The concepts of (local)
development and
modernization
Paul Blokker
1
Overview Class
Development and Modernization
1. Main themes:
1. Modernization as a Contested Concept
- Modernization theory and its main
assumptions;
- The typification of traditional and modern
societies;
- The obstacles to modernization identified;
- Pattern variables;
- The contested nature of ‘modernization’;
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- Multiple paths to Modernity?
Overview Class
Development and Modernization
1. Main themes:
2. Development as a Contested Concept
- Different understandings of development:
mainstream, alternative, post-development;
- Impossibility of development?
- Implications for local development;
- The idea of ‘reflexive development;
- Multiple paths to development?
3
Overview Course
Development and Modernization
3. Relevance:
a. An exploration into the contested nature and
variety of meanings of ‘modernization’ and
‘development’;
b. An understanding of the positive and
negative features of existing approaches;
c. The need for a rethinking of modernization
and development: reflexivity.
4
Overview Course
Social Capital
Relevant literature of the reading list:
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Blokker, P. (2005), ‘Post-Communist Modernization,
Transition Studies, and Diversity in Europe’
Knobl, W. (2003), 'Theories that won't pass away: The
Neverending Story.
Nederveen Pieterse, J. (1998), 'My Paradigm or Yours?
Alternative Development, Post-Development, Reflexive
Development', in: Development and Change, 29.
Allaire, G. and M. Blanc (2003) ‘Local/Global Institutional
Systems of Environmental Public Action’
Trigilia, C. (2000), Economic Sociology, Blackwell Publishers,
in particular chapter 7.
Talcott Parsons
Immanuel Wallerstein
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1
Theories of
Modernization
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
(see Knoebl, Trigilia 2000)
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Modernization became a key concept in the 1950s
and 1960s
The main focus was on non-Western and
decolonised societies that were to be ‘developed’
The main expression of this concern: ’classical
modernization theory’
These theories addressed the twin problem of
creating economic growth and building
effective institutions.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
(see Knoebl, Trigilia 2000)
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Modernization refers to large-scale
historical and social processes of change
Theories of modernization consist of macrosociological, non-Marxist and
interdisciplinary theories of social change
The emphasis was on sociocultural
factors and endogenous policies of
backward countries.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Key assumptions of modernization theory
(Knoebl 96)
1. Modernization is a global and irreversible
process, beginning with the dual
revolutions (industrial and democratic) in
Europe, but now concerning the whole
world;
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
2. Modernization is a historical process,
leading from traditional to modern societies,
implying a strong antithesis or binary
distinction between traditional and modern
societies;
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
3. In traditional or so-called 3rd World
countries, there is a dominance of personal
attitudes, values, and role structures which
can be described as ‘ascription’,
‘particularism’, and ‘functional diffuseness’.
These constitute barriers for
modernization;
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
4. In modern or Euro-Atlantic societies, there is
a predominance of secular, individualistic,
and scientific values and roles. These are
considered to be part of modernity;
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
5. Modernization is a more or less
endogenous process in societies that
should be regarded as wholes;
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
6. Social change towards modernity in different
societies will take place in a rather uniform
and linear way.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Traditional Society –
Gemeinschaft
Modern Society –
Gesellschaft
- Family, Proximity, Friendship
- Anonymous relationships
- Customs
- Contract
- Barter
- Market exchange
- Traditions
- Innovation
- Habit
- Novelty
- Inertia
- Progress
- Religion
- Secular
- Man as Social Man
- Individualism
- Communal Property
- Private Property
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
- emphasis on normative/cultural
orientations typical for traditional societies:
ascription (rather than achievement)
- traditional cognitive dimension vs.
modern rationality
- emphasis on functional differentiation:
specialised division of labour based on 16
specific functional roles
1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
- search for the ‘functional elites’ (political,
intellectual, economic) that introduced
innovation on static societies (entrepreneurs,
bourgeoisie, Bildungsbuergertum);
- emphasis on the capacity of different
institutional systems to adapt to and control
their environment through structural
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differentiation;
1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of pre-modern
societies:
Type "A“
1. Ascription Status is largely ascribed (that is "given"
to you by others). In basic terms, individual status is
determined by the type of family into which you are
born.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of pre-modern
societies:
Type "A“
2. Diffuseness People develop relationships that satisfy
a large range of needs.
For example, a mother - child relationship satisfies a
range of sociological and psychological needs.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of pre-modern
societies:
Type "A“
3. Particularism People act differently towards
particular people, based on the nature of their
relationship.
For example, you may trust your immediate
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family, but not a stranger.
1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of pre-modern
societies:
Type "A“
4. Affectivity Relationships between people are
largely affective (based on love, trust, close personal
involvement and so forth), rather than instrumental
(impersonal relationships based on what people can
do for us in any given situation).
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of pre-modern
societies:
Type "A“
5. Collective Orientation People put the interests of
the social groups to which they belong before their
personal interests.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of modern
societies:
Type “B“
1. Achievement Status in society is achieved through
the things you do (your personal merits), rather than
simply being ascribed.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of modern
societies:
Type “B“
2. Specificity People enter into a wide range of
relationships, each of which satisfies a specific need.
For example, the relationship between a shop
assistant and a customer is structured to fulfill a
particular need.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of modern
societies:
Type “B“
3. Universalism Individuals act according to values and
norms that are "universal" in their society.
For example, the universal value that all are equal in
the eyes of the law.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of modern
societies:
Type “B“
4. Instrumental Relationships are largely based on
what people can do for us in particular situations
(and what we can do for them).
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
• Approaches influenced by structuralfunctionalism (pattern variables)
Pattern variables, characteristic of modern
societies:
Type “B“
5. Self Orientation People give primacy to the pursuit
of their own interests, rather than those of the
group or groups to which they belong.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
- Internal critique to modernization theory
a. Distinction traditional – modern
society insufficient: static. Analysis of
processes/take off needed;
b. Impossibility of indication ‘carrier
groups’;
c. Conceptualization of tradition
problematic: tradition alwways contrary to
modernization? Particularism disappears in28
modernity?
1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
- External critique to modernization theory
a. Negligence of international factors and
learning/imitation effects (Bendix; Wallerstein)
b. Evolutionary model of development in stages
not confirmed by reality/ Western-centric;
c. Traditional – modern distinction
problematic/simplistic;
d. Western society as endstate;
e. Variety of pathways to modernity (Barrington
Moore)
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Revival of modernization theory
- At the end of the 1980s, there is a revival
of modernization theory;
- Renewed relevance: transformation postcommunist societies;
- Many of the older problems reproduced
(unilinearism; modern-non-modern);
- Renewed criticism (path dependency;
multiple modernities).
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Multiple Modernities
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Acceptance of idea of original modernity (European);
Non-European societies develop different
understandings of modernity (civilizational
backgrounds);
Modern imaginaries (autonomy, mastery) are ‘translatable’
in different institutional constellations;
Varieties of pathways to become modern;
Variety of modernities (rival models: communist
modernity; Japanese modernity)
(transformation over time: liberal modernity; organized
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modernity; reflexive modernity?)
1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Modernity’s key characteristics (Blokker
2005):
The first important characteristic is the negation of
traditional authority and a religiously legitimated
political order.
By denying the foundation of political and societal
order on other-worldly grounds, modernizing
agents claim the possibility of constructing a new
order on the basis of self-produced understandings
of such an order.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Modernity’s key characteristics:
The second, strongly related, key characteristic of
modernity is the emphasis on human autonomy,
i.e. the idea of the human being as a subject who
is able to understand the world and act on these
understandings.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Modernity’s key characteristics:
The third characteristic is the idea that society
(and nature) is malleable, and that human beings
can therefore reconstruct their own societies on
the basis of their own visions.
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1. Modernization
Theories of Modernization
Modernity’s key characteristics:
The fourth characteristic is the essentially futureoriented nature of modern ideas and programmes
of modernization. By creating (utopian) visions of
a better society, modern agents divide the present
from the past, and claim that by means of decisive
action these visions can be implemented in the
present.
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1. Modernization
Source: Woolcock 2009, ‘The next 10 years in development
studies: From modernization to multiple modernities, in theory
and
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practice’, European Journal of Development Research 21, 4–9.
2
Development
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2. Development
Development
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Development has for a long time been equalized
with socio-economic modernization (in its classical
understanding as Westernization):
economic growth (% of GDP), division of labour,
innovation, increasing human capital, breaking up
of traditional social bonds, industrializing/postindustrializing the economy, opening up local
markets;
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2. Development
Development
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The distinction or tension is nowadays less
between mainstream development versus
alternative types,
and more about structural adjustment (IMF)
versus human and social development;
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Alternative Development:
1. Participatory and people-centred;
2. Widespread consensus that development is
more successful when there is participation
from the community;
3. Development not only about GDP growth;
4. Human development most appropriate goal
and measure of development;
5. Development from below.
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Alternative Development:
- Ranging from destructive critique of
mainstream development to sets of proposals
for alternative ways;
- It can be confined to alternative ways of
pursuing local development or it can entail
an alternative vision of the global order
(dependencia; neo-Keynesianism; neo- or
post-Marxism;
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Alternative Development:
Three focal points:
1. Agents (who is involved, how?);
2. Methods (what kind of means?
endogenous, exogenous?);
3. Objectives or values (what are the end
goals? Autonomy, democracy, growth, selfdevelopment?).
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Alternative Development:
One possible definition:
“Development is a process by which members
of a society increase their personal and
institutional capabilities to mobilize and
manage resources to produce sustainable and
justly distributed improvements in their
quality of life consistent with their own
aspirations”
(Korten, cited in: Nederveen Pieterse)
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2. Development
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2. Development
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Post-Development:
- Rejection of Western models and paradigms (science,
progress, development): ‘Development has become
outdated’;
- Resentment: reaction against failures of development,
corruption, imposition, environmental destruction;
- Emphasis on equity, self-subsistence, self-reliance;
- ‘Anti-modern’ stance: return to community;
- Simplistic, homogenized view of development;
- Critical, but no proposition of alternative.
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Reflexive Development:
- Rejection of ‘grand solutions’, ‘grand theory’,
‘singular truths’;
- Acceptance of complexity and contextuality;
- Reflexivity:
- acknowledgement of ‘double hermeneutic’
(Giddens);
- ‘post-paradigmatic’;
- Constructivist: knowledge is produced, including by
social actors themselves.
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2. Development
Alternative Development (Nederveen Pieterse)
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Reflexive Development:
- Breakdown of faith in:
- technical progresss = social progress;
- growth = development;
- economic growth = social development;
- Recognition of the limits of ‘malleability’/intervention;
- Popular and participatory reflexivity.
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2. Development
Example
Environmental development
(Allaire and Blanc)
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Growing concerns over local and global
environmental quality
Environmental services relating to both the local and
the global
Different levels and stakeholders involved
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Necessity of local collaboration (government, actors)
2. Development
Example
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Environmental development
Analysis of the local planning process that underpins
the procurement of public environmental goods:
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Cleaning up environment
Creating recreational areas
Furthering sustainability
Increasing biodiversity
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2. Development
Example
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Environmental development
Different levels involved:
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EU agro-environmental schemes
EU Structural Funds
National employment and integration policies
National and rural development funds and co-funding
programmes
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2. Development
Example
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Environmental development
Analytical model:
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“Institutional sectors” (repertoires of evaluation):
“A policy network supported by conventions that
homogenise the representations of problems to be solved”
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4 sectors:
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Institutional: ministry of agriculture and farmers’ unions
Occupational and social integrational
Environmental
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Local development
2. Development
Example
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Environmental development
Analytical model:
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Double relation services:
1. Public body and end-user
2. Public body and service-provider/experts/intermediaries
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2. Development
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