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Book Review: Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective

Article in Teaching Sociology · October 2008

DOI: 10.1177/0092055X0803600409

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390
17 sections of 4-5 articles. The sections each
represent either a single classical theorist or a
logical theoretical cluster.
Part One: The Roots begins with a section
each on Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Simmel,
followed by sections on “Neglected Voices” and
“Voices from Outside the Discipline.” These last
two are in reversed order from the prior edition,
a move which highlights nicely that the neglected
scholars were trained sociologists, too, and that
even our own discipline was limited by the cul-
tural blinders of the times. The selections in Part
One are the same as in previous editions, except
for substitution of an excerpt from The German
Ideology for The Theses on Feuerbach and sub-
stitution of Simmel’s essay on “The Philosophy
of Money” for his essay on “Flirtation.” In both
cases, the new selections are more readable for
students, yet are good introductions to the rele-
vant content.
Part Two: The Branches contains sections on
functionalism and neofunctionalism, conflict
theories, symbolic interactionism, phenomenol-
ogy and ethnomethodology, exchange theory and
rational choice theory, feminist theory, and criti-
cal theory—all fairly standard organizing catego-
ries for 20th century theory. The articles again
are much the same as in the second edition, with
reorganization, substitutions and additions re-
flecting the change occurring in the discipline.
There is a new section on “Contemporary
Theories of Modernity” and the articles on
“World Systems and Globalization Theory” are
now grouped in their own section. This reflects
both the growth of work in these areas and the
discipline’s recognition of their importance. One
long overdue addition is West and Zimmerman’s
seminal piece on “doing gender.” I was also
pleased to see inclusion of Walter Benjamin’s
essay on art in the “Critical Theory” section.
The final section, previously called “Further
Directions”, is now “New Directions/Creative
Syntheses”, a title which more aptly captures the
way several pieces connect the new with the old.
The Urry piece, in particular, will be interesting
to students, since it deals with a question I have
more than once been asked by my otherwise not-
too-theoretically-savvy students in Introductory
Sociology: If the world is so globalized, how can
we really talk about separate “societies”?
I used the second edition of the Kivisto reader
successfully in our theory course here at Union
College last year. Our 10-week course usually is
taken only by junior and senior majors and is the
only theory course offered in the department.
Thus, whoever is teaching it has had to confront
TEACHING SOCIOLOGY
the challenges I discussed above. In addition to
using a reader, we usually have them read a
complete work by Marx, Durkheim and Weber
and, depending on who is teaching that year, we
add two or more complete contemporary works.
We do not use a textbook per se.
With the Kivisto, I assigned only about half of
the selections for the class as a whole to read.
Students chose readings from among those that
remained on which they then presented individu-
ally in class—that is, they had to “teach” that
theorist. As part of their presentation, they were
required to give a biographical sketch of the
writer as well as an overview of his/her thinking
which went beyond the short introduction Kivisto
provides. They enjoyed this project and students
of all abilities were consistently able to decode
the Kivisto selections. Their comfort level even
occasionally allowed a sense of humor, as in the
student presenting on Baudrillard who led off
with the mournful announcement, “My theorist
died this week!” [Jean Baudrillard died on
March 6, 2007.]
The third edition of Peter Kivisto’s reader will
remain a staple for upper level undergraduate
social theory courses in which faculty want their
students to have wide exposure to original
sources. The text is well-edited and articles have
their own reference lists. Each article’s source is
cited at the end of the selection, which further
encourages students to locate each reading in
time and space. The reorganization and additions
made to the third edition have strengthened the
collection and Kivisto’s own introductory essay
is excellent.
Janet P. Grigsby
Union College
Development and Social Change: A Global
Perspective. 4th ed. Philip McMichael. 2008.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. 347
pages. $49.95.
Globalization, Malcom Waters wrote in 1995,
has eclipsed “postmodernism” as the “key idea
by which we understand the transition of human
society into the third millennium” (p. 1). Yet,
despite the widespread use of the term globaliza-
tion, it s tough for students to adopt a global
perspective on socio-economic development, and
they often fail to understand change as a histori-
cally situated and contested process. Frequently,
students interpret development as an evolutionary
and natural process, with one’s quality of life
positively correlated with embracing modernity
BOOK REVIEWS
(McMichael xvi). Recognizing this misapprehen-
sion, Philip McMichael wrote Development and
Social Change to introduce undergraduate and
graduate students to the global roots and con-
tested nature of development (McMichael 1996,
p. xv). McMichael thoroughly revised the fourth
edition to retain this original approach while
weaving in a stronger ecological theme, as well
as a greater emphasis on gender and on the so-
cial responses to the globalization project.
The basic argument is laid out on page 1: “We
are at a critical threshold: Whether consumer-
based development remains a minority activity or
becomes a majority activity among the earth’s
inhabitants, either way is unacceptable for social
(divided planet) or environmental (unsustainable
planet) reasons, or both. Development as we
know it is in question.” Here are the central
themes of the book: environmental sustainability,
uneven development, growing inequality, and
development as a politically contested and con-
textualized process.
As in previous editions, the book focuses on
how the “development project” emerged in the
1940s, began to unravel in the 1970s, and was
re-formed into the "globalization project" in the
1980s. By development project, McMichael
means a nationally organized effort emphasizing
national economic growth, while the globaliza-
tion project is a globally organized one based on
global integration.
After framing the core issues in the first chap-
ter, McMichael traces in chapter 2 the emer-
gence of the “universal, natural, and unconten-
tious” development project from the colonial era,
specifically the colonial division of labor and the
“civilizing” mission. By the 1940s, the develop-
ment project essentially meant the consolidation
of national capitalism in the First World and its
dispersal to the Third World in the form of the
modern nation-state and national economic
growth. Chapter 3 extends this discussion by
including the role of Marshall Plan, the Bretton
Woods System, the General Agreement on Tar-
iffs and Trade (GATT), and food aid in this
consolidation and dispersal process. Thus,
McMichael is able to show that the national
development project was simultaneously an inter-
national one, which over time set into motion a
global dynamic characterized by international
market integration and resistance to that integra-
tion.
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the transition to the
globalization project and specialization in the
world economy. With the newly industrialized
countries (NICs) and the New Agricultural
391
Countries (NACs) serving as export platforms
for Transnational Corporations, the post-war
“new international division of labor” rapidly
evolved into a more complex global division of
labor. As with labor, money too became less tied
to geographical space during this period which
was characterized by the rise of global offshore
money markets.
Instituting the globalization project in the post-
1980 period, however, required dismantling the
nationalistic (development) project, and the debt
crisis provided such an opportunity. The poten-
tial international instability of rising Third World
debt called for management, that is “global gov-
ernance,” of the debtor countries by the World
Bank and the IMF. Management in the form of
structural adjustment programs effectively al-
lowed the “new managers” to re-defined devel-
opment as participation in the world economy.
Detailed in chapter 7, the effects of these
changes include cultural devastation, structural
unemployment, displacement, increased poverty,
"informalization" of the economy, and recoloni-
zation.
The final two chapters look at the social reac-
tions to these outcomes, and at some attempts to
challenge the globalization project. Chapter 8
examines a number of social reactions, or coun-
termovements, to the globalization project in-
cluding religious fundamentalism, environmen-
talism, women’s rights movements, cosmopoli-
tan activism, food sovereignty movements, and
the “Latin Rebellion.” In the last chapter,
McMichael addresses the crisis in political legiti-
macy and the planet-threatening trends generated
by the globalization project. The chapter’s title,
“Development for What?” suggests that we are
in the midst of a transition to yet another
“project.” This transition, which I would argue
was initiated in Seattle in 1999, is more focused
on forging a development strategy consistent
with human and planetary needs.
Overall, Development and Social Change is a
richly described and well written survey of
change in the post-1950 period. There are nu-
merous micro-case studies and questions sprin-
kled throughout the text to stimulate discussion
of development dilemmas and paradoxes. Each
chapter concludes with a section on “further
reading” and “selected websites,” which are
useful for further exploration of the issues raised
in the chapter. The book has a good bibliography
and index, the latter incorporates short glossary
entries on some of the key terms.
The global perspective in Development and
Social Change will be useful for advanced under-
392
graduates. The book’s interdisciplinary approach
is a strength, as is the focus on Africa, and the
discussion of agrarian change and the construc-
tion of the global food regime under the
“auspices” of the United States. Equally impor-
tant, the book shows that development and social
change have long been a multifaceted global-
local process. The brief discussion of the
“lifestyle connection” (p. 13) is especially fruit-
ful for illustrating how global inter-connections
shape everyday life at all points along the pro-
duction-consumption chain. While globalization
means that power no longer resides in the places
in which it is immediately experienced (Jameson
1991), McMichael’s examples suggest that
power is not unidirectional; rather global-local
connections involve a dialectic in which global
processes are shaped by local cultures.
Graduate students, however, will likely be
frustrated by the lack of theoretical rigor and of
analysis linking the myriad details. To be fair,
the book is intended to provide a basic under-
standing of the process of change, but the causes
for the changes so well described remain ob-
scure. As a result, it is unclear how and in what
ways the events, changes, and outcomes are
linked or the possibility of modifying the current
project.
It is also noteworthy that there is little or no
integration of Fordism and of informational and
computer technology in discussions of the devel-
opment and globalization projects. Karl Po-
lanyi’s (1944) notion of countremovements is a
valuable addition to the book, yet, there is no
discussion of Polanyi’s thesis or how his work
can help us make sense of development and so-
cial change. Finally, we know little of the poten-
tial boomerang affects of the globalization pro-
ject on the United States. and the rest of the First
World. The book leaves an impression of the
globalization project as a vehicle for U.S. domi-
nance during and after the Cold War. Clearly
there is truth in this, but globalization is a more
complex process with its own logic and demands
that are affecting the United States. in many
often unanticipated ways.
Despite these shortcomings, instructors will
find the book useful in courses on economic
sociology, globalization, stratification, and social
change. Development and Social Change is a
thorough overview of social change in the post-
war period. The first edition was a practical and
accessible contribution to the literature on social
change. The fourth edition continues in this vein.
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TEACHING SOCIOLOGY
REFERENCES
Jameson, Frederic. 1991. Postmodernism: The Cul-
tural Logic of Late Capitalism. London, England:
Verso Press.
McMichael, Philip. 1996. Development and Social
Change: A Global Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Pine Forge Press.
Polanyi, Karl. 1944. The Great Transformation. Bos-
ton, MA: Beacon Press.
Waters, Malcom. 1995. Globalization. New York:
Routledge.
Gary Hytrek
California State University-Long Beach
Contemporary Readings in Globalization. Scott
R. Sernau, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge
Press. 2008. 226 pages. $29.95.
A couple of questions I ask about a new book,
especially a new reader, are these: (1) Do we
need a new book on this topic? And, (2) Does
this new book advance knowledge and learning
in a critical thinking way as to distinguish it from
many others already out there?
The topic in question in Scott R. Sernau’s
Contemporary Readings in Globalization, is, of
course, globalization. In his introduction to A
Brief History of Globalization, MacGillivray
(2006) estimates there are over 5,000 titles in
print on globalization. That was in 2006, and I
would venture to claim that a lot more have been
added since then. It seems the production of
textbooks on globalization keep accelerating just
as the process of globalization seems to be accel-
erating.
Sernau’s reader is broken down into seven
parts, A Changing World, Inequality, Education,
Conflict, Health, Energy, and Environment.
Within each of these parts there are a scattering
of thirty articles, with the bulk of the articles
going under the topics A Changing World, Ine-
qualities, and Conflict. There is a useful “Topics
Guide” listed after the table of contents and an
equally useful guide to “Internet Resources”
listed at the end of the book.
Exactly what is globalization? Sernau begins
with the definition “Globalization is a recently
popularized term that refers to the growing inter-
connectedness of our world” (p. 1). Given that
globalization is in fact if one of the most highly
and hotly debated issues in all of the social sci-
ences, I would welcome a much more detailed,
nuanced, and in-depth definition of globalization
and a couple of articles at the outset that may