 60% 58% 90% 98% No. of TVs per 1000 in 1996 33 50 204 638
(Source: UNICEF 2006)
Proofs:368
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problems, resulting in many people in the minority Global divisions and the impact world spending large amounts of money on gym of colonialism membership and specialized diets. In contrast, in the majority world, on average people consume fewer than Th e economic and social development of the Educationmajority 2000 calories a day. Many of them also engage in more world has been shaped to a large extent by its colonial physical labour than people do in the minority world, past. It is interesting to note that nearly all the and so they require more calories. Th is means that economically poor countries of the world were once people in the majority world are not consuming enough colonies of the economically richer countries. It could calories to maintain long-term survival. be argued that rich countries, like most readers of this Another grim thought to consider is this: in the time book are likely to be from, got richerPearson as a result of you spend at one university lecture of about 50 minutes’ making poor countries poorer. If we feel some form duration, about 1500 people in the world die of of moral outrage at the impoverished images of poor people living in the majority world, then it might be starvation. Approximately 15 million people die of from starvation each year (Macionis and Plummer 2008). worth remembering that our societies in part created Th is emphasizes the extreme global divisions that exist. this poverty by extracting their riches and making them As well as being aware of the stark contrasts between to a large extent economically dependent on the richer, the majority and minority worlds, we should also more powerful countries of the minority world. Th e aim consider the interconnections: here is not to make you feel guilty for being born into a wealthy, privileged society, but to encourage you to For example, problems of ‘over-development’ in the refl ect critically on the reasons for global inequalities. industrialized countries, such as unhealthy diet and permission McMichael (2000: 5) defi nes colonialism as ‘Th e obesity, have complex socio-economic causes and subjugation by physical and psychological force of eff ects. High consumption levels with their associated one culture by another – a colonizing power – through high CO2 emissions in the industrialized countries military conquest of territory’. Colonialism was a way not only have an impact on these countries, but alsoprior of controlling overseas territories in order to facilitate impact on developing countries through the global further development of capitalism in Europe (Bernstein environmental eff ects of the emissions. Other 2000). examples of increasing interconnectedness between industrialized and developing countries are Main periods of colonialism represented by the globalization of terrorism, security issues and pandemics (HIV/AIDSwithout and ● Latin America, 1500s–1880s – Colonial expansion of avian fl u for example). the Portuguese in Brazil and the Spanish in the rest (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 19) of Latin America was much earlier and lasted much longer than the colonization of Asia and Africa. On a global scale, the distribution of poverty between rich and poor continents can be seen clearly. Overall ● Asia and Africa, 1800s–1950s (sub-Saharan Africa the majority world is much worse off both economically 1880s–1960s) – In Africa most colonial expansion and socially than the minority world, but why is this took place between 1850 and 1900, which is the the case? Why is the world divided up into such period known as the ‘scramble for Africa’ by diff erent extremes of wealth anddistribution poverty? We may feel sorry European countries (the UK, France, Germany, for poor majority world countries in times of crisis, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal). but perhaps wefor forget that our rich minority world countries have contributed to their economically poor Stop and think status, both in the past and in the present. Historically not colonialism initiated the patterns of global inequalities, ➤ What are the advantages and disadvantages of and currently debts and the unequal global development colonialism that have impacted on the lives of Fileof capitalism mean that the richer countries continue people in the majority world today? to exploit the poorer ones. Th e dominant role of the minority world has much to answer for in relation to the continued existence of global poverty, and it is to Th ere were diff erences in the ways that colonial these issues that we now turn. powers ruled and organized their colonies, but there
Proofs: 369
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were also some commonalities. Th e main aim of Neo-colonialism colonizers was to enhance their own fi nancial positions and to search for goods to take back to Europe, rather How does domination of the majority world by the than settling permanently or developing the colonized minority world continue despite the fact that all Education areas. Many resources were exploited, such as gold, the former colonies have now gained their political silver and other precious metals, spices and opium. independence (most by the 1960s)? Why is global Natural resources were extracted, taken to the minority inequality getting worse rather than better? How can world, made into manufactured goods, and then we explain why richer countries are getting richer and sold back to the majority world at a far higher price. poorer countries are getting poorer? It has been argued Consequently some local markets were developed in that neo-colonialism is the process thatPearson continues to order to sell the imported manufactured goods from sustain the exploitation and poverty of majority world Europe, but it was only really the wealthy expatriates countries: and indigenous elite who could aff ord them (Potter Neo-colonialism literallyfrom means a new form of et al. 2008). Colonial territories were organized to colonialism, a form of socio-economic domination produce cheap primary products at minimal cost, from outside that does not rely on direct political while simultaneously becoming an increasing market control. for industrial products (Bernstein 2000). Th is process (Webster 1990: 79) refl ects the minority world’s control over global markets, which can still be seen today. Colonization Colonialism had established international laws and thus impacted heavily on both economic and social life, regulations in relation to prices and banking systems, and it has subsequently shaped and contributed to the and mostpermission of these have continued to shape the world majority world’s poverty and economic dependency on economy aft er colonialism (Webster 1990). Neo- the minority world. colonialism refers to several things, including economic
prior A closer look
Characteristics of subsistencewithout needs of local people. by encouraging people to move As a result, many people lost to areas where the mines and colonialism access to land of their own and plantations were. Webster (1990) discusses three had to sell their labour power by ● The imposition of a colonial main features of colonialism that working on large plantations or in system of law and order – In tended to apply to most colonial mines. As Potter et al. (2008: 65) order to control the colonies, the situations: point out: ‘Colonies thus became colonizers had to establish their associated with the production ● Control over agricultural authority and so they introduced a of one or two items, being forced production and mineral extraction political, legal and administrative to import whatever else was – Colonies were a sourcedistribution of cheap structure. This colonial needed’. raw materials (crops and minerals) administration was mainly in place and providedfor a market for ● The need for wage-labour – to serve European interests and manufactured goods from Wage-labour was needed to the development of capitalism in Europe. The process of controlling work the mines and plantations. the minority world, rather than to agriculturalnot production often People had to work as many of develop the colonies themselves. affected traditional land-holdings, them were now landless; they also Thus, internal markets were rarely as the focus was on the production had to earn money to pay taxes developed as the emphasis was Fileof cash crops such as coffee, imposed by the colonizers. Forced on production for export rather cocoa, sugar and tea for export labour (slaves) was used, and than on trying to serve local rather than on meeting the migrant labour was developed needs.
Proofs:370
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exploitation by transnational corporations (see the the labour market to help their families to survive. section below on the global economy), disadvantages Wages were reduced, while unemployment and poverty of world trade, aid, loans and debt. Poorer countries increased: fi nd it increasingly diffi cult to compete in the global Education Throughout the developing world, especially capitalist economy as they are not as able as the richer Africa, structural adjustment programmes have countries to develop large-scale capital-intensive destroyed jobs and public services, while shaping industrialization. Th ey tend to export raw materials local economies to the demand of transnational but then have to import manufactured goods, which capital. means that they receive relatively less for their exports (Potter 2000: 92) while having to pay more for their imports. Pearson Th us, most of the SAPs were not successful and, in the 1990s, the concept of debt relief emerged. Debt Major development charities, such as Oxfam, petitioned world leaders in 1996 tofrom cancel unpayable debts of the poorest countries under a fair and transparent process. Stop and think It was the fi rst ever global petition, with 24 million signatures, and it increased the public’s awareness of ➤ Did Live8 contribute positively towards alleviating debts in the majority world or, as some argue, was majority world debt (Potter et al. 2008). As a result, it a means for the rich to feel less guilty? the debt relief initiative of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) emerged. In order to be eligible for relief, a country must be very poor as defi ned permission Majority world countries in the past have borrowed by the WB and IMF, have an unsustainable debt money from the richer countries of the minority world, burden, and pursue good policies consistent with and their levels of debt have increased so much because poverty reduction and sustained growth (World interest rates are so high. Every year (since 1983) poorprior Bank 2001). countries pay out more money in loan repayments than Th erefore, in order to qualify for debt relief, countries the richer countries give in aid or invest in transnational now have to engage in poverty-reduction strategies corporations. In this sense the word ‘aid’ seems (PRS), demonstrating how ‘poverty reduction’ is inappropriate, as the ‘aid’ that minority world countries prioritized in government spending. Th ey can use the funds that they would have used to pay off debts on are giving is much less than the loan repaymentwithout they are extracting. In recent years there have been many their PRS, mostly targeting issues such as education, discussions about how to ‘help’ majority world countries health, water and sanitation. Th us, if the HIPCs meet to reorganize their massive debt repayments. In the the requirements of the PRS, they no longer have to pay 1980s the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the back their debts. However, this requires them to raise World Bank (WB) were created partly to address this taxation and ensure that any revenue from productive issue. Conditions were imposed surrounding how the activity is allocated to PRS. No additional resources are money would be paid back, and these were known as being provided to enable them to do this. Some writers structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). Th e SAPs argue that debt relief has only increased the levels of imposed economic distributionrules on poor countries as an interference and policing of the majority world attempt to enable them to save money in some areas so countries by the minority world: they were ablefor to pay back their debts. SAPs consisted The much vaunted debt cancellation that was largely of controlling wages, devaluation of currency rubber stamped at the G8 summit in Gleneagles (to improve competitiveness of exports), cuts in public not in 2005 provided no new money or impetus for spending, especially on education and health, and development for the developing world. In fact, promotion of the free market (Green 1997). Th e debt relief has helped to entrench Western control, Fileopening up of free markets was hugely unpopular undermine democratic institutions and ensure that and more likely to benefi t the minority world. economic growth and serious development are not SAPs oft en had very negative impacts on social and on the agenda for the countries most desperately in environmental issues, in particular on human wellbeing. need of it. For example, many women and children had to enter (Dingle and Daley 2006)
Proofs: 371
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Aid during the 1980s and early 1990s, 74 per cent of British bilateral aid was linked to contracts that involved buying British goods and services in return for the aid (Potter et Stop and think al. 2008). Th us, the aid agreement becomes benefiEducation cial to Britain and increases the recipient country’s dependency ➤ Is giving aid a good thing? Why do minority world on a richer country. Parfi tt (2002) refers to aid being governments give aid to the majority world? Can used as a political bribe. Aid is oft en compromised by you think of any drawbacks or negative impacts of politics and may be given only to countries that adopt giving aid? the ‘correct’ political position. Th is is oft en used to safeguard capitalism, and so aid fromPearson some parts of Aid is oft en seen as a way of helping poor countries to the minority world may be donated only to capitalist develop because they have been so crippled by their countries in the majority world. debts. Unlike a loan, aid does not have to be repaid. Aid is given not only forfrom humanitarian reasons Diff erent types of aid include short-term disaster relief, but also as a way for richer countries to sustain their longer-term development aid and military aid. In 1970 infl uence on ex-colonies or exert infl uence on new the United Nations (UN) set out agreed targets for aid, territories (Webster 1990). Th us, most aid has direct suggesting that minority world governments should give commercial benefi t to the donor country and can be 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) in seen as both an economic and a political way of aid. However, few countries have ever met this level of maintaining their dominant world position. Parfi tt aid. For example, the UK gave 0.51 per cent of its GNP (2002) argues that aid is a form of violence and a in 1979, but by 2000 this had fallen to 0.32 per cent destructivepermission force because usually it is a top-down (Regan 2002a). Th is fi gure is less than half what we approach imposed on the majority world. In addition, should give according to the UN, although in recent local elites tend to keep aid as urban-centred – for years it has risen again. Th e USA is well below the bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, politicians and industrial recommended target, at 0.1 per cent. In 2005, only priorworkers rather than for the mass of poor – and not Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Norway and much reaches isolated rural areas (Webster 1990). Sweden had met or surpassed the recommended UN Furthermore, the consultants who undertake research fi gure (Potteret al. 2008). into identifying what aid money should be spent on are It is important to consider the reasons for giving oft en expatriates, living comfortably in urban areas, who aid and the motives of donor countries. Aid from go for brief fi eld visits and fail to fully understand local governments in the minority world is supposedwithout to be situations and are conditioned by donor country benefi cial, but in the past it has oft en been ‘tied aid’, approaches and priorities. It could even be said that aid given on the condition that the recipient country buys creates jobs for European experts and expatriates still specifi ed goods from the donor country. For example, living in the ex-colonies.
A closer look distribution
Critiques offor aid unproductive and inefficient use of majority world resources (in capital (in line with modernization line with dependency theorists; There are two principal critiques theorists; see below). see below) of aid, which highlight the different ● Radical critique of aid – This negative notimpacts of giving money Despite criticisms from both right claims that aid increases to poorer countries: and left, aid continues to be given by dependency on foreign capital the minority world and continues to ● Liberal economic critique – and ultimately services minority File be requested by the majority world. This sees aid as an obstacle to world interests as they are (Adapted from Webster 1990: 162–71) material progress because it is an enabled to continue to extract
Proofs:372
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A closer look Education The case for and against aid As we have seen, there is a debate around the extent to which providing aid is a beneficial or harmful process. Table 9.3 outlines the main advantages and disadvantages of the minority world giving aid to the majority world.
Table 9.3 Advantages and disadvantages of giving aid Pearson Advantages Disadvantages
Aid can provide useful emergency assistance and facilitate Aid does not trickle down to the poorest of the poor and can be long-term development such as in health and education manipulated by majority worldfrom governments Aid can contribute to a redistribution of global wealth, albeit in a Aid may divert attention from issues such as trade, debt and limited way transnational corporations Aid can help to initiate development projects by providing Aid may lead to majority world governments becoming dependent infrastructure and training on support from the minority world Aid can be an expression of humanitarian concern that enables Aid is often ‘tied’, which forces the recipient country to buy goods people in the minority world to act on their concern or services from the donor country Aid can create links between countries, which may facilitate Aid distorts the free market, which, some argue, has negative mutual understanding impacts on economic development Aid can transfer expertise and experience from the minority world Aid permissionengenders feelings of superiority in the givers from the to the majority world minority world and may perpetuate negative stereotypes of the majority world Aid can foster relations of interdependence between the majority Aid is used for economic and political reasons, resulting in and minority worlds priorcontinued patterns of global inequality (Source: Regan 2002a: 127)
without Potter et al. (2008) argue that, if poverty is to be Ultimately, despite more than half a century of reduced, then there need to be improvements in both loans and foreign development aid, not a single the quality and the quantity of aid. It has been suggested so-called Th ird World nation has become a First that aid should be aimed at the poorest people in the World nation since the end of World War II. poorest countries, with a focus on health and education (Leech 2012: 40) rather than on exports, with reduced costs of delivering the aid, better management by involving local communities and discussing theirdistribution needs, and an aim to work towards Sociology of development sustainability in improving the quality of life. Similarly, Webster (1990:for 171) suggests that perhaps ‘aid should We have seen that the relationship between the majority be given as advice/training for subsequent self-reliance world and the minority world is complex. Th e sociology so that rural and urban workers can regain control over of development is about explaining these unequal global their livelihoods’.not Nowadays, in order to receive aid, power relations. Th e term ‘development’ implies notions of governments have to demonstrate that they have growth, change, accumulation, progress or improvement Fileeff ective social policies in place and engage in practices (Regan and Ruth 2002). Initially development was ‘the of good governance. Th e extent to which aid in the deliberate process to “develop” the “Th ird World” which future will lead to more advantages than disadvantages began aft er World War II as much of it emerged from for the majority world remains to be seen. It is worth colonization’ (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 10). Traditionally, bearing in mind that: when development studies emerged in the 1940s, the term
Proofs: 373
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‘development’ tended to refer to the economic growth structures, technology in various forms (including of the majority world, which was widely assumed to be the physical or natural sciences, engineering and a good thing. However, ideas about development have communications), the environment, religion, the changed quite dramatically over time and there is a lack of arts and culture. Education agreement about what it is and what direction it should (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 11) take. Th ere is also the ‘question of who decides what Over time, the notion of development has “development” consists of’ (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 46). been questioned, particularly because the majority Generally development is about the process of improving world continues to remain poor and arguably people’s standard of living, but we need to recognize ‘undeveloped’. Certainly there is a widening gap that it is as much about social development as it is about between the richest and poorest countries.Pearson economic development. Development is a contested, As Chambers notes: ambiguous and complex concept. Yet, despite a diversity Development has been taken to mean diff erent of defi nitions, there is things at diff erent times,from in diff erent places, and . . . a general agreement on the view that by diff erent people in diff erent professions and ‘development’ encompasses continuous ‘change’ in a organizations. . . . Change is continuous in what variety of aspects of human society. Th e dimensions changes and how it changes, and in what we see as of development are extremely diverse, including good. economic, social, political, legal and institutional (Chambers 2005: 186)
A closer look permission
The meaning of ‘development’ prior Table 9.4 outlines three different definitions of ‘development’. The first is more historical, the second more related to policy and the third more ideological.
Table 9.4 Definitions of ‘development’ without Type of development Characteristics of the development process
‘Development’ as a long-term process A major societal shift with a long-term outlook, for example moving from a rural or of structural societal transformation agriculture-based society to an urban or industrial-based society (sometimes referred to as a shift from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ society) ‘Development’ as a short- to A focus on the outcomes of change, with a relatively short-term outlook; achieving goals that medium-term outcome of desirable can be measured and compared with targets, such as poverty reduction or changes in targets income levels ‘Development’ as a dominant A postmodern conceptualization of development based on a view that development has resulted ‘discourse’ of Western modernitydistribution in ‘bad’ change and ‘bad’ outcomes, which have been imposed on the majority world by the minority world. This has led to development being equated with ‘modernity’ and superiority. ‘The “discourse” is socially constructed and places values on certain assets which the South does for not have. Thus, it is argued, the South is viewed as “inferior”’ (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 15)
(Source: adapted from Sumner and Tribe 2008: 11–16) not
File He emphasises that ‘If development means good change, goals and is also linked to ethical and moral ideas questions arise about what is good and what sort of (Potter et al. 2008). Th is is why debates about development change matters’ (Chambers 2005: 184). Furthermore, can be emotionally charged and linked to strong ideas development refers to values, aspirations and social about how the world should develop and progress.
Proofs:374
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Development theories ● traditionalism is dominant (people are perceived to be tied to the past and not welcoming of new ideas); Competing theories of social change exist in relation ● the kinship system is important (one’s role and status to the ways in which the minority world has developed, in society is ascribed, not achieved); Education such as the classic theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim, ● traditional societies have an ‘emotional, superstitious followed by those of more modern social theorists such and fatalistic approach to the world’ (Webster 1990: as Foucault, Parsons and Giddens (see Chapter 2 ). Th ere 50). are many social theorists, and they all have diff erent views as to how and why societies have evolved and developed Th is contrasts with modern societies, where people over time. It is unsurprising, then, that many diff erent are more likely to progress culturallyPearson than hold on to theories have been put forward to explain how the majority traditional customs, where kinship is less important as world has developed (or not developed) over time. status can be earned through achievement, and where Collectively, these are known as development theories, people are forward-looking and willing to be innovative. and within this large body of theory there are diff erent Modernization theoristsfrom argue that tradition acts like a schools of thought; the main ones are considered here. barrier to development and that poor countries can be too reluctant to change and modernize. For example, Modernization theory they suggest that rural peasants are perhaps too keen to hold on to their traditions rather than move forward Modernization theory emerged in the 1950s around and change to more modern lifestyles. Modernization the time that the colonized countries were gaining theory claims that industrialization is the answer to their independence. Th ere was much discussion about accumulating wealth (see Rostow’s model of economic how these countries would develop and modernize. developmentpermission in the case study below). Poor countries in According to modernization theorists, development the majority world should follow the industrial model ‘depends on “traditional”, “primitive” values being of the minority world, and their resulting economic displaced by modern ones’ (Webster 1990: 49). priorgrowth would result in a decline in poverty. As we shall Webster suggests that traditional societies have three see later in this section, these ideas have been criticized key features: for being too simplistic.
without A closer look
Development theories critique of modernization theory, ● 1990s: participatory development recognizing that it was too – This reflects a recognition that, over time simplistic to expect the majority if development is to be successful, world to industrialize along people should be given Classic developmentdistribution theories Western lines when their historical opportunities to participate ● 1950s and 1960s: modernization development had been so and have a say in their own theory – forAfter colonialism there was hindered by colonialism. development. Effective progress a perceived need for the majority cannot simply be imposed from world to ‘modernize’ and industrialize Alternative development theories above or from outside; rather, innot similar ways to the capitalist ● 1980s: sustainable development – it needs to involve those at the progress of the minority world. This is a call to ensure that grass-roots level. ● 1970s: theories of processes of development are Each of these accounts varies as to underdevelopment: dependency sustainable by not exhausting File what the ‘problem’ of development is theory and world systems theory resources and not compromising and what the possible solutions are. – These theories emerged as a the needs of future generations.
Proofs: 375
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Hettne (1995) notes the strong role of dichotomy in . . . a great source of justification for the activities early development thinking. For example, in modernization of development agencies. A whole range of policies theory there is a juxtaposition of traditional versus were fostered by modernisation theory . . . They modern societies that is often polarized as backward or have included the injection of capital to aid bothEducation primitive societies in contrast to advanced and civilized industrial ‘take-off’ and the commercialisation societies. It is often assumed that there is a dualism of agriculture, the training of an entrepreneurial between the traditional, indigenous and underdeveloped elite in the values and motivations most likely majority world versus the modern, developed and to promote free enterprise, the expansion of Westernized minority world (Potter et al. 2008). educational programmes, and only assisting Webster (1990) argues that, according to modernization ‘democratic’ (or notionally democratic)Pearson theory, the history of development of industrialization countries. in the minority world is the blueprint for majority world (Webster 1990: 55) societies and that they should follow the same pathway. Modernization theoristsfrom assume that developing the Thus, development can be achieved by imitating the urban centre eventually leads to a ‘trickling down’ of Western model. In other words, modernization is often growth to the more peripheral backward regions, so perceived as being the same as Westernization (Hettne that it spreads from urban to rural areas. However, as 1995) and is also based predominantly on urban we shall see in the following section, others strongly industrial growth. The minority world can help the disagree with this view. According to modernization majority world to develop in such a way by introducing theory, these trickle-down effects are assumed to be ideas and technologies. Thus, the experience of the West inevitable (Hirschman 1958, cited in Potter et al. 2008). can assist other countries in ‘catching up’ by sharing Hirschman’spermission view is that governments should not both capital and know-how (Potter et al. 2008). intervene in order to reduce inequalities, as there will Modernization theory perceives development to be a be spin-off effects of growth in peripheral areas. This relatively straightforward, linear process. It recognizes goes hand in hand with the liberal model of ‘letting that different societies are at different stages of priorthe market decide’. Modernization theory, although development, and that some are more modernized academically criticized (see below), came to represent than others, but if countries have the right values and a framework for much development policy that ambition then underdevelopment can be overcome, focused on the expansion of manufacturing. especially by entrepreneurial innovations (Potter et al. However, it is worth recognizing that this is a 2008). The important characteristics are individual without top-down approach to development (Potter et al. 2008) motivation and capital accumulation (Webster 1990). that was strongly associated with the 1950s through Thus, modernization theory provided: to the early 1970s.
Case study distribution
for Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth: 4. The drive to maturity. A Non-Communist Manifesto 5. The age of high mass consumption. not Rostow (1960) developed a five-stage model of According to Rostow the key features for success development, based on an analysis of the British industrial and development are entrepreneurial ambition revolution:File alongside capital accumulation and investment. His model suggested that all countries have an equal chance 1. The traditional society. to progress. The central argument was that the majority 2. The preconditions for take-off. world needed to industrialize in order to develop 3. Take-off. (Potter et al. 2008).
Proofs:376
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Dependency theory into the global capitalist system’ (Potter et al. 2008: 110). According to Frank (1966), underdevelopment is the Dependency theory emerged from Latin America in the direct outcome of development elsewhere. In other 1960s as a way of explaining the continued failure of words, the advanced capitalist world both exploitedEducation the Latin American countries to develop economically. Its majority world and kept it underdeveloped. followers were also referred to as the Latin American Hettne (1995) points out that dependency theorists structuralists because they focused on the unseen emphasize that the international division of labour is a structures that may be held to mould and shape society key barrier to development rather than a lack of skill (Potter et al. 2008). They argued that ‘persistent poverty or capital. Frank (1967) argued that colonialism forced in countries like Argentina, Peru, Chile and Brazil was a specialization of production onPearson majority world caused by exposure to the economic and political countries. This led them to mainly sell raw materials influences of the advanced countries’ (Webster 1990: 85). that the minority world needed and resulted in their This school of thought became globally popular in the production being limited,from mostly specialized and 1970s, particularly the argument that the growth of the export-oriented: minority world led to the simultaneous underdevelopment of the majority world because the industrialized The Third World elites were incorporated into this countries exploited the poorer countries and developed system and could do little to establish a more at their expense. It was recognized that the core (the diverse, independent form of economic activity. privileged minority world) can learn from the periphery They became the mere intermediaries between the (the marginalized majority world) (Potter et al. 2008). rich purchasers and the poor (peasant) producers Thus, in the 1970s, dependency theorists argued . . . While the Third World elite enjoy a high standard that industrialization and economic development as permissionof living from this relationship, the masses experience encouraged by modernization theorists had not chronic deprivation as their surplus production happened in the majority world. They explained that it is taken from them in the local rural region and would not happen because poor countries would not beprior transferred to the rich farmers and merchants in able to follow the same path of industrial development their own country and then on abroad. as that of the richer countries. Dependency theory states (Webster 1990: 85) that the colonial past of the majority world cannot be Thus, Frank (1967) argues that there is a ‘chain of ignored and that the majority world continues to be dependency’ going from rich countries (which he calls dominated by the minority world in a form of neo- ‘metropoles’) to peripheral, subordinate areas (‘satellites’). colonialism, as we saw earlier. Dependencywithout theorists Then, within ‘satellites’ there are hierarchies running explain global inequality in terms of the historical from rich merchants down to peasants. Hence, the exploitation of poor societies by rich ones, and argue process of subordination and exploitation operates both that this unequal power relationship continues today in internationally and internally within countries, where a variety of forms (debt, aid, transnational corporations, backwardness results from being at the bottom of the unequal global trading). According to them, this system dependence hierarchy (Potter et al. 2008). Frank of neo-colonialism makes poor societies poorer and suggests that this means that the satellites are held back more reliant on richer, capitalist societies. by the metropoles. Andre Gunder Frank’sdistribution book Capitalism and According to dependency theorists, the only way of Underdevelopment in Latin America (1967) was widely stopping the exploitation is if the chain of dependency known for arguingfor that the continued poverty in the (Figure 9.6) is broken. The working class in the majority majority world was a reflection of its ‘dependency’ on the world could achieve this through a socialist revolution minority world. His key argument was that development (Webster 1990). Thus, ‘the development of young and underdevelopmentnot are opposite sides of the same coin, economies required withdrawal from the structure and both are the outcome of capitalism (Potter et al. 2008). of exploitation that existed worldwide’ (Regan and The Development of Underdevelopment, which he wrote Ruth 2002: 31). The other alternative requires state Filein 1966, summarized his approach: ‘the condition of intervention in order to weaken the dominance of developing countries is not the outcome of inertia, the global system by imposing controls on trade and misfortune, chance, climatic conditions or whatever, but transnational corporations, as well as facilitating local rather a reflection of the manner of their incorporation production and indigenous development (Potter et al.
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A closer look Education The chain of dependency Exploitative and unequal relations exist from dominant metropoles running down through a hierarchy of subordinate satellites. According to Potter et al. : The chain of exploitative relations witnesses the Pearson extraction and transmission of surplus value via a process of unequal exchange, extending from the peasant, through the market town, regional centre, national capital, to the international metropole . . . The from terms of trade have always worked in favour of the next higher level in the chain. (Potter et al. 2008: 112)
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Figure 9.6 The chain of dependency prior
2008). Th us, dependency theory argues that the Th us, rather than having grand theories to explain the historical process of colonialism, and the continuedwithout whole process of development, smaller-scale, context- existence of neo-colonialism, is of extreme importance specifi c theories were developed, such as participatory in explaining global inequalities. development (see below) and sustainable development (see Chapter 10 ). By the 1990s this new way of thinking Alternative development about development became known as ‘alternative development’ or ‘another development’. Th e approach From the 1950s to the 1980s modernization and was also referred to as ‘development from below’, dependency theories dominated the discussions of ‘grass-roots development’ and a ‘bottom-up approach’. development theorists. During the 1980s it was recognized Th e new paradigm emerged because ‘development’ had that both of these theoreticaldistribution positions were fl awed and not really been working. Although some economic and did not adequately refl ect the contemporary processes of social advances had been made, on the whole poverty in development. Th is led to the emergence of more context- for the majority world was not being alleviated and in some specifi c micro-theories based on empirical research: cases, such as sub-Saharan Africa, it was getting worse. Modernization not theories were criticized for their Some argued that development was: overriding belief in a linear, common path to development through economic growth and . . . at best, an irrelevance which has failed to meet industrialization,File especially as the environmental its own aims to improve standards of living and, at impacts of industrialization became more evident. worst, has been a neo-colonial or western Th ere were also criticisms of a perceived over- imposition on ‘the Other’ by claiming to ‘know’ emphasis on the ‘macro’ to the neglect of the ‘micro’. about ‘the Other’ and what is good for ‘the Other’. (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 87) (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 164)
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A closer look Education Table 9.5 Criticism of modernization and dependency theories Criticisms of modernization theory Criticisms of dependency theory
● Failure to recognize the diversity of ‘traditional’ societies, ● ‘Dependency’ as a concept is too vague and difficult to e.g. tribal groups, feudal, caste societies, peasant societies measure ● Focuses on the way societies develop rather than explaining ● Implies that the countries of the majorityPearson world are static why and that all the surplus is taken out to the minority world ● Based too much on a linear and rational path to development, so that no internal development is possible rather than recognizing that tradition and modernity can ● Focuses on the exchange and transfer of surplus occur simultaneously from satellites to metropoles,from yet does not fully explain ● Assumes that with modernization extended family networks this process, denying that it may lead to some local will be undermined, rather than recognizing that patterns of development kinship may change and adapt to modern circumstances and ● Fails to analyse production relations properly, overlooking may remain important that there is potential for industrial growth in the majority ● Fails to recognize that traditional roles could still be used world in modern societies as resources, e.g. local crafts such as ● Too economistic: suggests that the only way out is by pottery delinking from the global economy, which nowadays is not ● Fails to recognize that so-called ‘conservative’ and traditional particularly realistic peasants are often the most vulnerable groups in society, ● Fails to recognize the role of cultural processes, and that which makes them less able (rather than less willing) to take permissionunderdevelopment is also influenced and shaped by local risks in order to progress economically; thus, their cultures and local political structures conservatism may be rational rather than illogical ● Fails to recognize that internal obstacles to growth ● Ignores the impact of colonialism and underplays the are just as political as economic: the majority world importance of history; needs to accept the role of externalprior is also at fault – majority world countries not only are forces (i.e. the dominance of the minority world and its passive victims but also must address internal problems, impact on development in the majority world) such as unstable governments, political in-fighting and ● Based on a minority world perspective of ‘development’ corruption
(Source: adapted from Webster 1990) without
Development was not trickling down to the poor, Sustainable development stresses the need for self- so there had to be a major rethink about what reliance and ecological sensitivity (this approach is development entails. From the mid-1980s some discussed in detail in Chapter 10 ). Like sustainability, anti-development thinking emerged, with talk of ‘the processes of participation are also central in recent end of development’distribution (see Parfi tt 2002) or being in an approaches to development. Th e danger of development age of post-development. Th us, alternative approaches is that to development responded to this crisis by focusing for . . . the poor are seen almost as passive victims and on sustainability and participation as a possible way subjects of investigation rather than as human of avoiding some of the mistakes that had been made. beings with something to contribute to both the It is thoughtnot that one of the key solutions to the investigation of their conditions and its alleviation. problems of development is self-reliance: Th e poor oft en have quite diff erent interpretations File Th e concept of self-reliance not only implies breaking from outsiders about the particular problems the tie of dependency on the industrial centre but they face. Rather than income levels or housing also an acceptance of the need to use available conditions, they place great importance on their resources as effi ciently and frugally as possible. vulnerability to sudden stress through insecurity. (Webster 1990: 181) (Drakakis-Smith 2000: 133)
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Participatory approaches: a way forward? reduced negative impact . . . The process of consultation – or participation – can be used as a Frequently in the past ‘outsiders’, often from the basis for the modification of the design of a project, minority world, assumed that they knew what poor programme or policy in order to make it moreEducation people wanted. There is a more recent recognition acceptable and more effective in achieving the that we need to understand and learn from indigenous objectives and priorities of communities. knowledge: ‘Participatory approaches essentially (Sumner and Tribe 2008: 142–3) developed out of research techniques which sought to give citizens a greater voice in the decision-making Participatory research has certainly increased our understanding about the complexity and diversity of processes affecting their lives’ (Drakakis-Smith 2000: Pearson 178). This is much broader than merely listening to poor people’s livelihoods. However, there are different people’s views; it is about empowering people to change definitions of participation, which reflect the varying their environment and to take action to improve their degrees to which people participate: living standards. This kind of bottom-up development ● Participation as a voluntaryfrom contribution, where means ‘facilitating a process through which the poor people have some say and their voice is heard to can begin to define and work towards their own some extent but they do not play a key role in development’ (Parfitt 2002: 159). It is about providing shaping the development programme projects that are more responsive to local people’s needs ● Participation consisting of people’s involvement in and are less imposed from the outside. Local people are decision-making processes, in implementing and encouraged to identify and analyse their own problems evaluating the development programme and then to generate local knowledge on which ● appropriate action can be based (Parfitt 2002). Participationpermission as organized efforts to control resources Robert Chambers (2005) is one of the key figures and be empowered in promoting participatory development and is known ● Community participation as an active process for trying to put the last first (i.e. the poor before the priorwhereby participants influence the direction, rich). In particular he advocates trying to involve the execution and outcomes of a development project most marginalized people, ‘the poorest of the poor’. (Parfitt 2002). Shepherd (1998) reminds us that participation is Different levels of participation range from being also concerned with increasing local people’s control tokenistic, to being consulted and informed, to over resources and is related to issues of equity and participating fully throughout the development process. empowerment. Participatory development should without There is a danger that development projects may only involve collaborative planning, whereby a range of pay lip-service to notions of participation, and that stakeholders are consulted, such as local government groups are informed about proposed interventions, and policymakers, rich farmers who own much land, rather than becoming agents of their own development poor farmers who own little or no land, farmers’ in a meaningful way: ‘Often, however, the consultation families, and young people. This enables issues relating process is restricted to “key” figures in the community to gender, age and generation to be taken into account, with a corresponding limitation in beneficiaries’ rather than focusing only on the perspectives of male (Drakakis-Smith 2000: 180). adults. Excluding different groups such as women or distribution Meaningful participation is extremely difficult to children from development initiatives is detrimental achieve in practice and means changing existing power not only to the young people or women concerned for relations in decision-making and empowering those but also to development goals and the effectiveness who previously have been ignored. As we have seen, of projects or relevance of policies (Chawla and participatory development is about increasing local Johnson 2004). This is a much more complex approach not people’s control over resources; therefore, it is also to development: linked to power relationships, because in order for Consultation with groups who are likely to be effective participation to take place, a redistribution of principallyFile affected (either positively or negatively) power has to take place (Shepherd 1998). This has the by a project, programme or policy can provide a potential to create conflicts as not everyone will be basis for an enhanced positive impact, and/or a happy about redistributing power from the powerful to
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the powerless. Many people may find it threatening to and patience’ (Shepherd 1998: 182–3). Training in their existing position in society. participatory methods is needed at all levels if people Participatory development is not a straightforward are to understand fully how they should work in process, but in order to facilitate hearing the voices of practice. For example, if development workers Educationare the most marginalized people a range of participatory trained only briefly in PRA, then they may use the techniques have been developed. Over the years techniques ritualistically as a way of building rapport different terms have been used to describe these initially but then continue the project in a top-down methods: participatory rural appraisal (PRA), way. Training needs to be continuous and reflexive, participatory action research (PAR) and rapid rural not just a one-off session at the start of a development appraisal (RRA). The aim of participatory techniques project. Thus, participatory developmentPearson can be an is to bring insiders and outsiders to a closer expensive, time-consuming and very small-scale understanding of each other. Visual and verbal tools approach. It involves great time commitments from are used to encourage local people to express their farmers, development workers,from researchers and other views and have their opinions taken into account when participants (Shepherd 1998). Furthermore, it can be thinking about community planning and development a long time before changes emerge; much patience may (Shepherd 1998). The visual and accessible nature of be required to wait for results. If people do not see any many exercises enables non-literate people to tangible benefits for some time, then their motivation to participate. continue to participate may decrease. Another problem is that enabling people to participate and have their Critiques of participatory development voices heard may lead to unrealistic expectations of It is important to be aware that, while there are strong whatpermission participatory development can achieve. arguments for participatory development as an Parfitt (2002) reminds us that outsiders need to learn appropriate approach to improving people’s livelihoods, from people on the ground, rather than overemphasizing there are also many problems associated with it. It is their own views. Sometimes development practitioners extremely difficult to ensure that participation is priorimpose their ideologies and definitions. Furthermore, approached in the right kind of way. Cooke and many grass-roots people may not be used to criticizing Kothari’s book Participation: The New Tyranny? (2001) the common discourses of the dominant elites. puts forward some very strong criticisms that challenge In addition, if care is not taken to enable the most the claims of participatory development, particularly marginalized people to participate, then it may be the assumptions about it being more effective than that the usual people take part – the most educated and other approaches, and the often misplacedwithout assumption the most articulate. Women, children, disabled people, that it always empowers poor people. Participatory people from ethnic minorities and very poor people development is highly complex and problematic to are likely to remain excluded if they are not prioritized achieve effectively. McGee (2002) refers to this as (Shepherd 1998). It can be difficult to incorporate being a predominance of rhetoric over authenticity; everyone’s voices, to be sensitive to issues of gender there can be more talk rather than action in relation and generation and to have a reflexive understanding to participation. She also recognizes that most of power and participation. As Parpart reminds us, participation on the ground is still just about people the difficulties of truly listening to others in an open, ‘participating in projects’distribution rather than becoming interactive way should not be underestimated: fully empowered and implementing change and It requires the recognition that differences, and improvementsfor in their own livelihoods. Thus, we need different voices, cannot just be heard, that language to be aware that participation can be used superficially, is powerful and that subjectivity (voices) are insensitively and tokenistically. constructed and embedded in the complex As Shepherdnot suggests, there is a danger that it experiential and discursive environments of daily becomes a quick-fix solution, with the assumption life. Overcoming these barriers is not easy. that, just because participatory techniques are (Parpart 1995: 239) Filebeing employed, then the project must therefore be ‘participatory’. He argues that ‘Participation requires However, despite all the problems, limitations and attitude change: understanding, humility, flexibility ‘cautious optimism’ associated with participatory
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A closer look Education Key elements of relatively simple production ● Participation – At local and techniques, using local materials community levels in order alternative development and not requiring large capital to involve people in the strategies investment. design and implementation ● Basic needs – Food, clothing and of appropriate projects to meet ● Targeting the poor – A bottom-up housing should be the first their needs. Pearson approach means starting with the priority. ● Self-reliance and appropriate poor and concentrating on ● Human-oriented frameworks – technology – Reducing meeting their needs. An emphasis on human resource dependency on the minority ● Local small-scale projects – Focus development, such as creating world fromand focusing on on community-based development employment, rather than focusing sustainability. projects where people live, involving only on economic growth. (Source: Brohman 1996)
development, McGee notes that the development Globalization agenda has now changed as a result of the participation permission discourse: Stop and think At the level of rhetoric, the participation orthodoxy no longer fi nds it suffi cient to permit ‘them’ to prior ➤ Is globalization new? Or is it just an extension of participate in ‘our’ projects, but recognizes that earlier global processes? ‘our’ projects are not going to change their lives ➤ Is the world really becoming more uniform? Or are much, and seeks to fi nd out what ‘their’ projects inequalities increasing? of life might be, and how we – practitioners, ➤ Will the benefits of globalization trickle down and academics, NGOs [non-governmental improve the lives of the poorest people, or will organizations], offi cial agencies and partnerwithout there be increasing polarization between the rich governments – might most usefully participate in and the poor? them. (McGee 2002: 113) Whether development is considered to have been For participatory development to be eff ective, successful in parts or a failure at times, there is little a range of facilitating factors need to be in place: doubt that globalization is a fact of twenty-fi rst-century appropriate training, political support, decentralization, life (Martell 2010). Like the term ‘development’, community organizations, availability of good globalization is also a highly contentious and contested leaders and managers, anddistribution technologies that promote concept. Th ere are diff erent defi nitions, many of which self-reliance. refer to the blurring of boundaries between the local Th us, a bottom-upfor approach off ers no easy solution, as and the global: ‘a world in which societies, cultures, it needs to be context-specifi c and linked closely to the politics and economies have, in some sense, come closer particular sociocultural, historical and institutional together’ (Kiely 1998: 3). Hence it is a stretching of conditionsnot (Potter et al. 2008). For it to be eff ective, it social, political and economic activities across countries should be based on the use of local resources, self- and continents, when ‘the boundaries between domestic reliance, appropriate technology and participation. File matters and global aff airs become increasingly blurred’ What is right for one country may not be right for (McGrew 2000: 347). another. Th e type of alternative development strategy A key feature of globalization is the notion of global that is applied needs to be tailored to the particular interconnectedness (Sklair 1999): ‘the free movement socioeconomic and cultural context. of goods, services, capital, information and, in some
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instances, people, across national boundaries’ (Potter ‘Globalization’ is probably one of the most used and et al. 2008: 128). People increasingly talk about a abused words in our vocabulary (Potter et al. 2008). ‘globalizing world’ and an era of global change. This is Many things are blamed on globalization, and the in relation to a range of changes, such as the notion of world is now seen as more global. Many argue Educationthat a global economy (trade and investment) and a global globalization is not necessarily new, but that the rate culture. It also includes recent developments in and intensity of it have increased (McGrew 2000). communications such as the Internet and email. New Certainly the extent of global change is impressive when forms of communication and transport have led to the we consider the relatively recent advent of the Internet, speeding up of global interaction: goods, ideas, information, email and mobile phones. Could you go back to capital and people can be linked up increasingly quickly. ‘surviving’ without them? You mightPearson like to reflect Globalization also applies to the way in which the effects on what changes you would have to make to your life of distant events can be felt locally: if you no longer had such communication media. Cohen and Kennedy point out that it is increasingly . . . it refers to the ways in which developments in from difficult to live without a global awareness of our one region can rapidly come to have significant connections with other people in distant places. consequences for the security and well-being of For example, even in remote rural communities, communities in quite distant regions of the globe. (McGrew 2000: 347) Jet planes and helicopters fly overhead, travellers What is happening in one part of the world can appear as if from nowhere, roads are cut into the affect far away locations; local events can have global interior, mobile phones ring, the world’s music consequences. For example, the events of 11 September pulsates from cheap transistor radios, while friends, 2001 in New York had a big impact on global tourism as permissionneighbours and families share what they have seen many people cancelled or postponed their travel plans. on the ubiquitous TV screens. In London, some theatres had to close because they (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 7) were not being attended by North American visitors, priorEven where there are no televisions or telephone lines, and even as far away as Hong Kong some tourist people can still be interconnected to the wider world to companies were struggling to get enough people some extent. They may have more limited knowledge to be able to organize day trips to local attractions. than people from other places, but they are likely to There are some who connect the negative aspects have some global awareness and information about life of globalization to terrorism: ‘The linking of outside their community. Hence, a process that is related globalisation, inequalities, division and dangerwithout in to globalization is ‘globality’: the post-11 September 2001 world is highly salient’ (Potter et al. 2008: 169). Some writers argue that Whereas globalization refers to the objective, continuing exploitation and increasing global inequalities external ties that bind us together, globality alludes contribute to the creation and development of terrorist to the subjective, personal awareness that many of networks. The efficiency of contemporary technology us share, and are increasingly likely to share – a enables such networks to spread throughout the world, common fate. so to some extent terrorism is also ‘globalized’. As (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 7) Cohen and Kennedydistribution suggest in relation to the events A key aspect of globality is reflexivity, and this is an of 11 September: important sociological concept. Reflexivity is the critical In the midstfor of their grief and anger, it may be that assessment of oneself and others. It is when we reflect on it was too much to expect that the American people the consequences of our own and other people’s actions, thereby having self-awareness and self-knowledge wouldnot ask, let alone answer, this question: Does the growing inequality both within and between the as we contemplate how our lives are changing. As we nations of the world, coupled with a one-sided accumulate knowledge about how the social world Fileexercise of power by a few actors go some way works, we then revise our own behaviour in response towards explaining why violent and abusive acts are to this new information (Cohen and Kennedy 2007). perpetrated by criminal and terrorist gangs against This happens all the time; for example, we become innocent citizens? increasingly aware about using appropriate language in (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 3) relation to changing understandings of social divisions
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such as race, disability and age. Older terms such as ‘information society’ (Castells 1996). This may offer ‘third world’ become unacceptable, and new terms are poor countries new opportunities to be more globally introduced, such as ‘majority world’. Thus, globality leads connected. However, we need to be wary about to us thinking about ourselves collectively. It means that assuming that the majority world can benefit fromEducation the we have a common interest in collective action to solve spread of new technologies (Potter et al. 2008). The global problems, such as having an environmental expansion of information technology has been highly awareness or a concern for human rights. Globality uneven, creating an international ‘digital divide’. encourages us to be reflexive about social problems that Differences exist in the ability to access the Internet and affect others and not just ourselves. Thus, globalization in the skills required to use information technologies. refers to a series of changes that are taking place, and Access to the Internet in many countriesPearson of the majority globality refers to our awareness of those changes. world is controlled by the state or is available only to a small minority who can afford it. Kiely points out:
A shrinking world? At least 80 per cent of thefrom world’s population still lack access to the most basic communication One of the central aspects of global change is the technologies, and nearly 50 countries have fewer compression of time and space, which makes it seem than one telephone line per 100 people. There are like the world is getting smaller (Allen 1995). The world more telephone lines in Manhattan than there are in is considered to be shrinking as distances are effectively the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. While the United decreased through faster and more efficient transport. States has 35 computers per 100 people, even rapidly Improvements in communications, such as cable, developing South Korea has only 9, while for Ghana satellite and digital television, mean that we are the figurepermission is as low as 0.11. Although the number of informed of what is happening in the world more Internet users has expanded dramatically in recent rapidly than ever before. As we are increasingly aware of years, its use is still largely confined to Western what is happening in distant places, what are the social Europe and the United States. implications of this? These global changes call for a prior (Kiely 1998: 5) rethinking of our ethical and moral responsibilities to people who live far away, as we now are more aware of There is massive global inequality in access to how they live their lives (Potter et al. 2008). However, it telephones and even greater unequal access to is worth bearing in mind that the mass media tends to computers. Thus, as Potter et al. (2008) remind us, the refer to the majority world only when reporting bad role of the Internet in improving the development of the news such as environmental disasters, riots andwithout famine. majority world is based on misplaced optimism as poor There is a danger that we can be bombarded with people are likely to be further marginalized as a result images of poverty, particularly during a crisis, and of technical advances. Without wide access to phones we become hardened to it. and computers, majority world countries are going Even though the world is shrinking, not everyone to be even less able to compete in the global economy. shares the benefits of globalization. In some parts of the Therefore, expensive technologies mean that the world, having a television is a luxury that is unaffordable relatively rich become the information-rich and that for some people. Places that are not well connected to ‘the digital divide is likely to exacerbate the differences the global network are stronglydistribution disadvantaged. For existing between the world’s haves and have nots in example, it can be more expensive to fly from poorer the twenty-first century’ (Potter et al. 2008: 145). countries to rich countriesfor because of limited or less It is recognized that the impacts of globalization are frequent links with other airports. Thus, the process very uneven and vary from region to region and from of the shrinking world in terms of time and space one social group to another. The impacts, like the term can be experiencednot by people in different ways. itself, are highly debated, uneven and diverse (Hoogvelt There is increased interconnectivity because 2001). However, we do have to be wary about our use of improvements in electronic communication, of the term ‘globalization’. It is a highly contested term particularlyFile the Internet and email, but also mobile in current social science thinking, and there are many phones, text messages and faxes. We now have the different perspectives on it. Globalization is a complex ability to move information and data quickly and process; the three main strands of globalization that we cheaply. This is often referred to as the coming of the consider here are economic, cultural and political.
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A closer look Education Travel and new connect them to their parents’ distance away compared with their landline and hoping they would usual levels of interaction. This technologies be there. Nowadays, locally bought may be because they have more New technologies have facilitated the SIM cards for mobile phones and time and possibly because they possibilities for travel around the international offers enable phone have more news to communicate. globe. For example, before emails calls home to be far cheaper, Furthermore, the Internet offers and the Internet, gap years, where more accessible and mobile. information aboutPearson distant destinations minority world students took a year Communication technologies, which makes the booking and off to travel (often in the majority such as emails, Skype and Facebook, planning of travel far more world) before university, would have transformed the kind of contact straightforward.from Technologies have been much more daunting that can be maintained across spatial of transport (such as cheap travel) adventures. Communication back boundaries. Some people who are and communications (via computers home would have been infrequent travelling for a long period, may or mobile phones) mean that remote and expensive, typically queuing up even feel that they have more places are now connected more in a telecommunications office in a contact with family and friends easily and it seems that the world city waiting for the operator to back home whilst they are at a long is shrinking.
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A global economy? priordistributed evenly throughout the world. Most are located in the richer countries, although there are Th ere are three key economic aspects of globalization some important cities in certain parts of the majority that this section considers: global cities, transnational world, such as Singapore, Bangkok, Johannesburg, corporations (TNCs) and the new international division Shanghai and Mexico. Overall most large cities in of labour (NIDL). Th e majority world experiences the the majority world are not linked to global networks, fastest rates of urbanization (the proportionwithout of a compared with their counterparts in the minority national population living in urban centres): world (Kiely 1998). For much of human history, life was rural. In the Friedmann (1995) argues that there are several key year 1800, 97 per cent of the world’s population features of world cities that make them centres for lived in rural areas. Wind the clock on 200 years capital accumulation. Th ey have large populations and and we fi nd that 254 cities each contained over one large manufacturing bases, they are fi nance and service million people. centres, and they are a key link for transport to other (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 14) places. Global cities are important as individual cities but also because of their relationship to each other. One of the patternsdistribution of urban change in the majority As Cohen and Kennedy point out: world is that a high proportion of the urban population in some countriesfor is concentrated in one or two major Increasingly, many wealthier people living and cities (Elliott 2006). ‘Megacity’ is a recent term used to working in global cities, or travelling there, fi nd describe a large sprawling urban complex with a that they share conditions of life, attitudes, populationnot of more than eight million; many such cities behaviour patterns and tastes with equivalent are in the majority world. In contrast, ‘global cities’ or residents of other global cities. Th ey lose their ‘world cities’ are those that dominate world aff airs, and national culture or downgrade it in favour of an Filemost of these are in the minority world; they include international and cosmopolitan culture. London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Potter et al. (2008) (Cohen and Kennedy 2000: 17) argue that, despite this emerging network of world It is worth remembering that not only wealthy people cities, these cities are highly centred and are not live in such cities; many poor people can suff er greater
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marginalization and social exclusion as a result of living countries because the cost of labour is so much cheaper in world cities surrounded by so much wealth. there, and ‘most transnational companies invest the Transnational corporations (TNCs) are multinational bulk of their capital in their home country, and most firms that have the power to operate in more than one of these same companies’ foreign investment is in otherEducation country. There has been capital investment from TNCs ‘advanced’ capitalist countries’ (Kiely 1998: 11). Thus, to the majority world, taking advantage of poorer TNCs move to poorer countries in order to exploit their countries being a source of cheap labour. The global cheap labour power, not to help them industrialize. economy is increasingly unstable because of fluctuations Investment by TNCs in the majority world has often in commodity prices and exchange rates, and so TNCs been justified in the name of development, claiming that have to cope with this uncertainty and take risks that TNCs create employment, provide investmentPearson of capital majority world countries are less able to do. The location and introduce new technologies. However, others of TNCs in the majority world is limited geographically, argue that TNCs do not provide majority world people focusing on South East Asia, South Africa, Mexico and with many new skills, as thefrom jobs often involve menial parts of South America. Thus, like global cities, the repetitive tasks and only a limited amount of the profit distribution of TNCs is uneven and concentrated in goes back into the local economy (Kiely 1998). In particular areas. This can lead to increased inequalities many ways it could be argued from a perspective of between areas of the majority world. Some TNCs dependency theory that TNCs increase global divisions have annual turnovers that exceed the gross national rather than decrease them, although modernization products of some poor countries (Potter et al. 2008). theorists are likely to disagree with this view. TNCs represent the increasing concentration of capital Furthermore, industrial growth is distributed on a world scale. Their growth is one of the key features unequallypermission at a global level. Nowadays economic activity of neo-colonialism as they exert control over the raw is more globalized, as production processes have materials and labour power of the majority world. become more mobile and dispersed. This is often There is a debate about the extent to which TNCs referred to as the new international division of labour are beneficial or detrimental to the development of the prior(NIDL), which is ‘the shift from manufacturing in majority world. Modernization theorists claim that Northern countries to industrial production in the multinational corporations will boost the host country’s South where land and labour costs are cheaper’ (Willis economic development and that there will be a trickle- 2005: 175). This ‘global shift’ (Dicken 2003) came about down effect of wealth (Webster 1990). They argue that partly because of reduced industrial profits in Europe TNCs create many jobs for local people and introduce and the USA due to increasing costs of wages and the new technologies and foreign capital, and thatwithout this will need to meet environmental standards in the minority lead to some industrial development locally. In contrast, world. New manufacturing plants were set up in the dependency theorists argue that TNCs do not benefit majority world, where costs are lower: the majority world, as they do not serve their long-term In October 2003, HSBC Bank announced that it was needs. They suggest that TNCs do not lead to a going to cut about 4,000 jobs from call centres in redistribution of resources; nor do they enhance the UK and move them to Hyderabad in India. The majority world countries’ capacity for self-determined Indian city has a suitably-qualified workforce at development. Many of the benefits of TNCs are for the a fraction of the cost of the British workforce. In minority world companiesdistribution themselves rather than for addition, telephone charges between the UK and the host countries. For example, new production, India have fallen greatly, so making this movement innovations, capitalfor and social surplus are unlikely to financially viable. Before January 2001 a call from trickle down to the majority world (Potter et al. 2008). India to the UK would cost about 48.0 rupees, but Those in favour of dependency theory argue that by October 2003 this had fallen to 7.6 rupees. multinationalsnot only intensify global inequality, as they (Willis 2005: 176–7) stifle the development of local industries that would provideFile a better source of local employment. Furthermore, This process was also facilitated by the recent TNCs tend to produce expensive consumer goods for developments in communications technology and the export to rich countries rather than food and other increasing mobility and flexibility of financial services. necessities that local people need. Dependency theorists The speed of financial transactions has increased point out that TNCs set up in poor majority world enormously in recent years; money can now exist in
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electronic form only and can be sent around the world perceive this to be a negative process that encourages in seconds. For example, to send a Moneygram from ‘rampant individualism, the trivializing obsession with a high-street travel agent in Scotland to a bank in consumerism and the endless search for distracting Argentina, the money is guaranteed to be available entertainment . . . an empty materialism whereEducation money for collection ten minutes aft er the transaction is has become the sole measure of all things and people’ completed. Th us, distance is now less important, as (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 5). corporations and fi nancial transactions move around Th e increasing similarity in consumer preferences in a ‘borderless’ world. and habits is oft en referred to as ‘cultural globalization’ or ‘global convergence’ (Potter 2002). Th e mass media A global culture? have a strong infl uence in this Pearsonprocess, as television, newspapers and magazines spread their advertising campaigns. Th ose people most able to engage with this Stop and think global culture are fromfrom the middle and upper classes. Many poor people in the majority world may not be ➤ To what extent can we talk about the existence of a able to aff ord to eat in McDonald’s. However, although global culture? If there is such a thing, whose they may not be able to participate to the same extent culture is becoming more global? as wealthier people in certain aspects of a globalized ➤ Are we increasingly becoming more similar in culture, they may take part at times, such as by owning terms of cultural styles? a pair of jeans or drinking Coca-Cola. Th e capitalist system has a vested interest in globalizing the Th ere has certainly been a rise of global corporations expectationspermission of consumption aspirations and tastes and marketing activities, and this has resulted in the so that more products can be sold (Potter et al. 2008): availability of standardized products across the world. Few individuals living under today’s global For example, product names such as McDonald’s, condition can escape being infl uenced by glimpses Coca-Cola, Nike and Levi can be seen everywhere. Evenprior of the dazzlingly seductive lifestyles lived by the television programmes can become globalized, and world’s celebrity fi gures, or by the temptations of series such as Big Brother and Pop Idol now appear in other people’s cultural repertoires. Th is is because many diff erent countries. Consequently some writers of our ceaseless exposure to the fl ows of ideas and argue that, as a result of these global products and information through the media, or because of markets, places are becoming very similar but in a without migration and the stories and souvenirs brought by particular Westernized or ‘Americanized’ way. Minority returning travellers. world forms of consumption and lifestyles tend to be (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 5) dominant, and it can be argued that cultural homogenization is a form of cultural imperialism: However, we need to be wary about assuming that local traditions are being lost as a result of the invasion Cultural imperialism is rooted in a common-sense of outside infl uences and global images. Th e notion that notion many of us understand: that the reduction in the world is engaging in the same global culture is an cultural diff erences around the world – for example, exaggeration and an oversimplifi cation. We may live in that France doesdistribution not seem as distinctive as it did 30 a more globalized world, where TNCs dominate world years ago – is because of the distribution by global patterns of consumption and production, but this is not corporationsfor of commodifi ed Western culture, a the same as becoming increasingly similar. Furthermore, process which has worked to the advantage of the global cultural processes can lead to new opportunities USA and Western nations . . . Cultural fl ows are for cultural hybridization, as new and old processes are profoundlynot imbalanced, and dominant cultures are mixed, taking on new forms and being reinterpreted seen as threatening more vulnerable cultures. locally (Willis 2005). For example, Bollywood is India’s (Mackay 2000: 60) File own version of Hollywood, which illustrates that Terms such as ‘Hollywoodization’, ‘Coca-Colanization’ diff erent meanings can be attached to minority world and ‘McDonaldization’ refl ect how this process tends consumption and lifestyles in diff erent places. to be an expansion of Western knowledge, capital and Th us, rather than serving to erode local diff erences, culture to the rest of the world (Tomlinson 1999). Some global culture works alongside them (Allen 1995). It is
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also important to recognize that, in relation to aspects emphasis upon deregulation, privatization and of global culture such as fashion, music and tourism, it economic liberalization continue to make is not merely a one-way flow from the minority world to economies and societies more open to the world. the majority world. Majority world products can also (McGrew 2000:Education 348) become popular and influential in the minority world, There are two relatively polarized views on the extent such as curries, reggae music and salsa dancing. to which globalization has affected the role of the Consequently, globalization increases the spread of nation-state. Waters (2001) argues that the ‘modernizers’ cultures throughout the world, but it could be argued to believe that globalization has led to the erosion of the lead as much to diversity and difference as to uniformity nation-state as it now has less power and a smaller role and sameness. compared with the past. Held (1991)Pearson asserts that cultural and economic processes along with increasingly Global politics? powerful TNCs are reducing the power of nation-states. In contrast, more ‘realist’ thinkers such as Dicken (2003) Processes of both economic and cultural globalization from argue that the role of nation-states is changing but that have led to changes in global politics: they are adapting and still hold an important regulatory It is apparent that the stretching of social relations role. Murray suggests that ‘Nation-states remain active across space is giving rise to new networks through in the reproduction of cultural values and norms, and which political demands and power are transmitted, perhaps even more so in the era of accelerated and these may be both formal (for example, globalization as they seek a distinctive place on the transnational governmental institutions such as the global stage’ (Murray 2006: 185). UN) and informal (for example, grassroots political permission communities such as the anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement movement). (Murray 2006: 169) Unequal global trading and economic liberalization priorhave brought a wave of anti-globalization and anti- There are global links between national and international capitalist protests: organizations. Murray (2006) explains that there are now three basic types of institution: national governments, The anti-globalization movement (AGM) is a international organizations (such as the UN, the World nebulous term used to describe a wide range of Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary protest, lobby and interest groups. Although the Fund (IMF) and the World Bank) and transnationalwithout movement broadcasts its message through a variety organizations (such as non-governmental organizations of channels it is the proliferation of street protests, (NGOs), TNCs, environmental groups and international often planned to take place at the same time as protest groups). important capitalist summits or events, that has This has led to a debate over the role of the nation- brought the AGM to the attention of the world. state in contemporary societies. It can be said that Actions have been staged in places as diverse as globalization has, to some extent, eroded the role and Seattle, Genoa, London, Hyderabad and Wellington. power of the nation-state. States once held clear Some see this ‘globalized resistance’ as a unified authority within their borders,distribution as countries were clearly reaction/resistance to transnational regulatory divided and protected by border controls. Now there is a processes from above. notion of a more porous nation-state, partly because of (Murray 2006: 205) for the transnational movement of capital and uncensored Protesters feel that ‘a different world is possible’ and that forms of communication, like the World Wide Web. For globalization should be shaped by human intervention example, it notis very difficult for governments to control to enable it to be more sustainable and empowering for and police the Internet. Furthermore, there has been a everyone. Global controls, standards, policies and even rolling back of the state in relation to economic policies, taxes could be introduced to make globalization more as thereFile has been a tendency to open up markets and effective at reducing inequalities rather than increasing have less state intervention: them: The last two decades have witnessed a dramatic shift . . . global institutions will need to be reformed and away from state intervention to the market as the strengthened in appropriate ways if they are to deal
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World in focus Education The war on terror West, led by the USA, is waging a the most illiberal and new crusade in the Middle East undemocratic politics of Pakistan, The war on terror instigated designed to impose its will and Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, for by the first George W. Bush culture, and as such the conflict has example? What is clear is that, administration (2000 to 2004) far deeper historical roots. The as always, the lines around which following the attacks of 9/11 is, terrorist networks that have evolved, imagined globalPearson geopolitical arguably, shaping a new global partly in response to the war, are divisions are drawn are contingent geopolitical order. The USA and its thought to be truly worldwide in on the desires and needs of those major allies, including the UK, their extent and represent an who are most powerful. Spain, Pakistan and Australia, have amorphous and globalized target from What is for sure is that the undertaken both military and for the USA and its allies. In this broader war on terror has already ‘diplomatic’ offensives in countries sense the war is the first of its been used as a means to promote including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, kind – fought against a group that the diffusion of neoliberalism . . . Yemen, the Philippines, Indonesia, is not spatially bounded and that The challenge for the USA, as the Syria, Sudan and Lebanon, in an does not identify itself with any hegemonic global force, is that it attempt to neutralize the terrorist one nation-state. The International must have legitimacy in what it networks that were behind 9/11. Institute for Strategic Studies has does – lest it fall prey to accusations Intelligence sharing at the nation- estimated that al-Qaeda has over of isolationism and self-interest. state level has also formed a 18,000 militants at itspermission disposal That the will of the United Nations central part of this ‘war’. The spread across sixty countries. Critics was flouted in assembling the principal target is al-Qaeda, an have argued that this greatly invasion of Iraq, that WMDs alliance of radical Islamic groups overestimates the true extent of [weapons of mass destruction] that have used terrorist and the networkprior and that such claims were not found, and that some military tactics for over two should be seen as part of the terrorist suspects have been decades to defend what they USA’s wartime propaganda. held without trial in the US base perceive as the oppression of The rhetoric of the USA during Guantanamo Bay for over three Muslims. The group was formed in this ‘war’ has been ‘you are either years, has spurred on the global 1988 by Osama Bin Laden in with us or against us’, an resistance movement which seeks order to expand the mujahideen withoutapproach which seeks to draw to counter the unregulated and resistance to the Soviet occupation new geopolitical lines in ways illegitimate actions of the US-led in Afghanistan. Despite US which echo the Truman Doctrine. coalition. As it stands, however, backing for this movement in the Those who clearly demonstrate it is probably most accurate to see context of the Cold War, the USA that they are with the USA can the war on terror as an expansion and its Western allies (including expect grand rewards, as the of the post-Cold War order Saudi Arabia) became the group’s issuing of reconstruction contracts propagated by the world’s only principal targets in the 1990s, in Iraq following the ‘end’ of the superpower in its efforts to spread motivated principally by the West’s war there in 2004 illustrated . . . neoliberalism and the political intervention in distributionthe Gulf War of Is it possible that we are models that best support this. 1990 to 1991 and the ongoing moving into other defining (Murray 2006: 197–201) Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The for moments in global geopolitics Questions events of 9/11 represented the in the post-Cold War world? 1. What, if any, are the links between climax of this conflict and unleashed The Washington Consensus globalization and terrorism? USnot efforts designed to remove the of neoliberalism and good threat, although attempts governance is certainly being 2. Could it be argued that increasing to uproot the network, and to eclipsed by simplistic notions of global inequalities contribute to the File invade Iraq, were ongoing during ‘with us or against us’. If this were emergence of global terrorism? If the Clinton years and before. The not the case, why has the West so, what are the sociological rhetoric of al-Qaeda is that the increasingly turned a blind eye to explanations for this?
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with the transnational flows of the contemporary and Reinert argue that there are three key characterisitcs world in an effective and equitable way. In this of migration which are intertwined: context, the reinvigoration of the United Nations is absolutely essential for global stability. . . . the individual agency of a migrant, the socialEducation (Murray 2006: 217) dynamics of migration processes, and political and economic structures. To the extent that the decision As Potter et al. (2008) point out, pro-globalists are in to migrate is a choice, it is one that is influenced favour of global free trade but are far less global in and constrained by a variety of factors. Migration relation to globally based taxes or the unrestricted assumes different levels of cost and risk for each movement of labour across borders. Minority world individual depending on their level of education, governments tend to maintain strict border controls and Pearson financial resources, social capital, access to restrict access, particularly to people from the majority information, social networks, and other world. Some argue that the introduction of global taxes, endowments. such as on international financial transactions, could be from(G oldin and Reinert 2012: 208) used to decrease global poverty (Potter et al. 2008). Real efforts to strive towards a global redistribution of wealth High levels of international migration have led seem sensible but have little support in practice. A to a marked increase in ‘transnational families’ who global tax would also be difficult to monitor, collect ‘participate in social and economic networks which and redistribute; but certainly, if the negative impacts traverse national borders, linking places through a of globalization are to be addressed, then some assertive range of practices’ (Gardner 2012). For example, many action needs to be taken. working-class women from the majority world migrate to look permissionafter the children or older parents of middle- Migration class women in the minority world, leaving their own children behind to be cared for by their husbands, Many aspects of globalization, such as ‘the growth of parents or other kin. This is referred to as the global transnational coorporations, the competition for skilled priorcare chain (Hochschild 2000) and leads to the labor, growing income inequality, and the opening of challenges of maintaining family ties at a distance. Such emerging economies’, have led to the contemporary transnational families ‘learn to develop new, globalized period being referred to as an ‘age of migration’ (Goldin parent–child relationships’ (Chambers 2012: 120). and Reinert 2012: 160). Worldwide there are currently Transnational connections and identities involve more than 200 million migrants which is nearly without complex emotions and communications across cultures 3 per cent of the world’s population. The majority are and place (Gardner 2012). economic migrants alongside increasing numbers of students, refugees, asylum seekers and those migrating A globalizing world? for family reasons. International migration can be beneficial and detrimental to both the sending and One of the key questions to consider in relation to destination countries: globalization is whether we are living in a shrinking world or a more unequal world. As we have seen, ‘the International migrants can bring highly motivated actual processes of globalisation that have occurred have labour, economic skills and cultural renewal to distribution been intrinsically uneven, unequal and unstable’ (Kiely many countries. They fill gaps in the labour market, 1998: 11). The world may be getting smaller for those particularly in affluent Western countries where for living in the minority world or the elites in the majority the population is ageing and fertility is low. world, but for the majority of the world’s population they Nonetheless, they have managed to inflame public may face greater vulnerability and exclusion as a result sentiments in many countries and politicians have not of global processes. Places are linked together in a consequently sought to control and restrict their globalizing world, but they are interrelated in very unequal movement. ways. Given current patterns, inequality is more likely File (Cohen and Kennedy 2007: 11) to increase rather than decrease. As Potter et al. (2008: The decision to migrate is often complex involving a 164) argue: ‘globalisation is not leading to uniformity, weighing up of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors in both the home but to heterogeneity and differences between places’. and destination regions (Punch 2007b; 2009). Goldin They suggest that, in the light of global norms of
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consumption, there is a tendency for convergence and which are spread unevenly and concentrated in specifi c increasing similarity. In contrast, in relation to world areas. Th us, it could be said that patterns of production and ownership, there is a tendency consumption are becoming more similar across the towards divergence. Th ere are increasing diff erences world, but patterns of production are becomingEducation in ownership of capital and productive capabilities, increasingly diff erent.
A closer look Pearson Managing globalization abide by multilateral trade rules. communities build transnational ● ‘ Regionalism replaces global alliances to contest the neoliberal According to McGrew (2000), there solidarity among all developing vision of globalization and are three key strategies for managing from countries with effective economic promote an alternative globalization: groupings on a regional basis.’ programme.’ For example, a ● ‘ Regulation can mean developing For example, the North American global campaign consisting of states both attempting to reform Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and social, environmental, women’s the international institutions which the South American Common and development movements embody the rules of the global Market (MERCOSUR) retain some joined forces to protest against system and trying to see those protection from competition from the Multilateral Agreement on rules enforced favourably.’ For minority world countries. Investment (MAI), which then example, the WTO is used by ● ‘ Resistance refers to permission challenges collapsed in 1998. majority world countries to ensure “from below” as social (Adapted from McGrew 2000: 360–64) that minority world countries movements, citizen’s groups and prior
In respect of homogenization–heterogenization, On the other hand, there are others who perceive two generalized views have emerged concerning the globalization as contributing to the exploitation of the relationships between globalization withoutand patterns of poor by the rich and as a threat to traditional cultures as development. Th e fi rst view is the familiar claim the process of modernization changes societies. Th e rise that places around the world are fast becoming, if of countries such as China and India raises questions not exactly the same, then certainly increasingly of whether or not globalization and free trade can help similar . . . Th e second and far more realistic stance solve poverty and inequality. Th e debate is torn between present almost the reverse view, that rather than those who argue in favour of neoliberal globalization uniformity, globalization is resulting in greater and free trade on the one hand and arguments for diff erence, fl exibility, permeability, openness and protectionism and regionalism on the other. For hybridity, both between places and between example, Wolf (2004) suggests that the growth of cultures. Followingdistribution on from this perspective, far China illustrates that globalization and free trade are from leading to a uniform world, globalization is the answer, whereas authors such as Wade (2004) and viewed as beingfor closely connected with the process Kaplinsky (2005) argue that China’s recent development of uneven development and the perpetuation of does not show this clearly. China is an interesting spatial inequalities. case as it somewhat paradoxically combines economic not (Potter 2002: 192) liberalization and a strong state (Fernandez Jilberto and As we have seen, globalization is a highly contentious Hogenboom 2010). Furthermore, China has recently Fileissue. Th ere are heated debates about the extent to been seeking alliances with countries in the majority which globalization has positive and negative eff ects. On world, leading to the development of both economic the one hand, there are those who perceive it positively, and political benefi ts as well as challenges (see below). as having the potential to make societies richer through Th us, the changing world stratifi cation complicates and trade and improved communication around the world. alters the picture of global inequality.
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World in focus Education The rise of China world”’ (2010: 3). In terms of trade, and challenges for future China has forged strong economic development trajectories: links with many parts of the majority The rise of China might be the By joining the G20 in the WTO world and this economic cooperation most important single event negotiations, China has been of in turn strengthens their strategic in the world’s recent economic great support in advancing the relations in terms of global politics developments. To most developing interests of developingPearson regions and world trade. China joined the countries, the last quarter of the in global politics and the world World Trade Organization (WTO) in twentieth century was ‘dominated’ market. Meanwhile, as a new 2001 aligning itself with countries by economic crises, increasing export market and an emerging like Brazil, India and Russia in the indebtedness and financial crises, sourcefrom of foreign investment, G20 (group of more than twenty political instability and a profound there is a ‘China effect’ in this majority world countries). China’s shift of development model that area as well. Having increased support in the G20 enhances the did not produce the ‘expected’ growth in developing countries, majority world’s negotiating power results, but to China this period which are benefitting from exports with minority world regions such stood for quite something to China and rising as Europe and North America. different: an amazingly high world market prices, diminishes However, whilst there are many and continuous economic growth, these countries’ dependency on mutual economic and political an increasing budget and trade international financial institutions benefits of China’s alliances permissionwith surplus, political stability, and and their policies. And countries the majority world, there are also all of this based on a profound that receive Chinese investments many challenges and potential shift of developmental model or development assistance find threats. For the majority world that produced more results that there are no economic policy countries who workprior with China, than anyone imagined. In effect, conditions attached. On the other the positives include the although still being a developing hand, China’s global agenda has a diversification of their export country, China has steadily clear and purely economic goal, markets, increasing world prices climbed up the ladder of the and it has and investments from Chinese world’s largest economies and been its economic – and not companies. The main negatives now comes immediately after political – liberalisation within are withouthaving to compete with an the ‘top three’ – the United a neoliberalising global system abundance of cheap labour in China, States, Japan and Germany. that paved the way for resulting in cheap, low technology This growth is based on a China’s remarkable economic products, such as clothing and globalization strategy that development. As a result, China footwear, which can threaten their has rendered China a central can be expected to further own local industries. position in global production, enhance the South–South agenda China offers an alternative global trade and global finance. and support international development model which combines (Fernandez Jilberto and demands of developing countries, Hogenboom 2010: 1) a strong, state-led economy with it may also further enhance distributioncontolled liberalization where foreign Fernandez Jilberto and Hogenboom a globalisation that seriously companies invest, sometimes argue that China has benefited most neglects human rights and referred to as ‘market socialism’. from globalizationfor compared with environmental degradation, However, it is not all positive as some any other country as it has become while also making it hard for Latin argue that China’s rapid economic ‘a central place for production, American manufacturing development has been achieved at investment,not import and export, to survive and modernise. the expense of the environment and which are all heavily tied up in (Fernandez Jilberto and human rights. Thus China presents China’s role as “the factory to the Hogenboom 2010: 26) File complex but interesting possibilities
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Globalization theories it may lead to greater inequalities and polarization between the majority and minority worlds (Potter Different names have been given to globalization et al. 2008): theories. They fall broadly into three categories: those Education in favour of (‘globalizers’) and those against (‘sceptics’) . . . globalization as currently practised is globalization, and a third approach (‘transformationalist’) exacerbating global inequalities, failing to raise that falls somewhere in between (Table 9.6). people out of relative deprivation, and locking whole regions into an exploitative capitalist global Globalists economy. (Murray 2006: 311) Pearson Globalists argue that international capitalism will The sceptics argue that there is room for economic generate more and more wealth, and ultimately more independence and for a significant role for nation-states. countries will be able to gain from it. They argue that, Economic and social activity can be regional rather if globalization is well managed, then the benefits will than global, and it doesfrom not have to be built on global outweigh the costs and will decrease world poverty in interdependence. They also argue that the significance the long term. Thus, they tend to perceive globalization of globalization as a new phenomena has been as a beneficial process that provides people with greater exaggerated because ‘in spite of increases in global flows choices and better communications. From this of trade and money around the world, these are not modernization perspective, international competition substantially different to the economic and social is seen as a good thing and Westernization is seen interactions that have occurred between nations in as positive in spreading progress and development. previous historical times’ (Cochrane and Pain 2000: 23). Globalists generally believe that globalization will bring permission benefits to those in poverty. However, there are some Transformationalists globalists who are not quite so positive, seeing Transformationalists suggest that neither of the above globalization as ‘an inevitable development which prior cannot be resisted or significantly influenced by human two views is a sufficient explanation for recent global intervention’ (Cochrane and Pain 2000: 22). processes. They argue that globalization is creating a reordering of world relations (McGrew 2000). Sceptics It is not about the minority world versus the majority world, as these divisions no longer make sense. The sceptics strongly disagree with the withoutglobalists and Transformationalists point out that there are wealthy perceive globalization to have many negative impacts. powerful elites in the majority world and there are poor, Sceptics argue that globalization creates only a few socially excluded people in the minority world. There winners but many losers and that ultimately it increases are new complex patterns of global hierarchies, with global inequalities (McGrew 2000). For dependency new patterns of domination and subordination across, theorists who are sceptical about globalization, trade and within, regions. Transformationalists ‘believe that liberalization, the opening up of free markets and the globalization represents a significant shift, but question minimization of the role of the state are likely to the inevitability of its impacts’ (Cochrane and Pain contribute to furtherdistribution exploitation and poverty at a 2000: 23). They acknowledge that important global global level. This negative view of globalization is changes are taking place, but they see the outcomes as similar to the negative perspectives towards the spread being more complex, diverse and unpredictable than of capitalism. forRather than believing that this will lead to either the globalizer or the sceptical perspectives a more equal, more homogeneous world, it is feared that recognize. not Table 9.6 Globalization theories FileGlobalists Modernization theorists support this view; also known as the neoliberal school, hyperglobalists, globalizers and modernizers Sceptics Dependency theorists support this view; also known as the radical school and traditionalists Transformationalists Also known as structuralists and neostructuralists
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Dimensions of globalization As we have seen, diff erent approaches to development have been criticized over the years; in particular, past Key aspects of globalization include economic, strategies of economic development have been heavily technological, social, cultural and political elements. Each criticized as being inappropriate and too top-down.Education of these dimensions reinforces and impacts on the others. Another key critique that emerged in the 1970s was in However, we need to be cautious and critical about the relation to gender: development strategies were blamed extent to which globalization is happening. In particular, for being male-dominated and gender-blind. Ideas we should bear in mind that not everyone experiences about the importance of integrating gender took a while the process of globalization in the same way and that it to be taken seriously, but by the 1990s it was recognized can have both positive and negative consequences: that gender analysis must be includedPearson in development . . . globalization is a highly uneven process: it results thinking. A failure to include both women’s and men’s in clear winners and losers, not just between countries perspectives can lead to poorly developed strategies and but within and across them. For the most affl uent it less eff ective policies. from may very well entail a shrinking world – jet travel, Th e fi rst person to begin this process was Ester global TV and the World Wide Web – but for the Boserup, with her work Women’s Role in Economic majority of people it tends to be associated with a Development (1970). She showed that women’s profound sense of disempowerment as their fate is agricultural production is critical in sustaining local and sealed by deliberations and decision-making in national economies but that women’s work tended to be chancelleries, boardrooms, and bureaucracies greatly undervalued. Women’s subordinated status also many thousands of miles away . . . For these reasons means that their work tends to be degraded and has globalization has to be understood as a process which little respect.permission Boserup increased awareness of women’s both unites and divides peoples and communities. marginalization; she provided evidence that women (McGrew 2000: 348) tended to lack access to technology and resources and that, if development was to be successful, then it must priorconsider issues relating to women (Visvanathan 1997a). Gender relations in the Since then aid agencies and NGOs have made eff orts to integrate women into development planning and to majority world create development programmes aimed at improving women’s livelihoods. Stop and think Women in Development (WID) is the oldest and without most dominant feminist perspective in development. ➤ What hinders women’s participation in the process It was very important in highlighting that women of development? What policies could be introduced were being excluded from development and that to enhance women’s contribution to development modernization was impacting diff erently on men and projects? women:
A closer lookdistribution
Feminist perspectivesfor on emerge in the early 1970s and is women as a result of class, race linked to modernization theory, and culture. development which it sees as male-dominated. ● Women and Development (WAD) A variety notof feminist theories have WID argues that the benefits of – This perspective emerged in the emerged in relation to development. modernization have not reached mid-1970s and is linked to The main ones are outlined here: women but it tends to see women dependency theory, suggesting that File as an undifferentiated category, women’s inferior status is linked ● Women in Development (WID) – overlooking diversity among This was the first perspective to to their work roles. It argues that
Proofs:394
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A closer look continued
women’s unpaid domestic and rather than just concentrating on resources, and this is criticizedEducation for reproductive work is critical for women (as WID and WAD had being essentialist. capitalism, and it is this role that done), it focuses on the social ● Development Alternatives for a makes them vulnerable to relations between men and New Era (DAWN) – This approach exploitation in the productive women. Thus, gender relations emerged in the mid-1980s and, sphere. It is a Marxist approach, are analysed rather than only unlike all the other approaches, which focuses on structural and seeing women as the category was initiatedPearson by women from the socioeconomic factors, but it of analysis. majority world. They challenged tends to concentrate on ● Women, Environment and the universality of feminism by exploitation in productive, rather Development (WED) – This approach highlighting the significance of than reproductive, work. has been introduced by ecofeminists race,from class and nation, thereby ● Gender and Development (GAD) – and stresses the need to incorporate stressing the diversities among This theoretical perspective women’s voices on environmental women. They preferred to focus emerged in the 1980s and was issues, such as inequities of on political consciousness-raising influenced by socialist feminist ownership and control of land and and popular education as much thinking. It explores gender resources. It has been criticized as on increasing women’s income- relations in both the productive for being over-romantic and for earning opportunities. Fighting labour force and the reproductive calling for a return to subsistence for greater gender equality and sphere. It is a more holistic agriculture as the solution to empowerment was as important perspective, which considers all women’s problems. WEDpermission tends as improving their work status aspects of women’s lives. The key to emphasize the importance of and income. aspect of this approach is that, women’s role in managing natural (Source: adapted from Visvanathan 1997b) prior
Instead of improving women’s rights and status, the necessarily of the structural roots of discrimination and development process was at best bypassing them subordination. and at worst contributing to a deteriorationwithout in GAD is a holistic perspective that considers women’s women’s position in developing countries. productive and reproductive roles: (Pearson 2000: 390) In order to understand fully the nature of sex WID argued that the experience and implications of discrimination, women’s wages, women’s poverty are diff erent for men and women because they participation in the development process and face diff erent sets of constraints and responsibilities. Th e implications for political action, analysts must key goal for WID was to focus on improving women’s examine the two areas of production and lives and increasing their access to resources, rather reproduction as well as the interaction between than raising questionsdistribution as to why women were them. subordinated in the fi rst place. Th is is where Gender (Beneria and Sen 1997: 49) and Developmentfor (GAD) diff ered in its approach. GAD was particularly concerned with problematizing It goes beyond economic well-being to address relations between men and women in a range of settings individuals’ social and mental needs. GAD recognizes and highlightingnot the ways in which gender relations that household confl icts can arise from both gender impact on development programmes. Young (1997a) divisions and generational diff erences (Visvanathan Fileargues that women are seen as agents of change rather 1997b). It stresses the importance of a gender analysis than as passive recipients of development assistance. of distribution of power within households; that men, Th is does not assume that women have perfect women, girls and boys have diff erential access to land knowledge or understanding of their social situation. and resources. As Young (1997a: 53) points out, ‘GAD Th ey can be aware of their subordinate position but not is much less optimistic about the role of the market as
Proofs: 395
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 395 12/5/12 3:11 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions
distributor of benefit’. GAD includes a definite role for Women’s needs are varied and depend on the the state in implementing development programmes particular context, but they may include an adequate that bring about equality between the sexes, in food supply, convenient access to safe water, a steady particular by focusing on strengthening women’s legal source of income, availability of safe contraception,Education rights (including changing inheritance and land laws). access to education, and access to training and credit. It strives to address existing power relations between Moser contrasts practical needs with strategic interests: men and women in society and also recognizes a need Strategic gender needs are the needs women for organization. It emphasizes the need for women to identify because of their subordinate position organize themselves for a more effective political voice. to men in their society . . . They relate to gender It recognizes that patriarchy oppresses women and that Pearson divisions of labour, power and control and may there should be an emphasis on women’s empowerment include such issues as legal rights, domestic and male responsibility (Young 1997a). violence, equal wages and women’s control over In terms of gender planning in relation to development, their bodies. from Moser (1993) distinguishes between the needs of (Moser 1993: 39) poor women and the issues relating to their gender subordination. She refers to these as practical needs Strategic needs enable women to achieve greater versus strategic needs: equality and challenge women’s subordinate position, which may include male control of women’s labour, Practical gender needs are a response to immediate women’s restricted access to valued social and economic perceived necessity . . . and often are concerned resources and political power, and issues of male with inadequacies in living conditions such as violence against women (Moser 1993). Women’s work is water provision, health care, and employment. undervalued,permission but for it to be valued the pervasive ideology (Moser 1993: 40) of male superiority has to be changed (Kabeer 1994).
prior
Case study without Gender analysis of micro-credit with their repayments than men (Kabeer 2001). Furthermore, women are more likely to spend money Pearson (2000) explores the different WID and GAD on the general welfare of the family, especially on children approaches to development in relation to micro-credit. (Kabeer 1994). As Pearson (2000) points out, this WID Giving small amounts of credit to poor farmers in rural areas position focuses on targeting resources at women as became a popular tool of poverty alleviation in the 1990s. a way of improving poor people’s livelihoods, but the It was thought that lending small amounts of money would problem with such an analysis is that it ignores wider enable farmers to diversify their livelihoods and set up gender relations. small-scale business to improvedistribution their income-earning In contrast, the GAD approach considers the implications potential and increase self-employment opportunities. that such a development project may have on household One of the best knownfor rural banks is the Grameen Bank, relationships. It may lead to potential gender conflicts, as which began in 1976 in Bangladesh, with the aim of women have to juggle their new productive roles with other providing micro-credit for poor households. domestic reproductive work; when women gain greater WID seesnot this as an effective strategy for empowering access to financial resources, this can lead to difficulties women as it enables them to improve their productive within the household. For example, it has been found that economic activities (Pearson 2000). Most borrowers of in some cases women’s access to credit does not increase the GrameenFile Bank are women, and this raises their their control over economic activities and the credit is used involvement in income-generation, which in turn increases for activities controlled by men (Pearson 2000). The women their status within families and communities. Women are may just end up having the responsibility of paying back the regularly found to be more reliable as borrowers, as they money, which means that it may actually increase women’s are more likely to pay back the money and are more prompt dependence on men because of their responsibility for
Proofs:396
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 396 12/5/12 3:11 PM Chapter 9 Global divisions
Case study continued
Education additional debts and the burden of repayment. It may affect which this kind of project really does end up empowering the quality of relations between spouses because, as women women, and there are diverse experiences in different gain more financial authority and increased assertiveness, cultural contexts. Nevertheless, this case study illustrates this can in some cases lead to increased domestic violence that gender relations are an important factor in shaping the if the husband feels threatened. outcomes of development projects. Thus, relations between However, other research has pointed out that, in the men and women must be taken into account, rather than long term, micro-credit increases women’s voice in intra- only considering the position of women.Pearson The status and role household decision-making and may actually improve of women need to be problematized and the gender relationships between spouses and decrease family violence implications of development programmes should be (Kabeer 2001). Hence, there are disputes over the extent to considered holistically. from
However, most recent development strategies have generation or self-employment opportunities because: recognized that in reality it is often very difficult to ‘It also implies some degree of conflict: empowerment make distinctions between women’s practical and is not just about women acquiring something, but strategic needs. It is now acknowledged that they are about those holding power relinquishing it’ (Young interlinked and that both need to be addressed. Women 1997b:permission 372). need to be empowered and there should be a One of the key goals of feminists was to achieve commitment towards seeking gender equality, but also ‘gender mainstreaming’, which meant that gender the basic needs of poor women should be met. One type would be considered a central part of development of need should not be sought at the expense of the priorprocesses: other: ‘Women’s interests span the household, workplace The new strategy was to mainstream gender into and community; women’s issues are, therefore, public general development policies, programmes and issues’ (Wiegersma 1997: 363). Thus, women’s projects in order to counteract the tendency for perspectives should be seen as central to development women’s concerns and gender issues to become programmes, as Young (1997b: 366) suggests: ‘Planners without marginalized, underfunded and ignored by the have a great responsibility: both to listen to women and ‘real’ development experts and activities. to build their vision into planning strategies’. (Pearson 2000: 400) Nowadays it is widely recognized that women are potential beneficiaries of development and that their Most recent discussions of gender and development views have to be sought. However, we must bear in have raised concern about ways of including men’s mind that women are not a homogeneous social perspectives of gender issues. Rather than merely seeing category and we ‘must take care not to misrepresent the men as being part of the problem and the root cause of women’s subordination, there is a shift towards diverse positions of distributiondifferent women . . . women’s power is dramatically fractured by age and life cycle’ (Pearson considering how men can also be part of the solution. and Jackson 1998: 7–8). Women’s conflicting and This requires the recognition that male domination is multiple interestsfor should be taken into account, not necessarily universal; not all men try to oppress although Young reminds us that most feminists: women. Furthermore, there are many different ways of being a man in the majority world, just as there . . . whilstnot accepting and even emphasizing diversity, are many different ways of being a woman. Men may maintain that women share a common experience experience social pressure to conform to dominant of oppression and subordination, whatever the File ideas about being a man, and this is often referred differences in the forms that these take. to as ‘hegemonic masculinity’. Hence, the most recent (Young 1997b: 372) recognition is that gender analysis is not only about Nevertheless, empowerment is not only about women and their relations with men but also about men economic conditions and improving women’s income- and issues of masculinity.
Proofs: 397
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Childhoods in the majority world overgeneralizing in relation to diff erent kinds of childhood, as children’s lives are greatly varied in diff erent geographical areas, according to the cultural, Stop and think socioeconomic and historical context. Nevertheless,Education it can be argued that work is more commonplace and ➤ Do you think that child labour should be banned? visible in majority world childhoods, whereas play tends What are the arguments for and against making to be considered more central to those in the minority child labour illegal? world (James et al. 1998). Although not denying that ➤ Should all children have primary and secondary some child work can be extremely exploitative, recent education? Are there any reasons to suggest that academic studies have shown that workPearson is a key part forcing children to go to school is not a sensible of many majority world childhoods and that it is not strategy? necessarily detrimental, oft en having both positive and negative eff ects (Ansellfrom 2005; Woodhead 1998). In the media, the conventional image of majority world Th ere has been an ongoing debate about whether children is that of starving, desperate, passive, exploited to use the term ‘children’s work’ or ‘child labour’. Some victims who evoke strong emotions of pity and concern. consider ‘child work’ to be acceptable, a social good Such depressing photographs are frequently used in and a positive form of socialization useful for the child’s the minority world to elicit donations for charities. future. In contrast, ‘child labour’ is generally perceived Yet, while they may facilitate the success of fundraising as unacceptable, a social evil and a negative form of campaigns, such negative images only perpetuate the exploitation that is detrimental for the child’s future stereotypical notion that all majority world children are (Ansellpermission 2005). Th ere may also be a distinction between helpless and dependent. Majority world childhoods tend two categories of child work: unpaid family work, and to be portrayed in stark contrast to minority world paid work outside the family circle. Recent thinking on childhoods, where children’s work abandons the work/labour dichotomy priorand recognizes the complexity of the nature of child Th e child is spared the responsibilities and anxieties work. of economic life, the world of work and the many Particular activities are perceived to be more worries which are to be inherited upon maturity. appropriate, less harmful and even benefi cial for child Childhood is a period of unconstrained freedom, workers. Children working with family members, a time for play, education and learning. especially in rural environments, are less likely to (Franklin 1986: 4) without be exposed to the same risk of exploitation as those Th is image of carefree childhood is perceived as working in labour-intensive industries or in urban the ideal to which all childhoods should aspire, and so areas. Boyden reported that in Peru domestic service there is a notion of a globalized model of childhood. and agriculture are legally considered more appropriate However, this is based on minority world middle-class for children because ideals (Boyden 1997). It is important to remember Th e assumption is that young people involved in that the majority of the world’s children live in the non-waged activities, recruited into the labour economically poor world regions of Latin America, market through kinship networks, or working in Asia and Africa. Broadlydistribution comparing the majority and family enterprises, are in some way guaranteed minority worlds, the most common type of ‘childhood’ protection. Exploitation is seen solely as a function is therefore that offor majority world children (many of waged employment in large impersonal concerns. of whom work). Yet paradoxically, majority world (Boyden 1988: 199) childhoods tend to be considered deviant when examined withinnot the globalized model of childhood, Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that child which is based on a minority world perception that work is protected when it occurs within kinship childrenFile should play and study but not work (Boyden relations. Exploitation may be more hidden and diffi cult 1997). Quantitatively, in global terms, it is more to accept in family enterprises, but that does not mean common for children to combine work and school that it is non-existent. Furthermore, it is oft en harder to rather than to have a childhood based on play and intervene in cases of child exploitation when the child is school (see also Chapter 7 ). We need to be wary about dependent physically and emotionally on the exploiter.
Proofs:398
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Domestic service is one of the main forms of child work decision-making and bargaining power (Ansell 2005). but is also highly exploitative, as the child can be In contrast, unpaid family work can reinforce children’s vulnerable to psychological, physical, verbal and sexual economic dependence on their parents. Thus, some abuse. Paradoxically, it is one of the activities considered children prefer paid employment outside the homeEducation most appropriate and least harmful for children. rather than engaging in unpaid ‘taken for granted’ Consequently, domestic service is often not included in family work. For example, children in Indonesia said legislation or is most lenient on the entry age of the they preferred to work for low wages in factories rather child. It can lead to children being a source of cheap than for no wages within the family (Johnson et al. labour for wider family members. Ideologies of kinship 1995). Some children say they prefer paid work because should not lead to assumptions that kin relations are it has greater future prospects andPearson is less exploitative. always based only on reciprocity and mutual support It is too simplistic to assume that child labour in the rather than exploitation and oppression (Boyden et al. urban world of business and industry is automatically 1998). exploitative, whereas childfrom work in traditional Similarly, it is wrong to assume that waged occupations of farming and domestic service is a employment for children is necessarily exploitative. It beneficial and essential form of socialisation (Boyden can be positive, as it enables children to earn an income, et al. 1998). White (1996) argues that children’s work however small, which enables them to support should be viewed on a continuum, rather than trying to themselves or their families. Paid work can stimulate categorize it as one of two extremes. UNICEF supports children’s personal growth and development. By earning the view that work is not just good or bad for children their own money, children have access to greater but moves on a continuum from best to worst: permission
Case study prior
Primark: on the rack ethics of Primark’s reaction. Instead of trying to improve working conditions for the children and families involved, In June 2008 the BBC1 documentary programmewithout Panorama Primark took away a vital source of their income by placing presented an investigation into the suppliers for the clothing a total ban on the use of child labour. Some of the children shop Primark. Panorama had sent a team of reporters had been working at home, sewing garments by hand, to pose as industry buyers in India in order to test out alongside other family members. Denying them a source Primark’s claim that it could provide cheap clothing without of income and somewhat naively labelling all child labour breaking ethical guidelines. During the programme it as unethical paradoxically may mean that some of these emerged that some garments were being produced using children end up working in more hidden, more exploitative child labour that had been unofficially subcontracted forms of employment. Panorama revealed the minority without Primark’s knowledge. Primark’s response to the world assumptions (underlying Primark’s response) that investigation was to sackdistribution three of its suppliers in India all child labour is negative and should be banned without and announce that it would set up a ‘Primark’s Better Lives showing an understanding of the detrimental consequences Foundation’. However, this sparked a debate about the of doing so. for
not At one end of the continuum, the work is beneficial, these two poles, including work that need not Filepromoting or enhancing a child’s physical, mental, impact negatively on the child’s development. spiritual, moral or social development without (UNICEF 1997: 24) interfering with schooling, recreation and rest. However, it is difficult to decide where particular At the other end, it is palpably destructive or employment should be placed along the continuum, exploitative. There are vast areas of activity between since most work has both positive and negative effects
Proofs: 399
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 399 12/5/12 3:11 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions
simultaneously, both in the present and for the child’s understanding of the nature of children’s work, one future. Children’s work can be considered in either must take into account the long-term and short-term positive or negative terms: outcomes, the specifi c social and cultural environment, the historical and economic context, and both adults’Education For large numbers of children work is an ordeal, a and children’s perceptions of their own situation source of suff ering and exploitation, and a fundamental (Woodhead 1998). abuse of human rights. Oft en, child labour results Whether children work is not a question of choice in educational deprivation, social disadvantage and for many children or their families in the majority poor health and physical development. Yet child world. Th e causes of child labour usually stem from work can be an important element in maturation, poverty and underdevelopment. However,Pearson children securing the transition from childhood to adulthood. also work as a result of other structural constraints, It can also be essential for family survival. including the failure of the education system, the vested (Bequele and Boyden 1988: v) interests of employers, rapidfrom rural–urban migration, Ways in which children are perceived to be ‘exploited’ lack of parental awareness of the implications for vary and depend on one’s defi nition of ‘exploitation’ children’s health and development, social and cultural (Bequele and Myers 1995). It can be considered in attitudes, and lack of political will for eff ective action relation to the short-term or long-term detrimental (Boyden et al. 1998; Panelli et al. 2007). It is worth consequences. Children’s work can have many benefi ts bearing in mind that some children choose to work to for children themselves and their families. Woodhead help their families, to enhance their independence and (1998) found that children in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, competencies, to gain access to consumer luxuries, to the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua gain usefulpermission skills, and as a means of self-actualization demonstrated an ability to reason about which work was (Boyden et al. 1998). Family dynamics and household best for them. Th ey considered a variety of advantages composition also infl uence whether children work. and disadvantages, including relative income, security, For example, Boyden et al. (1998: 138) observed that safety, hazard, exploitation, independence and prior‘in many places, a disproportionate number of working autonomy. Woodhead also showed that children’s children appear to be from homes headed by a single perceptions of the benefi ts of their work, such as woman’. Th ey noted that family emergencies, such as enhanced self-esteem and sense of responsibility, death or incapacitation of an adult earner, loss of a job, oft en outweighed the drawbacks, such as poor working harvest failures and severe weather, may also increase conditions. Th erefore, in order to reach an adequate the likelihood of children beginning to work. without
A closer look
Table 9.7 The advantages and disadvantages of children’s work Positive aspects Negative aspects
Useful contribution to thedistribution survival of their household; Low pay, long hours may increase their status as a family member Work as a source forof pride, satisfaction and self-esteem Lack of legal protection Moral value of work, giving children a sense of efficacy and responsibility Sexual, physical or emotional abuse Provides access to a wider social network Slave-like or socially isolating conditions Provides notan income and enhances their ability to access consumer goods Work that is mundane and repetitive Personal autonomy: increases sense of independence and self-reliance Health and safety risks of dangerous working environments Enables the development of useful skills for their future Use of unsafe tools and equipment File May enable them to pay for their own schooling May have adverse effects on schooling
(Source: Boyden et al. 1998)
Proofs:400
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to ban all child labour to providing legislation to protect children from overexploitation. Th e illegal status of children’s work forces it underground, to be denied by governments, employers, parents and the childrenEducation themselves. Where it is concealed, it is not included in protective legislation, and it may be disguised as an ‘apprenticeship’ or ‘training’ when it becomes a convenient excuse to pay even lower wages. Illegal child labour tends to be confi ned to industrial or commercial jobs, especially factories, mines Pearsonand other hazardous employment. Labour legislation prohibits children under a certain age, usually 12–14 years, from doing certain jobs, Figure 9.7 Children face both physical and social dangers at work which tend to exclude fromthe agricultural and domestic © G.M.B. Akash/Panos Pictures sectors. However, Bequele and Myers (1995) argue that, even where comprehensive legislation exists, it is rarely Th e UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states enforced in the majority world. Th is is because there is that exploitative child labour should be eliminated, but a shortage of inspectors, who are poorly paid and oft en the Convention’s recommendations ‘may not be realistic easily bribed. Th ey also recognize that ‘protecting children for all countries, especially those whose economies against a particular hazard, and making their work more and educational facilities are insuffi ciently developed’ tolerable, may encourage them to stay in it’ (Bequele and (Bequele and Myers 1995: 93). Th e International Labour Myerspermission 1995: 156). Th ere is no disputing that exploitative Organization (ILO) has been striving to ban child child labour conditions should be regulated, but the labour since 1919. However, recent discussions of children’s views, the context and the consequences policymaking and legislation have shift ed from a desire should also be taken into account (Woodhead 1998). prior
A closer look
Why do children work? withoutand they tend to be a docile household, the employment status labour force as they are and wage rates of employable ● On the demand side employers unprotected by legislation and adults within the household, the prefer to employ children as they workers’ rights. availability and cost of schooling, can do labour-intensive tasks for ● On the supply side, whether and the social and cultural lower wages than adults, they are children work or not tends to environment. a good source of casual labour, depend on the wealth of the (Source: based on Bequele and Boyden 1988)
distribution
Related closelyfor to the debate on whether child labour both the direct and indirect costs of formal education. can be regarded as exploitation or socialization is Direct costs of schooling include fees, uniform, school the discussion of the value of school versus work for supplies and transport. Even where an offi cial school childrennot in the majority world. Th is debate considers uniform is not required, children still need reasonable which form of socialization is more appropriate or shoes and clothing. Additional costs of board and Filerealistic for the child and household concerned: that lodging may occur where children have to migrate in of formal education at school, or that of unpaid work order to continue their schooling. A major indirect cost at home or paid work outside the household. For many of schooling is the labour or earnings lost while the children in the majority world, full-time, long-term child is at school. In some cases this can mean that schooling is not a readily available option because of hired help is needed to replace the child’s labour.
Proofs: 401
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 401 12/5/12 3:12 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions
The immediate costs of schooling are by no means the and so it should not be assumed simplistically that only reason why children may work (whether paid or doing both is necessarily more beneficial to the child unpaid, with family or non-kin) rather than attend school. than doing work alone (Boyden et al. 1998). The opportunities for attending school and the perceived It is no longer acceptable to consider developmentEducation returns from schooling relative to work are essential factors. issues without including an analysis of the impact on Schooling does not always guarantee better employment women’s and children’s lives. In the past, development prospects, and so it does not necessarily lead to a brighter tended to be perceived from the perspective of adult future (Jeffrey and McDowell 2004). Consequently, parents men, but now the views of women and young people may prefer their children to learn a trade, as they see must also be taken into account, as Ansell argues: little value in sacrificing limited resources to invest Pearson Since the 1980s, growing global economic in formal education. Particularly in rural areas where inequalities have left many children in situations children are thought most likely to end up working of worsening poverty. Yet, paradoxically, the in traditional occupations of farming, parents are even neo-liberal policies that fromhave fed poverty have also led more likely to consider school a pointless investment. to funds being directed away from government-led Thus, the main reasons why children do not go to macroeconomic policies to an NGO sector that is school or why they drop out are the direct and indirect highly concerned about development’s negative costs, limited access to schools, lack of available schools, impacts on children and youth. Only recently, the perceived returns of schooling, limited future working however, have policy-makers and practitioners opportunities, and the poor quality of schools and begun to recognise children and youth as subjects teaching. Woodhead’s (1998) research on children’s with their own ideas, able to act in their own perspectives of their working lives found that most interests.permission Increasingly it is recognised that failure children felt that combining work and school was their to listen to young people’s voices has often meant only feasible option. His study revealed that children failure to address many of the issues that confront saw both positive and negative aspects of education. children and youth. The benefits of schooling included: prior (Ansell 2005: 61) ● acquiring literacy and numeracy skills; Chawla and Johnson (2004) provide examples of ● improved work prospects; projects that have installed water taps that are too high ● a sense of achievement and respect; for children to reach and income-generating activities that result in children missing school to help their ● making and playing with friends. without parents. They also argue that The negative aspects included: . . . the basic needs that children express are ● harsh and humiliating teaching methods; conditions for well-being for all ages in society – ● feelings of failure and boredom; such as safety, secure homes, adequate food and ● teacher absenteeism; clean water, attractive environments, the protection of the natural world, education, fair livelihoods, ● the costs of schooling; friendly acceptance, and a hopeful future. Attention ● competing pressures distributionof school and work. to children’s needs also requires a timeframe that considers the consequences of decisions far into the It is recognized that children’s views need to be taken future . . . Therefore development programmes that into account whenfor trying to weigh up the advantages and put children at the centre are well positioned to disadvantages of work versus school. In many cases, the unify diverse groups and to build a strong decision as to whether a child should attend school or foundation for broad alliances for progressive should worknot can be avoided by combining the two. The change. feasibility of this depends on the nature of the child’s (Chawla and Johnson 2004: 66) work,File the distances and hours involved, and whether the two can be coordinated. A common, but ill-founded, In order to ensure that effective development policies assumption is that work that can be combined with school for addressing global inequalities benefit all sectors of is more appropriate for children. However, combining the population, issues of both gender and generation school and work may be more of a burden for children, must be considered.
Proofs:402
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 402 12/5/12 3:12 PM Chapter 9 Global divisions
Education
Pearson
from
permission
prior
without
distribution
Figure 9.8 Evenfor in communities where schools exist, the enrolment rate can be low, as it can be considered tiresome and time-consuming to walk long distances to school © Samantha Punch not
File
Proofs: 403
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 403 12/5/12 3:12 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions
World in focus Education Youth transitions: the agricultural plantations in household work demands and northern Argentina which require climatic conditions result in migration for work or a large seasonal labour force. The restricted educational choices education? higher wages and employment for children in Churquiales. The opportunities in Argentina thereby drawbacks of primary education In many parts of the majority world, provide a logical alternative to the lead to a poor perception of young people migrate in search of uncertainty, expense and perhaps schooling held byPearson both parents better opportunities for their future wasted effort of pursuing education and young people, diminishing (Punch 2009). Here we illustrate the beyond primary school in Bolivia. the likelihood of pupils continuing dilemmas that children in Although migrant work is arduous to secondary education. Many ‘Churquiales’ (a pseudonym for a from and low skilled it offers more children struggle to complete the rural village in southern Bolivia) face security and tangible benefits six years of primary education, even when deciding whether to migrate in compared with the nebulous though the community school is order to continue their schooling or outcomes of following an reasonably accessible in terms whether to seek paid employment. educational pathway. of both cost and distance. Some To a certain extent, children’s However, on the one hand, do not finish primary schooling, experiences at school can enhance school acts as an important site of resulting in an early transition their social and intellectual socialisation, providing children an to work at 10 or 11 years old. autonomy. They learn basic literacy opportunity to assert theirpermission social Others feel that once they have and numeracy skills, but this does autonomy by socialising with their completed those six years and have not offer them a better social peers, especially in rural areas acquired the basic skills of literacy status and an alternative future where they may otherwise lead and numeracy it is time to move livelihood. Young people from relatively isolatedprior lives. The into the world of work either within Churquiales are most likely to end importance of play at school or outside their community. The up working in agriculture or the should not be overlooked, since hurdle of completing secondary domestic service either within the enjoyment which children education is perceived, by many, their community or in the migrant experience through having fun at to be unrealistic and extremely destinations of Tarija or Argentina. school is a major reason for their costly in both time and money. Only if they can continue on to enthusiasmwithout in attending. On the Consequently it is perhaps secondary education and complete other hand, there is a range of unsurprising that most major that cycle can they really expect a constraining factors including lack decisions about school-to-work are different sort of future livelihood. of resources, low wages, poor made on completion of primary Such an option is not available to teaching quality, household work school at 12–14 years of age. This most rural children as it depends demands and climatic conditions relatively early and rapid transition on economic resources, as well as which all lead to high rates of from school into work contrasts with supportive parents and the personal absenteeism, drop-out, repetition the delayed and extended youth desire of the children themselves. and failure. Such factors combine transitions of much of the minority In many cases secondarydistribution education and result in a lack of confidence in world (Wyn and Dwyer 1999) . . . is not a viable alternative to the the benefits of the formal education In such a context, seeking more immediatefor material gains of system. Paradoxically problems migrant work becomes an attractive work and migration . . . such as teacher absenteeism and opportunity for young people as This is partly because of their poor training for the multi-grade it enhances both their economic geographicalnot location which, on the system enable children to create and social capital, enabling them one hand, is in a relatively isolated, opportunities for play. Yet ultimately to be more flexible. They have the poor rural area with limited this is at the expense of the choice of continuing to migrate Fileavailable agricultural land and a quality of their education. seasonally, to return to their lack of employment prospects. On The structural constraints which community or to live more the other hand, it is relatively near surround teaching combined with permanently in Argentina or Tarija.
Proofs:404
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 404 12/5/12 3:12 PM Chapter 9 Global divisions
World in focus continued
Education Migration is often used by young Therefore, in this rural migrant representing economic people as a bridge between being community, migration rather than success and social freedom should part of their parents’ household education is an important part of not be underestimated as a powerful and forming a new household of youth identity. On the one hand, mechanism in encouraging more their own (Punch 2002a). It allows migrants have significant social young people to leave their them to accumulate savings whilst freedom during their time back communityPearson in search of work. also maintaining links with their home which is linked to their However, this is not necessarily families by sending remittances transitional youth status and their negative, particularly given the home. Furthermore, since young acquisition of greater independence. range of constraints associated people’s migratory experience is On the other hand, although they withfrom schooling, the limited seasonal, it provides them with a work extremely hard in Argentina, agricultural land and the lack sense of collective identity during their migrant employment facilitates of employment opportunities periods spent within their home increased consumerism and enables in a country suffering from the ills community. With better access to them to continue to maintain of neo-liberalism and increased consumer markets, they return interdependent family ties by indebtedness (Green 2003). Thus home with material goods and contributing financially to their migration for work, rather than for new clothes as their symbols of households (Punch 2002a). education, is perhaps a convenient success and increased prestige. It Furthermore since migrants return and appropriate coping strategy is during this time that they meet with their newly acquiredpermission material for young people to pursue. and learn from one another’s goods, they provide children with (Source: Punch 2004: 176–9) migratory experiences whilst also stronger role models than the having a substantial impact on the exceptional few who have achieved Question social life of the community. This academic successprior beyond primary 1. What are the possible constraints emphasises the importance and level. The economic and social that young people in the majority impact of informal social networks status attached to the migrant world face when deciding whether on young people’s transitions to identity is particularly influential to pursue secondary education? adulthood. Thus, migration, unlike for children in the community who Consider a range of issues, education, offers young people a are more likely to want to follow in including the impact of birth order, source of identity as well as withoutthe migrants’ footsteps rather than class, ethnicity, gender, household enhancing their social and continue with secondary education. composition, and access to economic autonomy. Therefore, the image of the young resources and work opportunities.
distribution Summary for ● Most poor countries in the majority world continue to have a subordinate role within the global economy. There is anot widening gap between rich and poor countries, and this seems likely to increase as processes of globalization have uneven global impacts.
● Development theories explain how development has occurred and the directions it may take in the future. A range File of different development theories exist, including the classics of modernization theory and dependency theory, and more contemporary alternative approaches such as participatory development and sustainable development. Each has its strengths and weaknesses in relation to offering effective explanations for processes of development.
Proofs: 405
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 405 12/5/12 3:12 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions
Summary continued
● Issues of gender and generation are now central to development thinking. Relationships between men and Education women, and between adults and children, should be considered when developing policies and programmes to address global inequalities.
● The relationship between work and education for children in the majority world is a complex one. It is too simplistic to assume that school is beneficial and work is detrimental for children. The wider social, economic, cultural and historical context needs to be taken into account when weighing up the advantages Pearsonand disadvantages of children’s work and schooling.
from Links
Issues in relation to alternative development link to the The section on gender relations in the majority world is discussion of sustainable development in Chapter 10. related to issues discussed in Chapter 5. The discussion of TNCs in the global economy section links The section on childhoods in the majority world is linked to to the globalization of economic life in Chapter 12. debates in Chapter 7. permission
Further reading prior
Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (eds) (2000) Poverty and global inequalities, crime, migration, health, tourism, culture, Development into the 21st Century , Oxford: Oxford the media, sport, religion and urban life. University Press. Goldin, I. and Reinert, K. (2012) Globalization for A key text that addresses both historical and contemporary Development: Meeting New Challenges , Oxford: Oxford topics in relation to global divisions. It is clearly writtenwithout and University Press. provides an accessible overview of poverty and development This book provides an overview of the key issues surrounding in the majority world. globalization and development, such as poverty, trade, finance, Ansell, N. (2005) Children, Youth and Development , aid, migration, knowledge and global policies. London: Routledge. A very accessible text that highlights the diversity of children’s Held, D. and Kaya, A. (eds) (2007) Global Inequality: and young people’s experiences in the majority world. It Patterns and Explanations , Cambridge: Polity Press. effectively draws on a wide range of examples from Africa, Asia This is a challenging collection of papers that addresses the and Latin America and includes chapters on health, education, tough question: ‘Has globalization affected inequality?’ street children, child soldiers,distribution work and participation. Martell, L. (2010) The Sociology of Globalization , Binns, T., Dixon, A. and Nel, E. (2012) Africa: Diversity Cambridge: Polity Press. and Development , London: Routledge. This book provides a thorough introduction to the cultural, Excellent clear overviewfor of the complex potential and challenges political and economic dimensions of globalization and that face this vast continent of 53 countries. It explores Africa’s critically evaluates the causes and consequences of a people, rural and urban environments, the impact of HIV/AIDS, globalizing world. issues relatingnot to conflict and post-conflict reconstruction and Momsen, J. (2004) Gender and Development , London: future development trajectories. Routledge. Cohen, R. and Kennedy, P. (2007) Global Sociology , 2nd A clear, broad overview of key gender issues in both rural and edn,File London: Macmillan. urban contexts, drawing on a wide range of case studies from This book covers a wide range of sociological topics from a Africa, Asia and Latin America. The text includes chapters on global perspective, including globalization, work, nation-states, reproduction, health, violence, the environment and globalization.
Proofs:406
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Key journal and journal articles
Key journal Dauvergne, P. and Farias, D. (2012) ‘The rise of BrazilEducation as Development and Change a global development power’, Third World Quarterly 33(5): This is an interdisciplinary journal which covers a broad range 903–17. of development topics. This paper examines three foreign policies: South–South cooperation, health, and environment which have led to the development of Brazil whilst also benefiting other majority Journal articles world countries. Pearson Bourguignon, F. and Sundberg, M. (2007) ‘Aid Grugel, J. and Riggirozzi, P. (2012) ‘Post-neoliberalism in effectiveness: Opening the black box’, American Economic Latin America: rebuilding and reclaiming the state after Review 97(2): 316–21. crisis’, Development and Change 43(1): 1–21. This interesting article considers aid motives, the way aid is Examples from Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina are used in this delivered and the links between aid and development paper to indicate the returnfrom of the state in order to enhance outcomes. national development and build collective responsibilities.
Websites permission
www.worldbank.org www.younglives.org.uk World Bank prior Young Lives This site is useful for many issues related to global poverty, Young Lives is an international study of childhood poverty including up-to-date research, statistics and publications. tracking the changing lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the state of Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam www.undp.org over a 15-year period. The website presents findings from United Nations Development Programme the project, including children’s views of their own A range of news stories and useful publications, such as experiences. human development reports, are availablewithout from this site. www.foodfirst.org www.ilo.org Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) International Labour Organization The Institute for Food and Development Policy is concerned www.imf.org with analysing the root causes and injustices of global International Monetary Fund hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation. www.dfid.gov.uk www.wto.org Department for International Development (DFID) World Trade Organization The British government’sdistribution development website, which www.un.org includes many country profiles, case studies and United Nations publications relating to global inequalities. www.globalisationguide.org www.opendemocracy.net/globalisation/index.jsp for Globalisation Guide Open Democracy A discussion forum offering news and opinion articles from www.tni.org establishednot academics and journalists covering contested Transnational Institute debates about the effects of globalization. www.oneworldaction.org www.worldwrite.org.uk/damned One World Action File Damned by Debt Relief This website has a short version of the film Damned by Debt www.plan-international.org/resources/development Relief and useful articles in relation to debt in the majority world. Development dictionary
Proofs: 407
M09_PUNC9541_05_SE_C09.indd 407 12/5/12 3:12 PM Part 2 Introduction to social divisions Activities
Activity 1 Use dependency theory as a basis to put forward your arguments indicating that McDonald’s would be detrimental to Bolivian Education Applying development theories development.
Bolivia is one of the few countries of the world that does not have Questions a McDonald’s outlet. Imagine you are visiting Bolivia and your role, 1. Using globalization theories (the perspectives of as chief executive of McDonald’s, is to convince the Bolivian globalists, sceptics and transformationalists), assess government to allow a branch of McDonald’s to open in La Paz (the Pearson whether the introduction of McDonald’s to Bolivia would biggest city). Use modernization theory as a basis to put forward be perceived as having positive or negative impacts on your arguments indicating that McDonald’s would be beneficial to the lives of people in La Paz. Bolivian development. Now imagine you are the minister for development in Bolivia 2. Consider your arguments from the perspectives of both and are opposed to the introduction of McDonald’s in your country. rich and poor urban residents.
Activity 2
HIV/AIDS and development As a result of the AIDS crisis on already-weakened African Read the following extract from Regan (2002b: 190) and reflect upon economies,permission even the most modest development gains are being the links between HIV/AIDS and development: lost. People living with HIV urgently need all these things. With access to clean water, timely treatment for According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS opportunistic infections and a nutritious diet, people living (UNAIDS) poverty is the driving force of the AIDS pandemic in with HIV can live healthy and productive lives for 10 to Africa: in poor communities men are forced to migrate to urban prior 15 years. In southern Africa, people are dying of AIDS within areas in search of work, which means that husbands may five years because they are poor and do not have the most be away from their wives for a year or more and may seek basic food security. extramarital relations. This is particularly true when they frequent The causes and consequences of the HIV/AIDS crisis are bars, usually the only form of entertainment provided by their closely linked to wider development issues, including poverty, employers. without malnutrition, exposure to other infections, gender inequality and At the same time, poor women are being forced into insecure livelihoods. The loss of labour to the epidemic cripples prostitution as the only means of earning an income to feed the household. their children. As a result, southern Africa has become the global epicentre of the AIDS epidemic. One of the most high-risk groups Questions is married women, who are often powerless in matters of sexual 1. What are the social and economic consequences of the relations. In some communities, up to 48% of routinely tested HIV/AIDS crisis? pregnant women are HIV-positive. Despite decades of developmentdistribution in rural Africa most people 2. Consider the different ways in which men, women, girls still do not have access to clean water, hygienic sanitation, and boys within households may be affected when one or electricity, affordable health care, education and food security. both parents are infected by HIV. for
not
File
Proofs:408
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