Details of Module and its Structure

Module Detail

Subject Name Sociology

Paper Name Development, Globalisation and Society

Module Name/Title Linking Development and Globalisation: Introducing

Development and Globalisation
Pre-requisites Development includes economic, social, political and human
aspects. The theories of development focus on the factors leading
to different levels of development of the various countries of the
world.
Globalisation impacts the societies in various ways.
Objectives The module attempts to understand the meaning and concept of
development and globalisation.
It tries to explain the various aspects of development and the
theories of underdevelopment.
It attempts to understand the meaning of globalisation.
It explains the advantages and disadvantages of globalisation.
Keywords Development, Underdevelopment Core Periphery, Globalisation

Role Name Affiliation

Principal Prof Sujata Patel Department of Sociology,

Investigator University of Hyderabad
Paper Coordinator Prof Sherry Sabbarwal Department of Sociology, Panjab
University, Chandigarh
Content Dr. Manoj Kumar Department of Sociology,
Writer/Author (CW) Post Graduate Government
College for Girls, Sector-11,
Chandigarh (UT)
Content Reviewer Prof Sherry Sabbarwal Department of Sociology, Panjab
(CR) University, Chandigarh
Language Editor Prof Sherry Sabbarwal Department of Sociology, Panjab
(LE) University, Chandigarh
 Course: Development, Globalisation and Society
Unit: Linking Development and Globalisation
Module Title: Introducing Development and Globalisation

The concept of development today has social, cultural, political and economic dimensions
intertwined with one another. Its composite and multidimensional nature has made it really
difficult for the scholars to formulate one all encompassing definition of development.

Changing Connotations of Development

Development means different things to different people. The definitions and indicators of
development have therefore varied in different periods of history. For liberalist theorists,
development means improving the economic, social and political conditions in a society. The
socialist perspective blames the developed countries for the underdevelopment of countries in the
third world.

Development as Economic Growth

In the middle of twentieth century, development was defined in terms of growth of economy and
measured in terms of increase in Gross National Product. This was mainly because the newly
liberated nation states in Asia and Africa had to deal with the economic losses caused to them
due to exploitation of their resources by the colonial powers. These countries gave priority to
economic development. The models available were expansion of markets, finance, trade and
focus on increase in Gross National Product.

Development as Improvement of Human Conditions

It was soon realised that mere increase in wealth or income of the nation is not sufficient. There
should be increase in the quality of life of the people. Mahbub ul Haq defined development in
terms of human development implying the improvement in life chances of people. To measure
the improvement in life chances of people, he devised the Human Development Index and the
Physical Quality of Life Index. This index included four types of indicators: life expectancy,
child survival rate, literacy rate and purchasing power of the people.
The basic purpose of development according to Haq is to enlarge people’s choices. Human
choices are not exhausted by mere economic well being, they extend far beyond that and include
knowledge, health, secure livelihoods, security against crime and violence, satisfying leisure
hours. And many more important human choices are also included which do not exclusively or
even largely depend on income.

Development as Human Freedom

Amartya Sen extends the concept of development further to define it as expansion of human
capabilities, opportunities and freedoms. Human capabilities include health and education;
opportunities include enabling environment for the people to enjoy long, healthy and creative
lives. The freedoms include civil liberties of various sorts. In fact, Sen attaches so much
importance to freedoms that he defines development as freedom. Freedom here refers to two
types: freedom from and freedom of. Development as freedom signifies both kinds of freedom;
it represents freedom from hunger, disease and ignorance. It also stands for Freedom of Self
realisation, expression and worship etc. While freedom from is concerned with building up
human capabilities such as health and education, freedom of is concerned with provision of civil
liberties. The thrust of human development conception thus is on the improvement in quality of
life.

Development as Upgradation of Social Order and Social Harmony

The quality of life is not exhausted with physical and civil dimensions. There are several other
dimensions of quality of life such as psychological, social, moral, cultural etc. To the extent that
the prevailing construct of human development is preoccupied mainly with the physical and
civil, to the neglect of psychological, social, moral and cultural, it suffers from a constrained
vision. Development is defined in terms of primacy of economic, physical and civil quality of
life as the so called developed nations are high on these dimensions.

There is, however, another dimension which needs attention, namely social quality of life which
is reflected in family harmony and community bonds, psychological quality of life, in terms of
level of satisfaction and contentment, mental health, sound sleep and tolerable limits of stress
tension. Similarly, moral quality of life may be defined in terms of minimal incidence of crime,
delinquency, violence and unwed motherhood. Additionally, for some thinkers, development
should result in protection of cultural and racial diversity. The aim of development should be to
generate social harmony, respect cultural diversity and gender equity. This also implies
upgradation of social order, particularly integration and normative order.

In a holistic sense, thus, development may be defined as all round improvement in social order
including material, affective social and civil. Its parameters may include:
Economic development
Human Development
Civil Development
Social Development

It may be concluded that the frontiers of development have not been static but have been
expanding. The various connotation of development should thus be viewed not as alternatives
but as complementary.

Social and Political Aspects of Development

The ideas of modernity and development overlap many times in Sociology. The view of
continuous and increasing interaction between economic and non economic factors in
development produced a second step forward, namely, to systematic efforts to conceptualise
modernisation as the contemporary mode of social change that is both general in validity and
global in scope.

Despite conceptual and terminological differences there has been steady convergence among
certain key points in terms of the political and social indicators of development: a degree of self
sustaining growth in the economy or at least growth sufficient to increase both production and
consumption regularly; a measure of public participation in the polity or participation in defining
and choosing policy alternatives; a diffusion of secular/rational norms in the culture understood
approximately in Weberian- Parsonian terms; an increment of mobility in the society understood
as personal freedom of physical, social and psychic movement; and a corresponding
transformation in the model personality that equips individuals to function effectively in a social
order that operates according to the foregoing characteristics.

Socialist conception of Development

The socialist concept came to the fore front in the 20th century when the academicians of the
world started to compare the Asian and African countries with the European countries and
claimed to find out the reasons for lesser development in the former countries. Leaders and
scholars in these countries also used the economic indicators of progress in these countries as a
measure of development.

Development as Liberation from Dependency and Exploitation

Scholars like Paul Baran, Immanuel Wallerstein, Andre Gunder Frank and Samir Amin have
elaborated the thesis that the underdevelopment of the Third World is the result of development
of the First World. According to centre periphery thesis, Andre Gunder Frank observes that the
centre (colonial power) directly exploited the periphery in colonial times and developed at the
expense of the periphery. He pins down unequal exchange as the root cause of
underdevelopment in the periphery. In the international context, thus, development implies
liberation from dependency on an unequal exchange. This calls for drastic changes in the
relationship among nations, particularly between the developed and developing. Hence there is
the call for a new International Economic Order.

Extending the centre-periphery thesis to the national context, Frank maintains that the national
structures are less unequal. Just as there are more developed and less developed nations in the
world, there are dominant and dominated classes within each nation. Development in the
national context therefore means liberation of the masses from the dependence on the dominant
class. Such liberation implies the restructuring of class and power relations in any individual
country.

Globalisation
Globalisation has been defined in terms of opening of markets and societies beyond boundaries
of nation states. Although, globalisation is generally understood as global interconnectedness, it
refers to the growing interdependence between the different people, regions and countries of the
world as social economic relations come to stretch worldwide. There are different dimensions of
globalisation – economic, political and cultural. However, the various dimensions are closely
interconnected. Some of the important features of globalisation are discussed below.

Economic and Financial Dimensions

Policy of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation

Globalisation involves opening of markets and extending economic relationships throughout the
world. This is done by certain economic policies. The policies include ending the restrictions on
the foreign companies entering any country. They are allowed entry and competition with the
local companies. The national companies are not given any special protection and the local, as
well as, global companies compete with each other.

Further, it involves the liberalisation of the procedures for doing business. The term liberalisation
refers to a range of policy decisions that the states take to open up the national economy to the
world market. This marks a break with the general policies of the government to have a greater
control over the economy. The governments in country like India had put in place a large number
of laws that ensured that the local market and local indigenous business is protected from
competition of the wider world. The underlying assumption of such a policy was that an
erstwhile colonial country would be at a disadvantage in a free market situation.

The Multi National and Transnational Corporations

The increase in number and role of Multi National Companies (MNCs) or Trans National
Companies (TNCs) is particularly important in the process of globalisation. TNCs produce goods
or market services in more than one country. They are gigantic companies and operate across the
globe. Some of the biggest TNCs are companies known all round the world, e.g., Sony, Philips,
General Motors etc. They are oriented to global markets and global profits even if they have a
clear national base.
Use of Information and Communication Technology in Financial Transactions
The revolution in communication technology has made possible the global circulation of
messages in shortest possible time. The electronic economy is another factor that underpins
economic globalisation. Banks, fund managers, corporations and individual investors are able to
shift funds internationally with the click of a mouse. This is due to the development of the
transactions based upon use of Information and Communication Technology.

It should also be noted that for the first time, mainly due to the information technology
revolution, there has been a globalisation of finance. Globally integrated financial markets
undertake billions of dollars worth transactions within seconds in the electronic circuits. There is
a 24-hour trading in capital and security markets. Cities such as New York, Tokyo and London
are the key centres for financial trading. Within India, Mumbai is known as the financial capital
of the country.

Knowledge Based Economy

In contrast to the previous era, the global economy is no longer primarily agricultural or
industrial in nature. The weightless economy is one in which products have their base in
information, as in case of computer software and media internet based services. A knowledge
economy is one in which much of the work force is involved not much in the distribution of
material goods., but in their design, development, technology, marketing, sale and servicing,.
We have a host of new occupations that was unheard of a few decades along, for instance event
management.

Political Meanings of Globalisation

Political globalisation basically implies an increasing tendency towards multilateralism, towards
a transnational state apparatus, and towards the emergence of national and international
nongovernmental organisations that function as watchdogs over governments and have increased
their activities and influence (Moghadam, 2005). Political globalization occurs when
governmental action takes place on a global level, where tasks, such as the welfare of citizens
and economic growth, are controlled by an international political body. The trade and exchange
of materials and services across the nations was present in ancient civilisations. However, the
globalisation was not hegemonic and was believed to be open for all. Today globalisation
generally refers to the dominance and pressure of the developed countries upon the developing
countries to open their markets for the benefit of these companies.

Globalisation and Culture

Globalisation leads to very high and intense degree of flow of manpower across countries and
cultures creating a clear and culturally sensitive diaspora of migrant population contributing to
homogenisation of cultures on one hand, but also to the heightened sense of cultural identity and
distinctiveness on the other (Singh, 2000). There are many ways that globalisation affects
culture. The last decade has seen major cultural changes leading to fears that our local cultures
would be overtaken. The central contention of some countries is that all cultures will become
similar and hence homogeneous. This will lead to disappearance of the indigenous cultures and
traditions. Others, however, argue that there is an increasing tendency towards glocalisation of
culture. Glocalisation refers to the mixing of the global with the local. It is a strategy often
adopted by foreign firms while dealing with local traditions in order to enhance their
marketability. For instance, in India we find a trend of pop music which is a mix of global with
Indian music.

Advantages of Globalisation
Globalisation is a process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and
unified because of homogenous and uniform financing, cultural and technological factors.
Globalisation seems to have made drastic changes in our socio and cultural environment. It is
affecting our intimate and personal lives in many diverse ways. Inevitably our personal lives
have been altered as globalising forces enter into our local contexts, our homes and our
communities through interpersonal sources such as the media, the internet and the popular
culture as well as through personal contact with individuals from other countries and cultures.

Globalisation is fundamentally changing the nature of our everyday experience. As the societies
everywhere experience profound makeovers, many of the established institutions which use to
sustain them have become out of place. This is forcing a redefinition of intimate and personal
aspects of our lives, such as the family, gender roles, sexuality, personal identity, our interactions
with our others and our relationships at work.

Traditionally, factors such as social class, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation used to close off
certain avenues for individuals for individuals, or open up for others. Sons used to follow or
continue the professions of their fathers and the women considered home as their natural sphere.
Their lives and identity were determined by their fathers or husbands. The community in which
one was born provided fixed guidelines of living. But nowadays under conditions of
globalisation one has moved towards individualism where each of us has got an opportunity to
construct our identities. The social codes which formally guided people’s choices and activities
have significantly loosened.

Disadvantages of Globalisation
Globalisation is producing risks, challenges, inequalities which cross national borders and elude
the reach of existing political structures. It is not restricted to large global systems but its impact
is felt in our personal lives, the way we think of ourselves and our connection with others.
Globalising forces have entered into our local context and intimate lives through sources like
internet and through personal contact with people from other countries and cultures.
Globalisation leads to mass production and distribution. This is promoting the culture of
consumption leading to the form of ever expanding electronic culture and the ever increasing fast
food outlets.

To some extent, people of the world share a global culture. It is contended that globalisation
contributes in the homogenisation of cultures. The evidence in this regard suggests that in several
cultural fields, a fusion of styles, contents and forms of culture is taking place. This is reflected
in increased tendency towards fusion of styles in music, dance and painting. But the ever
expanding globalisation leading to homogenisation often results in a clash between new cultural
spaces and traditional cultural spaces. The people try to protect their local identities and there is
resurgence of fanatic cultural forces trying to protect the cultural identities based upon language,
caste, religion etc.