Teleology and uneven development: A reply to Taylor

Mouzelis continues his debate with Taylor (which started with a review article by Mouzelis in the Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 8, no. 3. April, 1981). Mouzelis holds that neither the Baran concept of potential surplus nor the development/underdevelopment distinction leads necessarily to a teleological analysis; that Taylor's own theory is teleological; that Taylor's apparently revised position with respect to articulation of modes of production seriously undermines the argument of his book; and that Taylor does not avoid the dilemma faced by Marxism of being forced to analyse certain phenomena in a reductionist manner.     

Beyond nature versus nurture: Process and biology in the development of gender

The origins of gender, like the origins of human nature, are sometimes said to lie in biological determination, sometimes in social construction. Feminist theory began with criticising biological determinism and its portrayal of women, and inevitably emphasised the social construction of gender. However, seeing gender or human nature as wholly or mainly socially constructed seems to deny the biological processes which comprise our physical experiences of ourselves, and it is this omission which has recently led some writers (both feminist and antifeminist) to lay stress on the significance of biology in human behaviour and its development.These two opposing views of the origin of behaviour are still dominant, despite various attempts to emphasise how biology and social context might interact to produce, say, gender differences: this continued dominance of the nature/nurture duality has considerable political relevance to feminism, and has contributed to the rise of the New Right ideology concerning, for example, the natural role of women and the family.In this paper, we stress the relevance of the nature/nurture duality for this political shift, and attempt to formulate a way out of the impasse. Attempts have sometimes been made to avoid the duality by emphasising the interaction of nature and nurture. However, in most academic writing, the “interaction” proposed fails to avoid the dichotomy completely, and relies on a view of individual development as unfolding towards a goal or plan. The latter is how gender development is typically portrayed, emerging from an unfolding of biological potential (giving rise to “sex” differences), and subsequently from socialisation.It is important for feminism to emphasise the alternative view of biological development, which lays stress on developmental process, of which “biology” is but a part, rather than viewing individuals as maturing or unfolding towards some “goal.” By this change of emphasis, feminist theory may begin to avoid the double pitfall of biological determinism on the one hand; and of constructing “gender” in a world devoid of human bodies, and biological processes, on the other.     

Modernization,under development,uneven development: Prospects for a theory of third world formations

Taken as a whole, the two books considered in this review article ‐ David Lehmann, ed., Development Theory: Four Critical Studies, Frank Cass: 1979, £9.50, £4.95 (paperback) and John G. Taylor, From Modernisation to Modes of Production: A Critique of the Sociologies of Development and Underdevelopment, Macmillan: 1979, £12.00, £4.95 (paperback) ‐ give a concise but comprehensive picture of the complex debates and the various theoretical impasses of today's ‘Third World’ studies. The four essays edited by David Lehmann are a critical review of both the old orthodoxies (development economics and modernisation theories) and the newer ones (neo‐Marxist theory of underdevelopment); whereas John Taylor's work is an ambitious attempt to go beyond the neo‐Marxist paradigm by laying the foundations of a mode‐of‐production approach to the study of third‐world formations.

Since I believe that the most lively and interesting debates in this field today focus on the various shortcomings of the neo‐Marxist approach, and on attempts within Marxism itself to overcome them, this review will pay particular attention to Henry Bernstein's article “Sociology of underdevelopment vs. Sociology of development?” and to Taylor's book.     

The Work of Sacrifice: Framing gender politics, racialization and the significance of Islam in the lives of Ajda Pekkan and Konca Kuris

This essay examines the roles of women's lives in contemporary Turkey as 'the work of sacrifice' wherein tragedy and irony take place simultaneously. I will present one of the major Turkish female singers, Ajda Pekkan, articulating her relationship to womanhood as an endpoint on the continuum that represents the 'Turkish women'. In contrast, I will assess the case of Konca Kuris, a Turkish Muslim feminist, who stands at the other end of the continuum, and explore her tragic death as a primary sacrifice. Western discourse has framed the 'woman question' in a way that problematizes secularisms and Islamic practices. This problematization will serve as the initial momentum to assign sacrifice as a notion that lies in between the object—secular Islam—and the subject—Turkish women—of analysis. Thus, 'sacrifice' will be explored as a performative notion, in order to understand, mediate and measure gender performativity in contemporary Turkey.     

Bridging the gender gap in agricultural development through gender responsive extension and rural advisory services delivery in Ghana

Despite the critical role women play in agricultural development their access to extension and rural advisory services delivery is limited. To improve this situation, an in-depth understanding of the importance of gender-responsive extension delivery is required. A case study of the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement Program that put in extra efforts to reach more female farmers with extension delivery and other rural advisory services was conducted. The study investigates how gender dynamics interact with the agricultural extension delivery with particular reference to the adoption of improved technologies. A total sample of 592 smallholder farmers were interviewed in selected communities in Northern Ghana. In addition to one-on-one interviews, 18 focus group discussions were also conducted in the surveyed districts. Study findings confirmed that male farmers had more access to agricultural extension delivery than their female counterparts because of their relatively better financial standing, large farm sizes, mobility to access extension and rural advisory service providers outside their communities. The study identified gendered associations with some crop types across all the study districts. However, the gendered extension delivery led to a new sociocultural order that seems to break down the gendered associations with the adoption of improved technologies.     

Intimacy development in middle adolescence: Its relationship to gender and family cohesion and adaptability

The relationships of family cohesion and adaptability to adolescent intimacy development were explored by administering the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales survey and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation — Behavioral Version survey to 207 middle adolescents (70 males and 137 females) from a small midwestern high school. The adolescents' perceptions of family adaptability correlated with the amount of responsibility the teens expressed in their relationships, while cohesion correlated with companionship and affection in their relationships; however, females' scores were related to cohesion, while males' scores were related to satisfaction with cohesion in their families. The study suggests that family cohesion and adaptability differentially influence intimacy development based on the adolescent's gender.Received Ph.D. in marital and family therapy from Purdue University. Research interests include family influences on adolescent development and family issues related to incarceration.Received Ed.D. in human development from Boston University. Research interests include major life transitions (e.g., adolescence, middle adulthood).     

广东文化产业发展对策思考

广东文化产业的发展,正面临着前所未有的大好机遇,另一方面也面临着严峻的挑战。广东文化产 业应审时度势,采取积极有力的发展对策,努力使自身做大做强。     

Hidden transcripts: The micropolitics of gender in Commonwealth universities

The knowledge economy is a globalised policy discourse which relates particularly to higher education. The findings from the empirical data in the five countries, backed up by international literature, suggest that for many women, entry into higher education can be a means of mitigating gender oppression e.g. via social mobility, financial independence, professional identity and academic authority. However, this is accompanied by contradictions and tensions as women experience a range of discriminatory practices, gendered processes and exclusions within higher education itself. Women report male privilege in pedagogical processes, assessment, promotion and research opportunities and management. A repeated theme is how women perceive fewer opportunities to develop academic capital and how women's professional and intellectual capital are devalued and misrecognised in the knowledge economy.All five countries reported that gender has a significant impact on academic and professional identity formation. Gendered power relations symbolically and materially construct and regulate women's everyday experiences of higher education. Similar concerns about women's unequal status are articulated in spite of different socio-economic and national policy contexts. The gendered environment impedes women's progress as staff and has a detrimental effect on the learning environment for students. Gendered differences are relayed and reinforced in classrooms, boardrooms, and via everyday social practices. These practices need to be exposed and challenged in order for the wider aspirations of gender equity policy initiatives to be achieved.

Endnote

¹ This means something below standard, of poor quality.     

Race,gender and sexuality: The oppression of multiculturalism

In this article we analyse the impact of multicultural ideology on struggles for equality in the spheres of gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality. We argue that multiculturalism has permeated theory, policy and action in these areas and that this has resulted in divisions and conflicts between movements for human rights. This has allowed an uncritical brand of multiculturalism to flourish which operates to further oppress already disadvantaged groups. We illustrate our thesis in relation to the violence committed against Black/Asian women through such cultural practices as forced arranged marriage, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. We also note the violence against gay and lesbian people which is sanctioned by some cultural and religious traditions. We conclude that failure to address fundamental questions about possible limits to cultural diversity in liberal democratic societies has implications for the continued oppression of the least powerful and the future of human rights.     

Democracy,development and (Re-) visions of nature: Rural conflicts in the western Himalayas

This article explores the interacting politics of development and conservation and the contradiction between conservation and democracy through the specific experiences in the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), India. Unravelling the connections between the local, regional, national and the global, in the sphere of politics, conservation, and development, we examine the context within which the specific conservation outcomes have evolved. We argue that centralized governance of nature – especially wildlife conservation – is incompatible with the exigencies of democracy. Secondly, we demonstrate that the locus of the problem is not opportunistic politics, but the particular science and ideology of conservation, which seeks to impose a culturally narrowly defined vision of nature on society at large. We suggest that the events in GHNP are representative of a widespread phenomenon, whereby rural communities adversely affected by conservation policies have exploited the exigencies of democratic politics to good effect, exhibiting an agency that is yet to be theorized adequately.     

The child's awareness of adult beliefs concerning the child: The effects of gender and subculture

Patterns of agreement among mothers' and teachers' beliefs about their children, children's self-beliefs, and children's beliefs about adults' beliefs were investigated among Afro-American inner city matrifocal families. Findings were compared to those previously obtained with Italian-American families. Twenty-four mothers, their 10–12-year-old children, and their children's teachers were administered the Family Belief Interview Schedule assessing adult beliefs about the child and the child's beliefs about adult beliefs. Findings indicated that children were more accurate in predicting teachers' than mothers' beliefs. Among Afro-American children and in the combined Afro-American and Italian-American samples, girls, relative to boys, were more accurate in predicting mothers' beliefs, assumed greater similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own, and assumed greater consistency between mothers' and teachers' beliefs. Among boys, relative to Italian-Americans, Afro-Americans assumed significantly less similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own. These findings are interpreted within a subcultural family socialization framework.Research interests include child and adolescent development within the context of the family, developmental psychopathology, and socialization processes.Research interests include the development of social cognition, family interactional styles and belief systems, and developmental theory.     

Ethnicity and gender similarity: The effectiveness of counseling for adolescents

Few studies in counseling and psychotherapy have examined the relationship between counselees' perception of counselors' attractiveness and therapeutic outcomes using high school-age counselees in actual counseling sessions. This study investigated the extent to which perceived counselor-counselee similarity affected the counselee's perceptions of counselor attractiveness and how perceived counselor attractiveness affected the degree of counselee satisfaction with counseling. The results suggested that racial and gender differences appear not to have operated as barriers to effective counseling. The implications of these findings for counseling research and practice, in general, we well as for successful counselor-counselee interactions in a multicultural context, in particular, are discussed.She received her Ed.D. degree in curriculum and counseling from the UCLA Graduate School of Education in 1987. She has a long-standing interest in minority-group accessibility to higher education and the importance of matching in counseling and guidance.Her Ph.D. is also from UCLA, where she is currently a faculty member. Her areas of research include discriminatory testing and psychodiagnostic issues related to ethnic/minority-group populations.