Randall Stokes asked what is new in development theory, apparantly
worrying that the answer would be "not much," but hoping to hear good
news from us. I'm more optimistic and would guess that studies of
global development are or will be expanding in all branches of social
science and the humanities (although, regretably, often without a
clear sense of systemic theory, at least so far).
Following Chase-Dunn's lead, it might be useful to briefly list what
we are up to lately, and also mention other areas that we
see making important advances.
In terms of theory, I have been working on reformulating capital
dependency theory to consider the separate effects of differential
productivity (i.e., dependent development is not as productive)
versus negative externalities (i.e., dependent development has
detrimental side effects). Bill Dixon and I found strong empirical
support for this reformulation in the 1960-70s (_ASR_, Sept. 1996). I
am currently updating the model to the 1980s with some surprising
preliminary results.
Another project is to build a theory of agency into world-system
analysis, drawing on analytical marxism (Roemer, Wright) and on
neo-institutionalism (Meyer). For me, this means looking at world
revolutions and social movements, especially labor movements, and
how these affect the institutional "world order" (about which I have
articles coming out in _NPE_ and _W&O_).
There are many others working on globalization and international
labor (see the recent PEWS NEWS) and I think this is an especially
promising area. Also lively are development and ecology, and women
and development. Examples can be found in the PEWS conference on the
environment and the upcoming ASA meetings, which has sessions devoted
to all three areas. Perhaps people in these and other areas could
join in and tell us what are the new developments.
Bos
Terry Boswell
Department of Sociology
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322