Bringing the study of international inequality back into the core of sociological theory, this book offers a user-friendly introduction to development and underdevelopment. In doing so, it places various approaches to the definition, measurement, and understanding of “development” against the backdrop of broader sociological debates.
Schrank draws concrete examples from different regions and epochs to explore sociological thinking about development and underdevelopment informed by the latest currents in economic sociology. Across a series of chapters, he identifies relationships between mainstream and Marxist approaches to the study of international inequality; uses classical and contemporary social theory to develop a parsimonious typology of national development outcomes; addresses cross-border learning and diffusion in light of the latest developments in organization theory; considers the roles of religious, racial, and gender identities in the development process in different places and times; and portrays contemporary global challenges ‒ such as populism, pandemics, and climate change ‒ as distinctly sociological problems in need of multifaceted solutions.
Enriched with expository figures, tables, and diagrams, this accessible book simultaneously distills and develops the sociological approach to the study of development and underdevelopment for both undergraduate and graduate students across the social sciences.Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsPreface: The Scope of this Book
Notes
1 Introduction
The classical sociology of development
Beyond single-bullet theories of development and underdevelopment
Interdisciplinary development studies in the mid-twentieth century
The birth of the Washington Consensus and the rise of “DIY sociology”
Notes
2 What Do We Mean by “Development?”
The traditional approach to development: the production of commodities
Beyond the traditional approach: development as freedom
Reactivity in Rwanda: the social construction of development indicators
Are GDP per capita and the HDI redundant?
From cross-national inequality to interpersonal inequality in global context
What is middle about the “global” middle class?
The nature of international inequality
A classification of development concepts
Conclusion
Notes
3 Is International Inequality Gradational or Relational?
Modernization theory
The neo-Marxist alternative
Toward a resolution?
Conclusion
Notes
4 Explaining National Mobility in the Cold War Era
From agrarian to industrial society
Industrialization via central planning
Industrialization through infant industry protection
The East Asian debate in the late twentieth century
From the World Bank to Weber and beyond
The developmental state in Northeast Asia
Populist societies in the developing world
The high human developers: exceptions that prove the rule?
A typology of late developing societies
Conclusion
Notes
5 The Diffusion and Demise of Free-Market Reform in the Post-Cold War Era
The Washington Consensus revisited
Economic rationality and beyond
Drivers of isomorphism
The limits to neoliberalism
The origin of institutions
Toward a contrarian alternative
Conclusion
Notes
6 What If Sociologists Were in Charge?
From grand theory to the middle range
Beyond the middle range
Moving toward the future
Notes
References
Index
