Theories Of Underdevelopment Research Articles

Globalization and Poverty, and the Poverty of Globalization Theory

This article intervenes in the ongoing ‘globalization debate’ by focusing on two apparently separate debates: on the links between trade liberalization, growth and poverty reduction; and on theories that give too much explanatory weight to the concept of globalization. These two separate debates have close parallels, and in both cases causality and outcome are conflated, with the result that globalization is given far too much causal significance. The article critically reviews the evidence for and against recent claims that global poverty has declined over the last 20 years. This is related to earlier debates in development studies between modernization and under-development theory. Although the article does not accept the earlier claims of the latter theory, it rejects modernization theory and suggests that much of the claims made for poverty reduction repeat the assumptions of this theory, albeit in a neoliberal form. This argument is used to consider the claims of ‘globalization theory’, which is contrasted with more critical theories of globalization. The author suggests that, like the claims made for poverty reduction and its causes, this theory conflates outcomes and causes and is essentially a new form of (neoliberal) modernization theory.

Development and Underdevelopment in the Globalizing Economy

A Schumpeterian theory of development and underdevelopment in an open global economy with technology transfer, trade and investment is presented. Free trade provides a powerful force for convergence. However, foreign direct investment (FDI), which consolidated during the 19th Century and has increased rapidly since the 1980's, results in asymmetric incentives for innovation favoring leading countries that are strong enough to induce persistently unequal and divergent steady states. Innovators accessing lower wages through labor- and market-seeking FDI obtain higher profits generating higher incentives for innovation, for which FDI spillovers may not compensate the follower. Moreover, the follower's potential for innovation may be crowded out. For example, if all its labor is demanded by leading country innovators, all innovation will be crowded out (the banana republic). The typical colonial diktat imposed by Great Britain in the 19th and early 20th Centuries also generates persistent inequality and divergence.

Towards a framework for benchmarking ICT practice, competence and performance in small firms

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a review and critique of the benchmarking literature with respect to information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and usage within small firms. This is used as the basis for developing a competence based model contingency framework to be used for comparing practice and performance with respect to ICT within small firms.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical approach is proposed whereby the key metrics and questions related to the development of an ICT benchmarking framework are derived from recent empirical research reported in the literature.FindingsThe main findings indicate a paucity of empirical research with respect to benchmarking ICT and also underdeveloped theory in terms of IT adoption in small firms. The ICT competence and capability approach is proposed as a viable research avenue for investigating IT performance within small firms.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this research are related to its current phase as work in progress. Testing of the theoretical framework and its development within the context of comparing ICT performance across small firms has yet to be carried out.Practical implicationsPractical implications of the research are very high as there could be a direct link between adoption and use of the benchmarking tool and improved ICT performance.Originality/valueThe development of an ICT benchmarking framework and tool that is directly focused on improving small firm performance – linked to a human and organisational competence approach as opposed to only measuring technological capability.

Orientalism and African Development Studies: the ‘reductive repetition’ motif in theories of African underdevelopment

Contemporary Africa is generally depicted as a ‘failure’. ‘Progress' has eluded the continent throughout the 20th century, and despite new ways of thinking about the reasons for failure and possibilities for success, allusions to the ‘natural weakness and incapacity’ of Africans and their social realities remain evident in theoretical, policy and political discourse on development in Africa. The practice of ‘reductive repetition’, as identified by Abdallah Laroui and Edward Said, has been imported into African development studies from Orientalist scholarship. Reductive repetition reduces the diversity of African historical experiences and trajectories, sociocultural contexts and political situations into a set of core deficiencies for which externally generated ‘solutions’ must be devised. In the field of development studies, the notion of development is introduced to Africa as a deus ex machina. In this article modern conceptualisations of development are challenged in three steps. First, it traces the history of development discourse over the post-Berlin Conference colonial and post-WWII development eras, suggesting that, while rhetoric of racial and cultural inferiority has been transformed, the notion of African deficiency remains at the conceptual and discursive levels. Second, the primarily liberal idea that ‘development for all’ is possible is challenged as being an ecological and economic, and therefore also social, impossibility. Third, given the problems of growth-based development, the article suggests that modern development theory ought to give way to post-developmental thinking which challenges standard a priori assumptions regarding rationality, linearity and modernity, thus offering some modest hope for a move ‘beyond’ the current development impasse.

Social Shocks and Slave Social Mobility: Manumission in Brunswick County, Virginia, 1782–1862

What factors raised or lowered manumission rates in the U.S. South? Prior considerations of this question possess three weaknesses: underdeveloped theories with limited causes of liberations, impressionistic empirical analysis, and neglect of rural liberations. The author links two types of social shocks to liberations through quantitative analysis of all liberations granted by masters in Brunswick County, Virginia, from 1782 to 1862. Manumission deterrents and generators explain the rates at which manumission documents were written and chattels were freed. The antebellum pattern of white domination and black subordination disclosed in this research sheds light on the role racial ideologies have played in black‐white relations during the postbellum era and the social conditions under which whites have acceded to blacks’ demands for improvements in their status.

Controlling Street-Level Police Discretion

The Committee to Review Research on Police Policyand Practices’ Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing:The Evidenceprovides a review of research on thecauses of street-level police behavior, but the reportoffers little insight into how to control that discretioneffectively. This is not due to deficiencies in the reportbut rather to limitations of the available research. Thisarticle discusses four problems with that research:underdeveloped theory, weak research designs,insufficient generalizability of findings, and inattention to thekinds of police discretion that really matter to policymakers, practitioners, and the public. The article givesspecial attention to the last problem and makesrecommendations for improving the quality of research tobetter inform choices about how to control policestreetlevel discretion.

The Rise and Fall of the Dependency Movement: Does It Inform Underdevelopment Today?

While dependency theory as a conscious, explicit approach to development can be considered a thing of the past, its legacy is very much with us. The impact that dependency ideas held in Latin American centers of academia was pervasive, while also gaining many adherents in Europe and the United States. Perhaps more importantly, this impact went beyond scholarly circles. As Falcoff (1980, 797) observed, "dependency explanations…are no longer confined to academic sanctuaries; they are now the common currency of a growing body of generals bishops, editors, chiefs of state, even Latin American businessmen." What gave the dependency perspective particular allure is that, unlike other previous paradigms, it was held to be a distinctively Latin American analysis of Latin American development. Its legacy can be discerned from the pronouncements of Latin American scholars, policymakers and politicians who choose to put the emphasis on the structural conditions of the world economy that work against the prospects of the region's economies. Understanding the dependency movement is important, not least because it is a consequential episode in the history of social thought in Latin America. It also marks one of those rare instances in which ideas produced in the Third World come to influence the thinking of scholars in the developed world. Indeed, the supply of underdevelopment theory (principally structuralism and dependency) has been regarded as "Latin America's major contribution to the social sciences."

Meio ambiente, Celso Furtado e o desenvolvimento como falácia

O trabalho de Celso Furtado como pensador social é conhecido por suas enormes contribuições ao entendimento dos problemas do desenvolvimento no contexto dos países subdesenvolvidos. Sua teoria do subdesenvolvimentom, elaborada há quatro décadas, persiste como uma visão atual da realidade. Furtado repassa constantemente conceitos como o de dependência, concentração de renda, mimetismo cultural, relações assimétrias centro-periferia, mercado interno e muitos outros, além de trabalhar uma visão estruturalista do subdesenvolvimento, do desenvolvimento e de fenômenos correlatos. No livro O Mito do Desenvolvimento ele levanta duas questões não comuns ao restante da sua obra. A primeira delas diz respeito aos impactos do processo econômico no meio físico, na natureza _ um tema completamente alheio ao núcleo do pensamento tradicional da ciência da economia . A segunda se refere à constatação do caráter de mito moderno do desenvolvimento econômico. Que Furtado tenha feito isso em 1974, época do Milagre, demonstra o vigor de seu pensamento visionário. Vale a pena voltar ao assunto. É o que se faz no artigo.

Cristóbal Kay, Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment, Routedge, London and New York, 1989

Cristóbal Kay, <i>Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment</i>, Routedge, London and New York, 1989

Do they or don’t they? A comparison of traditional and discourse perspectives of HRD in SMEs

Understanding of HRD in SMEs has frequently been based on impoverished research resulting from underdeveloped theory. This article argues for the potential offered to researching, understanding and practising HRD in small organisations, of taking a discourse perspective on organisation, learning and development. Through a comparative interpretation, from a traditional and a discourse perspective on HRD, of research material collected ethnographically in three small companies, the article aims to contribute to an approach which can deepen understanding of HRD in SMEs by combining three strands that have not generally been integrated: ideas from recent debates on what HRD comprises, perspectives on learning, and a discourse perspective on organisation. The implications for research indicate a need for methods that enable the study of HRD in action – the micro‐processes of development.

Challenges in Elder Mistreatment Programs and Policy

Programs serving victims of elder mistreatment face numerous policy challenges including unclear definitions of key terms, an insubstantial and methodologically weak research base, underdeveloped causal theories and practice models, porous statutes and policies, and the absence of federal or other unified funding and directing mechanisms. Elder mistreatment issues provide numerous opportunities for gerontologi-cal social work participation and calls for the unique contributions that the profession of social work brings to an increasingly multidisciplinary effort.

Labour Migration, Labour Shortage, and Employer Response in Swaziland, 1935–1945

Extracted from text ... South African Historical Journal 44 (May 2001), 163-183 Labour Migration, Labour Shortage, and Employer Response in Swaziland, 1935-1945 HAMILTON SIPHO SIMELANE University of Swaziland Introduction Labour history in colonial Swaziland has been the subject of several studies.1 The main focus of these studies, and many others not mentioned here, has been the migration of Swazi men to South African mines and other areas of employment. Some have even gone to the extent of explaining the impact of labour migration within the framework of the development of underdevelopment theory together with its accompanying dependency paradigm. The role of recruiting agents and ..

O desenvolvimentismo cepalino: problemas teóricos e influências no Brasil

PASSADOS mais de 50 anos de sua criação, a CEPAL continua sendo uma fonte de influências e um importante tema de pesquisa sobre a história econômica brasileira e latino-americana como um todo. Apesar do contínuo interesse que a teoria cepalina continua gerando atualmente, os estudos sobre a CEPAL têm se dedicado relativamente pouco ao exame dos motivos da grande influência alcançada pela teoria cepalina do subdesenvolvimento, nos anos 50 e 60 principalmente, entre policy makers, empresários e autores em geral. Igualmente, a literatura raramente tem procurado estimar o impacto da CEPAL sobre o pensamento econômico na América Latina e no Brasil, em particular. O presente artigo tem por objetivo adiantar hipóteses de interpretação sobre essas duas questões, ou seja, os determinantes da influência cepalina nos anos 50 e 60 e seu impacto entre as correntes econômicas subseqüentes. O argumento apresentado no artigo sugere que parte importante da influência cepalina nos anos 50 e 60 deveu-se à sua estrutura teórica e conceitual - consistente e relevante, mas ao mesmo tempo essencialmente imprecisa e ambígua. O artigo também sustenta que a teoria cepalina foi e continua sendo influente entre correntes econômicas no Brasil. O artigo concentra-se em duas tradições teóricas, a teoria da dependência e a do capitalismo tardio, e argumenta que ambas incorporam características centrais da abordagem cepalina - a ênfase nas estruturas, o papel reduzido dos atores sociais, a predominância de uma perspectiva macro e o desenvolvimento de uma visão formal da história.

Can Less Be More? Leftist Deliberative Democrats' Critique of Participatory Democracy

Many contemporary democratic theorists now base their conceptions of democracy not on the value of citizen participation but on deliberation instead. This apparently slight shift in emphasis marks an important change in the critical project of democratic theory. Although participatory and deliberative democratic theory are in some ways similar, close readings of the recent work of a number of leftist deliberative democrats reveal not only fundamental criticisms of their participatory predecessors but a strikingly different assessment of the political world as well. Deliberative democrats strive to avoid the charge of utopianism so often leveled against participatory theorists; in doing so, however, they lose the power to distinguish critically between the potential for democracy and its realization. Deliberative democratic theory, therefore, should not be understood as a revision of the participatory project, but rather as an independent and, for now, underdeveloped theory of democracy.

Why Doesn't Development Always Succeed? The Role of a Work Ethic

This paper presents a theory of underdevelopment. It explains why developing countries may not be able to successfully implement the productive technologies or modes of organization used in developed ones. It also suggests ways around this problem of implementation, and provides an explanation for why already developed countries did not face the same problems. The paper examines the interaction between the population's work ethic and the actions of firms, where a person's work ethic comes to matter. It is shown that an economy can be in either a high work ethic steady state, or a welfare dominated low work ethic one. Attempted development makes the high work ethic steady state more efficient, but, if too rapid, will not allow it to be reached. Instead, the unique trajectory is to the low one, and welfare is reduced.

Changing the Culture of Underdevelopment and Unsustainability

Complex relationships exist between human nature and needs, cultural evolution and ecological dynamics. The purpose of this paper is to present a working hypothesis that explores how we may reverse worsening underdevelopment, poverty and unsustainability trends world-wide. Empirical evidence from cultural history and contemporary project experience are used to suggest a development process that combines three critical dimensions: ethics, productive social interaction and knowledge integration. Logic dictates that the process should be applied in any given country to mobilize investment in supplies of natural, human and economic capital, principally biodiversity, soil and water conservation, education and public health. A sociopolitical theory of underdevelopment is presented to suggest that unethical virtual cartels control social interaction, knowledge integration and resource mobilization, precipitating negative feedback effects on human development, ecological stability and, ultimately, cultural evolution. The hypothesis was formulated using observations over 5 years in Mexico and case-study experience to initiate an alternative process of water resource conservation.

Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa

It is well known that Africa's development lags behind that of other regions. Lesser known is the substantial variance in development fortunes within Africa, with “miracle” economies compensating for the region's development disasters. Prevailing theories of Africa's average performance fail to account for intra-African disparities. Using empirical evidence from cross-sectional data, this study offers a new explanation for success and failure in African development, which builds upon the insights of neo-patrimonial theory. It argues that variations in the extent to which post-colonial state institutions clash with pre-existing ones largely account for what differentiates state capacity and economic growth across the region. The greater the incongruence between pre- and post-colonial institutions, the greater the relative power payoffs to domestic elites of adopting neo-patrimonial policies over developmental ones. The article challenges thereby the social capital and ethnic homogeneity theories of African under-development, and offers substantial qualifications to the “imported state” hypothesis.

Rosario Romeo ( 1924–1987)

Rosario Romeo (1924–87) made an original and outstanding contribution to the study of modern Italian history. He wrote extensively on the development of Italian capitalism and industrialization, developing his own concept of the ‘primitive accumulation of capital’ and drawing on theories of underdevelopment that became current after the Second World War to underline the particularities, the speed and breadth but also the limitations of Italy's economic growth. In his masterly biography of Cavour, as well as in numerous other essays, he confronted the questions of the birth of the Italian nation state, its origins, its political and moral tradition and its social life in the context of a deeply informed and penetrating vision of contemporary European history. The Risorgimento and Fascism, the nation and the nation state, liberal‐democratic values and class struggle, modernization and secularization are the essential themes in his historical writings that were marked by deep erudition and methodological rigour, and inspired by great conceptual and moral breadth. Through his work Italy became a paradigm of the fundamental dimensions of the modern world thanks to that passion for liberty which for Romeo (he was also a member of the European Parliament) was rekindled by the events of the twentieth century, among whose major historians he ranks.

Information technology and underdevelopment in the Third World

Information technology is taking centre stage as the world approaches the twenty‐first century. The enormous advantages it has in easing the delivery of information around the world, as well as the central role of information in the new global economy, means that information technology will shape the dynamics of the new millennium. However, for most Third World countries, faced with the problems of illiteracy and poverty, information technology poses a danger to their fledgling economies. This paper discusses the theories of underdevelopment and applies them to information technology in a Third World context. Issues are raised about the role of information in a globalized economy and how this can become a disadvantage to developing countries. It is suggested that technology should be implemented within a social context.

The ethical use of evidence in biomedicine.

Valerie Miké's proposal of an "ethics of evidence" is an interesting, important venture into a little explored field. Miké's two rules (use the best possible knowledge and acknowledge uncertainty) have been implicit but need to become explicit in a world where information and knowledge have enormous power--especially in medical practice and research, where evidence is essential to clinical decisions, policy formulation, and dissemination of results. A fully developed ethics of evidence would depend on a still underdeveloped theory of evidence, that is, on some conception of the nature of evidence, the logic of its use, and the epistemology of discovery and explanation. Until such a groundwork is developed, practical guidelines are deducible in the ethics of data collection and dissemination. This article examines those ethics, suggesting criteria for the morally responsible treatment of evidence collection, dissemination, and use.