Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective

by Philip McMichael

In this new Sixth Edition of Development and Social A Global Perspective , author Philip McMichael describes a world undergoing profound social, political, and economic transformations, from the post-World War II era through the present. He tells a story of development in four parts—colonialism, developmentalism, globalization, and sustainability—that shows how the global development “project” has taken different forms from one historical period to the next. Throughout the text, the underlying conceptual framework is that development is a political construct, created by dominant actors (states, multilateral institutions, corporations and economic coalitions) and based on unequal power arrangements. While rooted in ideas about progress and prosperity, development also produces crises that threaten the health and well-being of millions of people, and sparks organized resistance to its goals and policies. Frequent case studies make the intricacies of globalization concrete, meaningful, and clear. Development and Social A Global Perspective challenges us to see ourselves as global citizens even as we are global consumers.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Politics, International Development, Economics, History, Anthropology

426 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2000

Reviews

[Dev Scott Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new edition (6th) addresses the complaints about being 'scattered.' I'd use it if I were teaching Change & Development to sociology majors or grad students

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorites of the year and it is a book that I recommend everyone to read. The book might be hard to read for people since it is a textbook and most people don't like to read these sort of things. They only do so as requirement for school. You should read the book though since it pertains to globalization and globalization affects all of us. It is a system that was started to improve our world, though the ongoing results of this goal are debatable. Progress is not necessarily a good thing, nor is it always even necessary. Sometimes people mistake progression as an improvement when it actually isn't. For example, does having more roads around the world, in third world countries make the world better? Why are these roads even made for anyway? And for whom? A lot of the time roads are made to better transport goods and other materials that serve to make money. But money that doesn't benefit people, like indigenous people found in these countries. The money is mostly made for corporations and companies, which isn't fair because the point of globalization is improvement. This demonstrates that globalization doesn't necessarily mean equality for all. That it doesn't work for all people.

In this book you will learn a lot about how globalization started, how it evolved to the globalization project, how it works, and how it affects people around the world. You will learn about the global power structure. You will learn that improvement/progression is measured in economic terms. The most important thing is how much money can be made. Not how happy can you be, how healthy, how much food security people have, etc. And you might be surprised to find that globalization negatively affects many people, more so than positively affects them. I personally wasn't surprised because I have always thought that this world and that the people in it aren't that great a lot of the time. So it wasn't hard for me to accept what I was learning in the book. Not that there isn't any good in this world, but I have always considered myself realistic and I'm ok with stating that a lot of negativity permeates our planet. Whatever problems we might encounter in this country though, we are still far better off than most people in the rest of the world.

What I liked about this book was that it wasn't just a bunch of facts and statistics and things. It has a series of case studies throughout the book so you could better understand the situations globalization brings to all sorts of people. And I liked that the author doesn't ignore the inequalities found on a global scale that are caused by globalization. He talks about race, ethnicity, gender, class inequalities. I find his portrayal of these things very honest. He just presents facts whether we like them or not. This book is a learning experience and by reading it you will expand your knowledge on how this global structure works.

I would like to recommend this documentary that I think goes well with this book. It's empowering, but also upsetting.

ww.youtube.com/watch?v=duFXuRnd2CU

[Amani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and fun. But it's difficult to keep up, the information was too scattered. But generally, highly recommended.

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This of this book as an encyclopedia of development concepts and history. Also has good examples of small movements happening in the world. Dense to read, very concise on topics I wish it would delve more into.

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books on development I’ve read. McMichael presents a succinct history of the field without falling victim to the oversimplification often found in textbooks.

[Leah Nugent · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on different perspectives of globalization, but was a bit repetitive at points.

[Litbitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. I recommend for anyone who wants to understand the goals of and transitions from colonialism to sustainable development to neo-liberal globalization, particularly the power and influence of the Bretton-Woods organizations (WTO, IMF). If you want to know why poor countries are poor, why food-producing nations can't feed themselves, why trade is such a crucial human rights issue, read it. Well-written and thorough. It's not a 5 only because I was annoyed by the textbook-like rhetorical questions he drops in occasionally.

[Sierra Leeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative about globalization and development. I was new to these topics, but this book made it very easy to understand.

[Korean Jh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, think again the danger of community development in the third world country. The community development would be the key element to change the poor countries but not the master key.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books give clear and simple explanations to the way the world works and it also gives case studies.

Read for SOCI 320

[Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

relied extensively on this material during course c&e540