society, seventh edition global stratification. society, seventh edition changing terminology old...
Post on 21-Dec-2015
214 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Society, Seventh Edition
Changing Terminology• Old terminology
– First world –industrialized rich countries– Second world –less industrial socialist countries– Third world –non-industrialized poor countries
• Problems with old terminology– After cold war, second world no longer existed– 100 country third world too economically diverse to
be meaningful
Society, Seventh Edition
Changing Terminology• New terminology
– High-income – richest forty nations with the highest standard of living
– Middle-income – somewhat poorer nations with economic development typical for the world as a whole
– Low-income – remaining sixty with lowest productivity and extensive poverty
• The extent of global inequality is much greater than these comparisons suggest. Well-off people in rich countries live ‘worlds apart’ from the poorest people in low-income countries
Society, Seventh Edition
High Income Countries– First to develop during industrial revolution
two centuries ago– In the year 2000, includes some 900 million
people – Enjoy over half the world’s income– More income means control of world’s financial
markets– Control of financial markets means control of
other countries
• Examples– United States, Western Europe, Japan,
Australia, Canada, etc.
Society, Seventh Edition
Middle IncomePer Capita Income Ranging From $2,500 to $10,000
• Limited industrialization• One-half of the people are rural and
engage in agricultural activities• Life is difficult:
– A general lack of good education, medical care, and safe water
• One-third of all people live in middle-income countries
• Examples – Russia, Eastern European countries, Latin
America, and some African countries
Society, Seventh Edition
Low Income• 60 nations in this category• About one-half the world’s people• Mostly poor, rural economies• Life expectancy is very short• Examples:
– Africa, and much of Asia
Society, Seventh Edition
The Severity of Poverty• The U.N.’S Human Development
Report, 2001 found that – Norway had the highest “quality of life”
rating (.939)– United States followed close behind (.934)– Sierra Leone had the lowest (.258)
• One reason why quality of life differ so much is that lowest in countries like Sierra Leone is because economic productivity is low in the same countries that tend to have high population growth rates
Society, Seventh Edition
• Relative poverty – People lack resources that others take for
granted– This sort of poverty exists in every
society, rich or poor
• Absolute poverty– A lack of resources that is life threatening– While some may exist in U.S. One-third or
more of the people in low-income countries experience poverty at this level
The Severity of Poverty
Society, Seventh Edition
EXTENT OF POVERTY• Is poverty life threatening?
– In some African countries, half of the annual deaths occur in children under the age of 10 years
• Every ten minutes, 300 people around the world die of hunger!– 40,000 persons a day; 15 million persons
a year starve to death• In the world as a whole 15% or 1
billion people suffer from chronic hunger
Society, Seventh Edition
Poverty & children• Poverty and children
– 100 million children in poor countries are forced to work the streets (e.g., beg, steal, selling sex)
– 100 million children have deserted their families and live off the streets
• Public reaction to street children– U.S. House of representatives reports several
hundred street children murdered in Rio de Janeiro each year
• These “urban cleansing” campaigns are carried out by death squads
– About half of all street children are in Latin America• 10,000 in Mexico City alone
Society, Seventh Edition
Women, Slavery & Poverty• Women
– In all societies, a woman’s work is unrecognized, undervalued, and underpaid
– Workers in sweatshops are mostly women– Seventy percent of the world’s 1 billion people
living near absolute poverty are women
• Slavery1. Chattel slavery – one person owns another2. Child slavery – a more common form of bondage3. Debt bondage – employers hold workers to pay
for their debts4. Servile forms of marriage – married against
their will or forced into prostitution
Society, Seventh Edition
Correlates of Global Poverty• Technology
– One-quarter of the people in low-income countries use human or animal power to farm land
• Population growth– Population for poor countries in africa doubles
every twenty-five years
• Cultural patterns– People resist innovations, accept slavery as a way
of life
• Social stratification– Low-income countries distribute wealth very
unequally
Society, Seventh Edition
Correlates of Global Poverty• Gender inequality
– Raising living standards means improving women’s standing
• Global power relationships– Colonialism –the process by which some
nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations
– Neocolonialism – a “new” form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations
– Multinational corporations – huge businesses that operate in many countries
Society, Seventh Edition
Modernization TheoryThis Model of Economic Development Explains This Model of Economic Development Explains Global Inequality in Terms of Technological & Global Inequality in Terms of Technological &
Cultural Differences Between SocietiesCultural Differences Between Societies
• Historical perspective– As recently as several centuries ago the entire world
was poor– Exploration, trade, and the industrial revolution
transformed Western Europe then North America
• Cultural perspective– Weber explains that the protestant reformation
reshaped traditional Catholicism – The accumulation of wealth replaced kinship and
community and fostered the rise of capitalism– Tradition and “cultural inertia” discourages people from
adopting new technologies and rising living standards
Society, Seventh Edition
W.W. Rostow’s Stages of Modernization
– Traditional stage•Changing traditional views
– Take-off stage•Use of talents and imaginations
– Drive to technological maturity•Diversified economy takes over
– High mass consumption•Mass production stimulates consumption
Society, Seventh Edition
The Role of Rich Nations• Assisting in population control
– Exporting birth control and educating people on its importance
• Increasing food production– The use of new hybrid seeds, modern irrigation
methods, the use of chemicals and pesticides
• Introducing industrial technology– Machinery and information must be shared if
shifts in economies are to take place
• Instituting programs of foreign aid– Money can be used for equipment necessary
for change to take place
Society, Seventh Edition
Critical Evaluation• Modernization simply hasn’t happened in many
nations• Fails to recognize how rich nations benefit from
the status quo of poor nations• Fails to see the international relations affect all
nations• Ethnocentric in that it holds up the richest
nations as the standard to judge other societies• Blames global poverty on the poor societies
themselves
Society, Seventh Edition
Dependency TheoryDependency TheoryThis Model of Economic Development Explains This Model of Economic Development Explains
Global Inequality in Terms of the Historical Global Inequality in Terms of the Historical Exploitation of Poor Societies by Rich OnesExploitation of Poor Societies by Rich Ones
• Historical perspective– People living in poor countries were better off
in that past than they are now. Economic position of rich & poor are linked
• Importance of colonialism – Europeans colonized much of world west, south
& east of them• “The sun never sets on the British empire”
– African slave trade most brutal form of human exploitation
– Neocolonialism is the “essence” of the modern capitalistic world economy!
Society, Seventh Edition
Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy
• Today’s world economy is rooted in the colonization that began 500 years ago
– Rich countries form the core of the world economy being enriched by raw materials from around the world
– Low income countries are the periphery, providing inexpensive labor and a market for industrial products
– Middle income countries form the semiperiphery, having a closer tie to the core
Society, Seventh Edition
Wallerstein’s IdeasWallerstein’s IdeasBasic thesis -- the world economy benefits rich
societies by generating profits and harms the rest of the world by perpetuating poverty thus the world economy makes poor nations dependent on rich ones
Three factors are involved:1. Narrow, export-oriented economies
Poor countries produce only a few crops for export to rich countries
2. Lack of industrial capacityPoor countries must sell raw materials to rich countries and then buy finished products back from them at high prices
3. Foreign debtThe poor countries of the world owe the rich countries $1 trillion dollars, including hundreds of billions to the united states!
Society, Seventh Edition
Critical Evaluation• Wrongly treats wealth as a zero-sum game• Wrong to blame rich nations for global poverty• Too simplistic citing capitalism as the single
factor– Repressive corrupt regimes, stifling cultural tradition
• Downplays the economic dependence fostered by the former soviet union
• More protest than policy– Thinly disguised call for world socialism
top related