1974/10/01 by S. N. Eisenstadt, S. Ν. Eisenstadt · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Political Economy and Marxism #Globalization and political ideologies
paper · doi:10.2307/2504778
Studies of and have been in forefront of social sciences for at least last three decades, and many of their assumptions have guided much of research in economics, sociology, political science, and social anthropology. Lately many of these assumptions and approaches have undergone rather severe reappraisals, criticisms, and rejections. These reappraisals are, however, of interest not only to specific although certainly not narrow fields of modernization and development; they have touched on some of basic and central problems of sociological theory and thinking. This is not surprising. It is true that concern with modernization and development, in narrow sense of words, is relatively recent, having emerged mainly after World War II as part of interest in problems of development in new nations or the Third World. But concern with nature of modern society and of social change and development lies at very roots of modern social science; in fact, many of specific problems preoccupying students of modernization and development during last three decades are very closely related to some of initial basic Probleinstellungen of modern sociology and their subsequent theoretical development. Thus, many of criticisms voiced against these studies touch on some of central problems of sociological theory.