Social Problems in the Underdeveloped Areas: An Ecological View

Soc sci'ts assure us that the future course of today's underdeveloped areas will differ from that followed by the West in the past. The 'ecological complex' (technology, pop, org, environment) provides a guide to some of the salient problems facing 66% of the world. Technological...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social problems (Berkeley, Calif.) Calif.), 1960-12, Vol.8 (3), p.182-201
Main Author: Schnore, Leo F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Birth control
Countries
Death
Demography
Developing Countries
Development
Ecology
Economic resources
Mortality
Natural resources
Social issues
Social Problems
Social Structure
Social structures
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Summary:Soc sci'ts assure us that the future course of today's underdeveloped areas will differ from that followed by the West in the past. The 'ecological complex' (technology, pop, org, environment) provides a guide to some of the salient problems facing 66% of the world. Technologically, the underdeveloped areas can borrow from the West, rather than waiting upon indigenous development, but there are numerous org'al resistances & a crude technological determinism is indefensible. Pop poses 3 problems: size, composition & distribution. Again, the barriers to fam limitation & to wholesale shifts in spatial patterns appear to be structural in nature. It is in the pol'al sphere that org'al issues are paramount; clear alternatives to democracy are available in totalitarian styles of org. The effective environment-that which is brought into compass by a given technology & org-is not promising in many underdeveloped areas, but appropriate modes of exploitation appear to be possible. Most of the problems facing backward areas are nonecon in nature & solutions are to be sought in adaptive structural change. Soc sci'ts should be challenged by the rich possibilities for res into the problems facing these areas. AA.
ISSN:0037-7791
1533-8533
DOI:10.1525/sp.1960.8.3.03a00010