Application of Thomas Kuhn’s structure of scientific revolutions to the field of social Development: A review of literature

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on the history of science and the field of social development, showing the nexus between Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the three paradigms of social development, namely the Dominant (Modernisation), Dependency, and Participatory (Another Development). In the history of science, Kuhn 1970 argues in his landmark work that science passes through four phases. In the first phase, scientists operate without a paradigm, and during this period, they experience all sorts of problems. The second phase sees the birth of a paradigm, and scientists begin to operate within it. In the third stage, weaknesses or flaws of the new paradigm begin to emerge. They may be explained away if they are not serious; however, if they prove otherwise, the paradigm is overturned, ushering in the fourth phase (scientific revolution). The successor follows the route followed by the predecessor; thus, the paradigm shift becomes a life cycle. The paper argues that the field of social development commenced with the Dominant Paradigm that, over the years, began to face overwhelming problems that finally overthrew it. It was replaced by the Dependency Paradigm, which suffered the same fate and was ousted by Participatory Development. This Article, a synthesis of recent literature, demonstrates that Kuhn's paradigmatic stages apply to the field of social development. The work proves intriguing and useful to the broad and interdisciplinary field of social science.