emeldah modernization.doc

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MULUNGUSHI UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

NAME: EMELDA MUNTINTA MUTAFU

COURSE: BACHELOR OF SOCIAL WORK

SUBJECT: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

LECTURER: MR.FRANCIS LUNGU

STUDENT NO: 045511026

ASSIGNMENT: TWO

CODE:

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION:. Compare and Contrast modernization and development. Give at

least two examples.

DUE DATE: 20th JULY, 2012

ADDRESS: DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

P/BAG E 12

BOMA COURTS


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INTRODUCTION

In development circles there was much debate recently when it was announced that Zambia had

moved up the World Bank rankings and become a middle-income country. But the truth is that

this news remains a mere academic pronouncement for the majority of Zambians the news

that Zambia has now graduated to being a middle-income country will not even register as a blip

on their radar. Zambia, which until two decades ago was one of the most prosperous countries in

Sub-Saharan Africa, now ranks as one of the Least Developed Countries. The majority of the

people suffer from weak purchasing power, homelessness, and insufficient access to basic

necessities such as education, health, food, and clean water. The paper attempts to answer

modernization and development.

COMPARISON ON MODERNIZATION THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Modernisation theories started from (1950s, early 1960's).The modernisation school of thought

was the first attempt to articulate the problem of development in terms of the need to transform

the backward "traditional" nature of third world economies into modern economies. Drawing

from the historical experience of the Western Europe after the Second World War, under the

Marshal Plan, it advocated the need for accelerated economic growth through an import

substitution form of industrialisation, a process seen to entail securing the right quantity and mix

of saving investment and foreign aid. Given the relatively low levels of new capital formation in

most third world countries, one obvious policy implication was the need for massive capital

investment through foreign aid. There is wide agreement that economic development based on

modernisation theories failed to bring about the much hoped for rapid growth, dynamic industrial

sectors, the expansion of modern wage economy and the alleviation of the impoverished rural

subsistence sectors. The most incisive blow to the modernisation theories came from the Marxistand neo-Marxist dependency or underdevelopment theories, as well as those of the

Structuralist writers.

Modernization theory is a grand theory encompassing many different disciplines as it seeks to

explain how society progresses, what variables affect that progress, and how societies can react

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to that progress. Modernization theory focuses specifically on a type of modernization thought to

have originated in Europe during the 17th century, which brought social mores and technological

achievements into a new epoch.

The modernization the movement of the 1950s and 1960s is an economic theory that is rooted in

capitalism. The concept of modernization incorporates the full spectrum of the transition and

drastic transformation that a traditional society has to undergo in order to become modern

(Hussain et al., 1981; Lenin, 1964). Modernisation is about Africa following the developmental

footsteps of Europe (largely the former colonizer of Africa).

According to modernity, policies intended to raise the standard of living of the poor often consist

of disseminating knowledge and information about more efficient techniques of production. For

instance, the agriculture modernisation process involves encouraging farmers to try new crops,

new production methods and new marketing skills (Ellis and Biggs, 2001). In general,

modernization led to the introduction of hybrids, the green house technology, genetically

modified (GMO) food, use of artificial fertilizers, insecticides, tractors and the application of

other scientific knowledge to replace traditional agricultural practices.

Modernization theory is a description and explanation of the processes of transformation from

traditional or underdeveloped societies to modern societies. In the words of one of the major

proponents, Historically, modernization is the process of change towards those types of social,

economic, and political systems that have developed in Western Europe and North America from

the seventeenth century to the nineteenth and have then spread to other European countries and

in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the South American, Asian, and African continents

(Eisenstadt 1966, p. 1). Modernization theory has been one of the major perspectives in the

sociology of national development and underdevelopment since the 1950s. Primary attention has

focused on ways in which past and present premodern societies become modern (i.e.,

Westernized) through processes of economic growth and change in social, political, and culturalstructures.

John Katsillis (2003:23) assert that, The foundations of modernization theory go back to the Age

of Enlightenment, when a number of philosophers began to look at how society changed and

progressed. Theories were laid out as to how technological advancement necessarily led to

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social advancement, which in turn led to an examination of how different facets of advancement

were connected. The basic premise of this phase of modernization theory was that humans were

able to change their society within a generation, and that this change was often facilitated by

advancements in technology, production, and consumption.

Discontentment with the modernization theory in the 1950s precipitated new strands of thinking

which resulted in the dependency theory. The theory came as a critical reaction to the

conventional approaches to economic development that emerged in the aftermath of World War

II. Andre Gunder Frank (1967), in his analysis of the post colonial state, has argued that classical

development theories such as modernity are misleading in that they fail to articulate the true

relationship between the developed world and the poor regions of the world. For Frank,

modernity distorts the truth about the motive of the developed countries on their former colonies.

In the same vein, the Brandt Commission (1980), made up of elder statesmen, men and women

of statue, set up by the United Nations in 1977 reported that development based on modernity

had failed.

The hope that faster economic growth modernisation in developing countries by itself would

benefit the broad masses of poor people has not been fulfilled and no concept of development

can be accepted which continues to condemn hundreds of millions of people to starvation and

despair.

The systematic use of scientific and technical knowledge to meet specific objectives or

requirements (Shenton, 1996).

On the other hand, Smith AD (1973:78) Development may also means, an extension of the

theoretical or practical aspects of a concept, design, discovery, or invention. The process of

adding improvements to a parcel of land, such as grading, subdivisions, drainage, access, roads,

utilities.

However, in this paper, development has been defined as the process of economic and social

transformation that is based on complex cultural and environmental factors and their interactions.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MODERNIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT

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The term "development" is often used in the following combinations: economic development,

socio-economic development, economic development in Zambia (or elsewhere), the

development of the region of the city. In each case, under development generally refers to any

progressive change primarily in the economic sphere. If the change is quantitative, they talk

about economic growth. In a qualitative change we can talk about the structural changes or

changes in content development, or the acquisition of the economic system of the new features.

In addition to purely economic characteristics are often considered social dimensions of

development. Moreover, the social characteristics have long been full performance; assess the

degree of development of any region.

Development always has a direction determined by the purpose or purposes of the system. If this

direction is positive, then we speak of progress, if negative, of regression, or degradation. In

other words, the nature of regional development always involves a certain goal or several goals.

CONCLUSION

Conclusion, currently, the main purpose of development in most countries and their regions is to

improve the quality of life. Therefore, the process of socio-economic development includes three

major components: increase revenues, improve health and increase its level of education;

creation of conditions conducive to growth of self-esteem of people as a result of the formation

of social, political, economic and institutional systems to be respect for human dignity; increase

the degree of freedom of people, including their economic freedom. The last two components of

the quality of life is not always taken into account when assessing the degree of socio-economic

development of countries and regions, but in recent years in economic science and political

practice, it is given greater importance. Development of any region - multi-purpose and multi-

criteria process. The contents of the regions can vary greatly. Indeed, the development of Brasil

and Russia, France, Great Britain and its content are very different, and this difference is due not

only to the initial level of development, but also the characteristics of each region, its industrial

structure, geographical location, production specialization.

REFERENCES

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Hussain A, Tribe K (1981). Marxism and the Agrarian Question: German Social Democracy

and the Peasantry 1890-1907. Hong Kong: MacMillain Press Ltd.

Lenin VI (1964). The Development of Capitalism in Russia. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

Shenton RW, Cowen MP (1996). Doctrines of Development. London: Routledge.

Smith AD (1973). The Concept of Social Change. London: Routledge and Kjegab Paul.

Tedros K (1992). Moral Philosophy and Development. Athens: Ohio Press.

Tonstenson T (1982). A Dependence and Collective self-reliance in southern Africa:

Research Report no 62, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies: Uppsala.

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