Progress

1. Progress SOC 370: Social Change Dr. Kimberly Martin

2. Progress THE QUESTION OF PROGRESS Progress implies improvement Progress is often assumed to be implicit in evolutionary theory (evolution = progress) But is evolution always (or ever) progressive?

3. Measuring “Progress” Usual comparison assumes improvement through ethnocentric focus on change . . . from -- pre-agricultural people to -- agricultural elites (peasants ignored) to -- modern core populations (us! With peripheral and semi-peripheral ignored) Is evolution progressive or regressive?

4. Measuring “Progress” Impressive picture of progress - but a very biased (selective) view. Doesn’t include most humans, and Coupled with the rhetoric of Modernization Theory (It is the fault of the peripheral and semi-peripheral countries that they have not progressed, and the Core is trying to help them do so)

5. Social Change The World Systems Theory approach: SHIFT 1 from -- pre-agricultural people to -- agricultural societies (focus on peasants) SHIFT 2 From -- agricultural societies (focus on peasants) to -- capitalist world systems – (all 3 country types)

6. Aspects of “Progress” Sanderson Looks at Four Aspects of Progress through World Systems Theory Approach: 1. Standard of living, 2. Technology & education, 3. Democracy & individual freedom, • Equality/citizenship All four are interrelated!

7. Shift 1 PRE AGRICULTURAL TO AGRARIAN Standard of Living Diet: from animal-based (less efficient, more nutrition) to vegetable-based (more efficient, less nutrition) Health: from outdoor-based (nomadic, uncrowded) to indoor-based (sedentary, crowded, vermin, mosquitoes, waste accumulation, poor health, epidemics, famine) Longevity Hunter/Gatherers - 31 years of age Roman times - 37 years of age Middle Ages – 34 years of age CONCLUSION = STANDARD OF LIVING

8. Shift 1 PRE AGRICULTURAL TO AGRARIAN Work and Workload Quality of work experience: from -- subsistence and crafts to -- hard labor to support upper class Quantity of work: from -- ±25 hours/week to -- 80-90 hours/week (peasants worked more)\ Democracy and Freedom: Political rule: from -- consensus to -- absolute monarchy Individual autonomy: from -- total autonomy to -- “cage of kinship” to -- “cage of power” CONCLUSION = WORKLOAD AND DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM

9. Shift 1 PRE AGRICULTURAL TO AGRARIAN Degree of Inequality Hunter/Gatherers and Tribes -- Egalitarian Chiefdoms -- Ranked societies States -- Stratified, class systems, patriarchy, THEN decrease in internal stratification World Systems -- Stratification between countries

10. Shift 1 OVERALL: Peasants in agricultural societies (95%+ of the world population) were worse off by any measure than earlier people (near enslavement to support parasitic landowner elites plus wars victimized peasants as well)

11. Shift 2 AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIALIZED/CAPITALIST Standard of Living Diet: - about half world pop pretty good - other half still vegetable-based diet, growing malnutrition (Note; even vegetable-based production under pressure from meat industry to provide elites with protein - and now, bio fuels are added to the burden of agriculture. Health: - about 1/3 world pop pretty good (Core and Upper Classes) - the other 2/3 continue with problems of sedentism, crowding, inadequate food and medical care, vermin, mosquitoes, waste accumulation, epidemics

12. Shift 2 AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIALIZED/CAPITALIST Longevity: - Core countries between 1900-2000, from 49 to 76 years - Peripheral countries between 1960-1990, from 46-63 years - Current: Core 75+ Semi-Peripheral 55+ Peripheral 45+ (more than 3 billion) BUT this is an average that can mask internal polarization E.g.. Here are two scenarios of death ages for six individuals each of which result in an average lifespan of 35 years 29, 31, 32, 36, 38, 44 = average 35 1, 2, 7, 60, 65, 75 = average 35 (gains mostly reflect lower infant mort rates)

13. Shift 2 AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIAL CAPITALIST Work and Workload Quality of Work Experience In Capitalist societies mainly the professional elite have the positive work qualities listed above

14. Shift 2 AGRARIAN TO INDUSTRIAL CAPITALIST Work and Workload Quantity of Work Experience In Core societies, working women = 56-0-78.4 hrs/wk housewives = 40.6-66.5 hrs/wk Peripheral countries combine the worst of industrialism with the worst of agrarian societies – they provide the low paying labor for industrialization while maintaining an agrarian society with fewer returns

15. Shift 2 Measures of Inequality Core Countries are more equal overall, but the trend is for larger gaps between haves and have-nots.

16. Freedom Three aspects of freedom: Autonomy = absence of outside constraints on actions Core = Good, Semi and Periphery = bad Individualism = ability to think outside the boundaries of cultural norms and traditional ways of doing things Core = Good, Semi and Periphery = variable Self Realization = degree to which individuals are able to realize their full human potential Core = Good, Semi and Peripheral = not possible (see Maslow’s Hierarchy on next slide)

17. Shift 2

18. Progress??? Overview: Great progress for the few in the Core and Semi-Peripheral elites Some progress for top half of the Semi Peripheral No progress for most of world population including half of the Semi-Periphery and most of the Periphery