Course: Development, Globalisation and Society

Unit: Linking Development and Globalisation

Module Title: From Progress to Development to Globalisation

Introduction
The terms progress and development are generally used inter-changeably and denote the
different modes of social change. These terms are generally used to indicate the process of
advancement of individual(s), groups or actions. In this process of advancement, the world
witnessed an increase in exchange in socio-economic and political aspects among various
countries. This process of increased interdependence among the countries and the citizens
around the globe is referred to as Globalisation.

The scholars and academicians have explained and examined the process of social change
since times immemorial. The discipline of Sociology since its inception has closely
examined and interpreted the process of social change.In the past the terms social change,
social evolution, progress, and development were combined into a single concept.In the 19th
century Auguste Comte in his law of three stages delineates that the society develops through
three mentally conceived stages – The theological stage, the Metaphysical stage and the
positive stage. Herbert Spencer in his book Principles of Sociologytalked about the
progressive development of societies. He was an exponent of evolution and extended this
concept to the realms of sociology. In his theory of social evolution he states that the society
develops from simple, undifferentiated and homogeneous entity to a complex, differentiated
and heterogeneous entity. Later on Sociologists preferred the use of term development over
social evolution while explaining the process of change in society. L. T. Hobhouse believed
that the social change is based on cooperation and regarded that the development of human
rationality laid the foundation for the human society. In his book Social Development: Its
nature and condition he proposes that increase in scale, efficiency, mutuality and freedom are
theessential criteria for development.

Later the concept of development has often been used in a positive senseto indicate a general
process of advancement. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was understood as
economic growth and modernisation (i.e. that was no more traditional). The journey of
human society has been ceaseless as it has progressed and developed through several stages,
from simple to complex, from savagery to capitalistic to postmodern society.
In social science literature, these advancements have been viewed from diverseperspectives
or orientations and have been diversely understood inphilosophical, political, economic and
social terms. This process has acquired greater intensity and has accelerated rapidly over the
last few decades. It has lead to an unprecedented increase in the inter-connectivity across the
continents and lead to the compression of the world and the intensification of the
consciousness of the world as a whole as expressed by Robert Robertson. Let us try to
understand themeaning of the terms Progress, Development and Globalisation.

Progress
The idea of progress in general terms, involves the advances in science, technology and social
organisation that results in the improvement of humanconditions.Progress, therefore, is the
forward march or advancement towards a desirable end. The nature and type of progress
depends upon the ends or objectives to be achieved. For instance, progress in the field of
academics, in sports, good governance, acquiring health or in our march towards a place, etc.

The pioneers of the discipline such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer etc., assert that the
evolution of the society should be taken as the progress of the same. According to Comte
Sociology is the science of order and progress, and can be further divided it into social statics
and social dynamics, the former falling in the domain of order and the latter into the domain
of progress or change. He wasin fact inferring that progress was possible through order.
Spencer regards social evolution to be synonymous with progress. He believed in progress
and asserted that evolution is an irreversible historical development. Spencer in his theory of
social evolution and progress argued that the ever increasing population pressure is one of the
key factors in progress. He offered an analogy between society andorganism and between
social and economic growthand contended that as the increase in the size results in the
increase in the structural complexity. Emile Durkheim talked about social solidarity and
stated that society progressed from mechanical solidarity (Pre-industrial society) to organic
solidarity (Industrial society).

Morris Ginsberg describes progress as a development in a specified direction that satisfies

rational criteria of value in his work Evolution and Progress. According to P.Gisbert the
notion of progress involves two factors, firstly the nature of the end and secondly, the
distance to be travelled to reach that end. The end here implies that the institutions that are
engaged in the attainment of common good that individual can pursue and enjoy with
judgement and freedom along with the moral and spiritual element without which sustained
happiness is not possible.

The modern thinkers disagree with their predecessors as Hobhouse observes that social
evolution does not necessarily means that the society is changing into a better form, hence it
cannot be concluded that the process of social evolution necessarily implies that society is
progressing. Others feel that no scientific observation and conclusion should be based on
ethical values. MacIver states that evolution is a scientific concept whereas progress is an
ethical one (Society: an Introductory Analysis).The human moral values and the standard of
judgments are as diverse as human societies. All these diversities do affect the process of
attainment of different indicators of progress.

The mixing up of the normative and empirical aspects in measuring progress has led to
confusion and modern era thinkers started looking for a more neutral and objective term. The
terms economic growth, development, modernisation, industrialisation globalisation etc. were
being used by the academicians to highlight the process of social change. Let us now try to
understand the term development and its variants.

Development
Development is a multi-dimensional process involving the restructuring of the entire socio-
economic system. There is no definite definition of developmentas it is understood to be an
upward directional movement ofsociety from lesser to greater levels of efficiency,
productivity, complexity, and accomplishment. It has been at times equated with economic
growth, industrialisation, capitalism and individual, regional and national self-reliance.

This process has been taking place in societies since time immemorial, but it has accelerated
during the recent past. The term development has a number of connotations such as economic
growth, modernisation, sustainable development, ethno-development, social development,
human development, development as freedom etc. Let us now understand the changing
connotations of development.
Economic Growth
In economic terms, growth refers to an increased capacity of production and consumption of
goods.It has been defined as an increase in the output of goods and services that is sustained
over a long period of time. The term economic development has been frequently used by the
academicians, politicians and planners in the 20th century. It can be described as a process of
increased degree of utilisation and improvement in the productivity of the resources that are
available which in turn leads to the common welfare of the citizens. Till 1950s economic
growth meantthat increase in the GDP and the per capita income of the citizens of the country
would lead to the upliftment of the standard of living of the people of the country.

This model of growth came under heavy criticism as it lead to unemployment and increase in
disparity between the rich and poor. The economists than talked about growth with
employment opportunities and distributive justice so that the trickledown effect that would be
resulted from economic growth reach the underdeveloped countries. This theory of
trickledown effect collapsed giving rise to the notion of modernisation. The process of
modernisation promised a lot to the under developed nations and the great euphoria was built
around this process by the west.

Modernisation
It most simple terms it can be described as whatever is no more regarded as traditional falls in
the domain of modern. It is a complex process that involves industrialisation and
urbanisation; these processes in turn lead to rationalisation of authority and bureaucracy that
further results in the growth of science and secularism along with the acceptance of personal
achievements over ascriptive ties. It involves a shift from primary to secondary and finally to
tertiary occupations, from centralised political authority of the state to a democratic nation
and to a relatively efficient and proactive government.

Wilbert Moore says that this process involves a total transformation of traditional society into
an advanced, economically prosperous and politically stable society in Order and Change:
Essays in Comparative Sociology (1968).
Daniel Lerner one of the major exponents of the Modernisation theory in his book
ThePassing of traditional Society: Modernising the Middle East, remarks that, no nation was
ordained to be traditional; in order to be modern the citizen’s should imitate the actions and
ideas of the people in the western countries that had already moved ahead from the traditional
stage into the modern world.He believes that modernisation is a global process and the
modern factors of change such as urbanisation, industrialisation, increase in literacy etc., are
greatly responsible for the emergence of the new economic order. According to Lerner, the
process of modernity is the result of institutional changes in society along with the changes in
the personality of people.Modernisation as development is based on the capitalistic mode of
production and emphasises on a high degree of specialisation and structural differentiation.

Many thinkers have criticised the modernisation model as it required structural changes that
would lead to the destruction of the traditional and indigenous cultures. This process also
glorified the west or developed countries and looked down upon the underdeveloped
countries. Moreover the development agencies were sensitive to the growing concerns of the
environmentalists.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb (1968), and
Donella Meadows's The Limits to Growth (1972) raised concerns regarding the acceleration
of industrial growth and increased dependence of agriculture on chemicals. In 1983 the
United Nations under the chairmanship of Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland
formed a commission on environment and development. This commission published the
report in April 1987 and popularized came up with the term sustainable development to
describe a strategy based on careful usage of resources and reduction of toxic emissions. The
commission defined it as that "development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable
development opened space for the collaboration of environmentalists and development
experts.

It was felt that the process of development should be people centric since human beings were
the means and end of development. In 1990s the United Nations Development Programme
that was started in 1965 came up with a report that focussed on the humans in the process of
development. It changed the perspective of the planners and policy makers along with the
academicians towards the concept of development that became people centric.
Human Development
The Human Development Approach to development is different from the conventional
approaches to development. The earlier approaches concentrated on the formation of capital
and considered human being as a means and not an end in the process of development. The
earlier approaches view humans as passive recipients and not participants in this process.

This report was first launched in 1990 by the UNDP. Mahbub-ul-Haq a Pakastani economist
was the chairman and Nobel laureate Amryata Sen was the member of the committee that
prepared the report. The main objective of the report was to place people at the centre of
development. The opening sentence of the report was- “People are the real wealth of the
nation”. The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people
to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This may appear to be a simple truth. But it is often
forgotten in the immediate concern with the accumulation of commodities and financial
wealth.”The United Nations General Assembly has formally recognized the Report as “an
independent intellectual exercise” and “an important tool for raising awareness about human
development around the world.” Now Human Development Report has become an annual
feature of the UNDP with different themes and many governments are also publishing the
Development reports of their respective countries. The theme of the Human Development
Report of 2015 is ‘Rethinking Work for Human Development’. In this report of 2015 India
has been placed at 130th position among the 188 countries in the Human Development Index
(HDI). India’s rank was 135 in the year 2014. The top three nations in the 2015 HDI are
Norway, Australia and Switzerland respectively. The HDI is an average measure of basic
human development achievements in a country, measured by UNDP. The HDI covers
achievements of a country in three basic dimensions - (i) Life Expectancy (ii) Educational
Attainment (iii) Income. The HDI uses four indicators to cover these three dimensions, these
are –
1. Life Expectancy at birth
2. (a) Adult literacy Rate
(b) Combined Gross Enrolment for Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Education
3. GDP per capita in US dollars adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity
 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

Three
Dimensions
HEALTH EDUCATION INCOME s

Mean Expected
Years of Years of
Schooling Schooling
Life
Expectancy Gross
at Birth National
per Capita Four
Income Indicators

Source: HDR 2010

The HDI is the geometric mean of these three normalized dimensions. The UNDP has never
claimed it to be a comprehensive measure of human development but rather a summary
alternative to economic measures. Several critiques raised questions relating to the adequacy
of the indicators used in the HDI. Others have raised questions related to the measurement
errors and methodology used in calculating the points. But it would be pertinent to mention
that the UNDP is continuously engaged in the task of refinement of the methodology.

The Human Development Index compares and rates the countries across the globe on the
above mentioned three dimensions. It highlights the impact of the programmes and policies
of the government on the citizens. This approach provides a global perspective in the
measurement of development and human well-being.
Globalisation and Development
The term Globalisation gained popularity in 1980s and was used to describe the increased
interconnectivity across international borders and continents. It has led to an increased inter-
connectedness at socio-cultural, economic and political level among the populations living
across the globe. (Beyers, 2007)The usage of this term in English though began in 1960s but
without any connotations that are being used in recent times. The expressions ‘Global
Village used by Marshall McLuhan (1964) indicated the similar meaning that all human
beings on earth are living and utilizing a single social space. This term was extensively used
by the scholars throughout the world in 1990s. Scholars started to understand the term of
spatial distinction between the global and the local, or that between universal and particular
(Robertson 1992).

Globalisation is also defined as the compression of world and intensification of the

consciousness as whole. (Robertson 1992). Anthony Giddens in the Consequences of
Modernity defines it as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant
localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles
away and vice versa. The main causes of globalisation for him are –
1. The growth in information and communications technology (Communication satellites,
Fibre optic cables etc.)
2. The knowledge based, information led global economy dominated by Multi-National
corporations
3. The spread of government institutions those are international in nature such as the
European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), along with rapid increase in the
percentage of Non-Governmental bodies. (Giddens, 1991)

Joseph E. Stiglitz a Nobel Laureate argues that this rapid increase in the interconnectedness is
driven by the profit motive that is hidden in the ideology of free market promoted by the
capitalists. He further asserts that countries should take into account their respective culture,
history and traditions before accepting and joining the process of globalisation. The problem,
according to Stiglitz, is that globalisation has not been pushed carefully, or fairly. On the
contrary, liberalization policies have been implemented too fast, in the wrong order, and often
using inadequate – or plainly wrong – economic analysis. As a consequence, he argues, we
now face terrible results, including increases in destitution and social conflict, and
generalized frustration.

Anthony Giddens has very explicitly delineated the three broad positions that exist regarding
the significance of the process of Globalisation. These are –
1. Hyperglobalisers (These are in favour of globalisation)
2. Skeptics (These are against globalisation)
3. Transformalists ( Thses are neutral to globalisation)

The hyperglobalisers view it as a legitimate and inevitable process that will lead to a world
order based on the market and international institutions. It presents a new era of development.
This process is progressive in nature and is socially desirable. These view globalisation as a
kind of final and self-enforcing process of development and the most efficient model of
society.

The sceptics say that this process is overrated and an unnecessary hype is created. They argue
that the interdependence among countries was present in ancient times. These are of the view
that this process is non-sustainable as it raises fundamental opposition within individual
cultures that may lead to the conflict among different cultures. (Huntington, 1999). The
desired impacts, sustainability, harmonious coexistence and distributive justice in the process
of globalisation are hard to achieve.

The Transformalists take a moderate position in terms of the impacts of globalisation. They
believe that it is not a linear progression but represents streams of development subject to
cycles and associated problems. These do not question the underlying socio-economic
influence of globalisation but are uncertain regarding the final outcomes. Giddens argue that
the approach of Transformalists is multidimensional taking into account socio-economic,
cultural and political dimensions.

Thus, globalisation is a mega trend that impacts the life of every global citizen. It has
generated an intensive theoretical debate about its impact on the local cultures and
economies. The impacts of economic globalisation are reflected in the integration of world
economy, through trade, investment and financial flows. There has been lot of problems in
the developing and under-developed countries due this process of globalisation. This process
has become inevitable and one cannot run away from it. The point here is to maximise the
advantages and minimise the discontents presented by globalisation.

Conclusion
The terms progress and development are used to indicate the process of advancement in
socio-economic and political aspects among various countries. The patterns of these
processes are not uniform around the globe. Development is a multi-dimensional process
involving changes in the social structure, socio-economic institution along with increase in
interdependence among nations.

The meaning of the term development has changed over the period of time. In the 18th
century it was equated with social evolution than it was compared with economic growth,
modernisation and now in the 1990s it has also been defined in terms of expansion of
possibilities or an increase in individual choices, capabilities and functioning. It has also been
related to the process of globalisation which today has become a field of intensive and
multidisciplinary debate.