Digging to a hidden Sociological Core. (Neo)Functional Notions within Development Studies

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.7, University of Leipzig (Institute of Sociology), course: Seminar on Theory and History of Theory: Neofunctionalism: Jeffrey C. Alexander and Richard Münch, language: English, abstract: In this literature review, the author aims to explore functionalist notions within Development Studies (DS) and the sociology of development (SOD). For this purpose, he will firstly give a short introduction to three related theories of social change: functionalism, structural functionalism and neofunctionalism. In the next step, two important theories in DS that build on them will be presented: modernisation theory (MT) and dependency theory (DT). As this literature review is explicitly not intended to be a mere presentation of theoretical elaborations, the author follows an approach that is informed by case examples

Only a handful of social scientific terms can be considered to be as disputed as the presumable catch-all phrase 'development' that is also occasionally called an 'empty signifier'. Historically, the term went hand in hand with other well-intended terms such as 'empowerment', 'participation' or 'poverty reduction', ultimately resulting in one size fits all development recipes that are rather apolitical. On a rather abstract level, 'development' can also be considered a bundle of normatively positive and interconnected processes which, by now, only took place in some parts of the world.

The term quickly gained momentum after the end of the Second World War, when the so-called developed countries began attempting to 'modernise' so-called undeveloped countries (oftentimes their former colonies). Typically, the inauguration address of former US-President Harry S. Truman in 1949 is said to mark the onset of the era of development policy, with the discipline of Development Studies (DS) starting to evolve only a few years later. Initially considered to be mainly economically oriented, DS soon included approaches from a wider range of subjects and even led to the emergence of new sub-disciplines such as the sociology of development (SOD).