The global capitalism of today demands a re-examination of theories of societal development. This book critically surveys the various approaches made by social theory towards seeing history in terms of its regional dynamics. Environmental determinism, modernization theory, dependency and world systems perspectives are reviewed; Richard Peet argues that historical materialism continues to prove itself the capacious and dynamic model. A quick survey takes the reader through primitive communism, lineage societies and the various kinds of tributory modes, before capitalism is examined more closely in terms of the phases and forms of its past and present. Finally, the author develops his themes to reaffirm the value of structural Marxism to theories of global development. This book assumes no previous knowledge of the theories surveyed, tries to establish a sophisticated knowledge in a few pages, and then takes the reader along the pathways of societal development theory.
Measuring the geography of development - the argument; environmental
determinism - organismic theory, climate and civilization critique;
structural functionalism and modernization theory - structural functionalism,
sociological modernization theory, social-psychological theories of
modernization, historical stages of modernization geography, critique fo
structural functionalism and modernization theories; dependency and world
systems theory - the ECLA analysis dependency theory, world systems theory,
critique of dependency and world systems theory; historical materialism -
idealism and materialism dialectics, production as the transformation of
nature, production as social relatins, structural Marxism, articulation of
modes of production, socialist feminism; the pre-capitalist world - schemes
of historical development, primitive communism, kin-ordered mode, tributory
mode geography of the pre-capitalist world; the origins of capitalism - Marx
on the origins of capitalism, debate on the transition from feudalism to
capitalism, the Brenner thesis; the development of global capitalism -
mercantalism, "Discovery of the Americas", mercantalism in the Western
Hemisphere, mercantalism in the Eastern Hemisphere, mercantalism in India,
mercantalism in China, industrial revolution, free trade and imperialism,
imperialism in Africa; transformation through industrialization -
industrialization and development, the regulation school, transformation
through industrialization?, an alternative strategy; conclusion - the
critique of Marxist development theory (and a reply) - the critique of
Marxist development theory theoretical reply, the validity of criticism,
reproduction and development, an alternative development?
