AQA A-level Sociology (7192): Paper 2 – Global development – Study Guide

This guide covers Global Development, section 4.2.6 of the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021); the specification at a glance also lists it as 3.2.6. It is assessed in A-level Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, a 2 hour written exam worth 80 marks and 33.3% of the A-level. Global Development is an A-level option only: it is not one of the four topics listed for AS Paper 2.

The specification prints the Paper 2 rule like this: “Section A: one from option 1: 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3 or 4.2.4” and “Section B: one from option 2: 4.2.5, 4.2.6, 4.2.7 or 4.2.8”. Global Development (4.2.6) sits in option 2, so it is answered in Section B, which the document describes as “extended writing, 40 marks”. Your teacher will confirm the question types inside Section B.

Use this guide with the Global development revision notes and the Global development practice questions. The AQA A-level Sociology hub and the AQA A-level Sociology checklist show how the topic fits the whole course.

Coverage table

Syllabus reference	What you must know or be able to do (from the document)	Where assessed
4.2.6, point 1	Sociological explanations of development, underdevelopment and global inequality	Paper 2, Section B
4.2.6, point 2	Globalisation and its influence on the cultural, political and economic relationships between societies	Paper 2, Section B
4.2.6, point 3	The role of transnational corporations, non-governmental organisations and international agencies in local and global strategies for development	Paper 2, Section B
4.2.6, point 4	Development in relation to aid and trade, industrialisation, urbanisation, the environment, and war and conflict	Paper 2, Section B
4.2.6, point 5	Employment, education, health, demographic change and gender as aspects of development	Paper 2, Section B
4.2 (all topics)	Topic areas in relation to the two core themes; both the evidence of and the sociological explanations for the content; links with other topics	All of Paper 2
Integral elements	Sociological theories, perspectives and methods; the design of the research used to obtain the data, including its strengths and limitations	All papers

The specification also requires you to understand “conflict and consensus”: modernisation theory is broadly consensus-based, dependency theory conflict-based.

1. Development, underdevelopment and global inequality

Key terms

• Development: a process of positive social and economic change. What counts as “positive” is itself disputed.
• Underdevelopment: in dependency theory, an active process in which a society is made poorer by its links to richer ones, not simply a starting point.
• Global inequality: unequal distribution of income, wealth, health and power between and within societies.
• Human Development Index (HDI): a UNDP measure launched in 1990, devised by Mahbub ul Haq and drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach. It combines life expectancy at birth, education (mean and expected years of schooling) and GNI per capita.

Measuring development. GDP or GNI per capita is easy to compare but hides inequality within a country and ignores unpaid work. The HDI adds health and education, but it is still an average. Sen, in Development as Freedom (1999), argued that development should be judged by the real freedoms people have.

Modernisation theory. W. W. Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960) set out five stages: traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and the age of high mass consumption. Poor societies were said to lack the values and investment needed for take-off. Western aid, investment and expertise could fill the gap. Behind this sit functionalist ideas: traditional values were barriers, achievement values drivers.

• Evaluation: it is ethnocentric, treating Western history as the only path. It ignores the effects of colonialism. Supporters point to East Asian growth, though those states used heavy state planning, not a simple Western model.

Dependency theory. Andre Gunder Frank’s essay “The Development of Underdevelopment” (1966) argued that the world is split into metropolis and satellite nations. Surplus flows from satellites to the metropolis, first through colonialism and later through trade and debt (neo-colonialism). This is a Marxist, conflict account.

• Evaluation: it explains why former colonies were locked into exporting raw materials. But it struggles to explain countries that grew fast while closely tied to the world economy, such as South Korea and Taiwan. Cutting links (isolation) has not reliably produced growth.

World systems theory. Immanuel Wallerstein’s The Modern World-System (1974) treats the whole capitalist world economy as the unit of analysis. It has a core, a semi-periphery and a periphery, and countries can move between them.

• Evaluation: more flexible than Frank, as it allows mobility. Critics say it still gives little room for the choices of governments and people inside countries.

Neoliberalism. This view says poor countries stay poor because of state interference, corruption and protectionism. Its policy form, sometimes called the Washington Consensus, includes free trade, privatisation and cuts to public spending, often imposed through IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programmes.

• Evaluation: free markets can attract investment. Critics argue that spending cuts often fell on health and education, and hit women and the poor hardest.

People-centred and post-development views. These approaches stress small-scale, bottom-up change led by local communities. Arturo Escobar, in Encountering Development (1995), argued that “development” is itself a Western discourse that labels the global South as lacking.

• Evaluation: they value local knowledge, but small projects may not reach national scale.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: Frank argued that satellites are underdeveloped because surplus is drained to the metropolis. Application: a former colony still exporting one cash crop at prices set elsewhere fits this model. Analysis: the problem is the structure of the relationship, not a lack of modern values, which directly challenges Rostow. Evaluation: however, the rise of East Asian economies through export-led growth suggests that integration can sometimes produce development, which weakens Frank’s claim that links always harm the satellite.

2. Globalisation and relationships between societies

Key terms

• Globalisation: growing interconnectedness of societies, so that events in one place shape lives far away.
• Cultural imperialism: the spread of Western, often American, culture that displaces local cultures.
• Glocalisation: global products and ideas adapted to local tastes.

Economic relationships. Trade, finance and production now cross borders quickly. Hyperglobalists such as Kenichi Ohmae (The Borderless World, 1990) claimed the nation state was losing power to markets. Sceptics Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson (Globalization in Question, 1996) argued that most firms remain rooted in home countries and that national and international regulation is still possible. Transformationalists, such as David Held and colleagues (Global Transformations, 1999), take a middle view: globalisation is real but uneven, and states change role rather than disappear.

Cultural relationships. George Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (1993) described the spread of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Critics of cultural imperialism point to glocalisation and to South-to-North flows, such as Indian and Korean film and music.

Political relationships. International agencies and trade rules limit what governments do, but powerful states shape those agencies, so poorer states feel the limits more.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: Hirst and Thompson argue that globalisation is exaggerated. Application: a poor country whose economy is shaped by a few foreign buyers may still feel global forces strongly, even if rich states keep control. Analysis: this suggests globalisation is uneven, not absent. Evaluation: the transformationalist view therefore fits the evidence better than either extreme, though it is harder to test.

3. TNCs, NGOs and international agencies

Transnational corporations (TNCs) operate in several countries. Neoliberals and modernisation theorists see them as bringing jobs, skills, technology and tax revenue. Dependency theorists see profit repatriation, low wages and weak safety standards. The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment building in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed more than 1,100 people, is widely used as evidence of poor conditions in global supply chains. Leslie Sklair’s idea of a transnational capitalist class suggests TNC owners and allied politicians share interests across borders.

• Evaluation: TNC jobs may pay more than local alternatives, but that does not settle who holds power or sets standards.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are non-profit groups independent of governments, such as Oxfam. They often work at local level and in emergencies. They can reach groups that states neglect. Critics say they are accountable to donors more than local people, and can be shaped by Western agendas.

International agencies include the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization and United Nations bodies. Supporters say they provide finance and stability. Critics link structural adjustment to cuts in public services.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: NGOs can deliver local, needs-based projects. Application: a village water scheme planned with residents may last longer than a large state project. Analysis: this supports people-centred theory. Evaluation: yet NGOs depend on donor funding, so priorities may follow donor fashions rather than local need.

4. Aid and trade, industrialisation and urbanisation

Aid. Official development assistance flows from governments; tied aid must be spent on goods or services from the donor. Modernisation theorists support aid as a way to fund take-off, and Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty, 2005) argued that large, carefully planned aid can lift the poorest countries out of a poverty trap. Teresa Hayter (Aid as Imperialism, 1971) argued that aid serves donor interests. Dambisa Moyo (Dead Aid, 2009) argued that government-to-government aid to Africa breeds dependency and corruption, and proposed alternatives such as bond markets and foreign investment. Paul Collier, in The Bottom Billion (2007), identified four traps: the conflict trap, the natural resource trap, being landlocked with bad neighbours, and bad governance in a small country.

• Evaluation: humanitarian aid clearly saves lives; the debate is mainly about long-term state-to-state aid.

Trade. Neoliberals argue that free trade lets countries specialise. Dependency theorists note that many poorer countries rely on primary products, whose prices can fall against manufactured goods (the Prebisch-Singer thesis). Fair trade schemes aim to give producers a better price, though they reach only a small share of trade.

Industrialisation. Modernisation theory sees it as the route to growth. The East Asian newly industrialised countries grew through export manufacturing, but with strong state direction. Critics note pollution, low wages and dependence on foreign demand.

Urbanisation. Modernisation theory views cities as centres of modern values and jobs. Dependency theorists describe over-urbanisation: cities growing faster than jobs, with large informal settlements. Mike Davis’s Planet of Slums (2006) develops this critical view.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: Moyo argues aid fosters dependency. Application: a government receiving most of its budget from donors may answer to them rather than to its own voters. Analysis: this weakens accountability, a point neoliberals share. Evaluation: however, Collier argues that well-targeted aid can help some trapped countries, so the evidence points to the type of aid, not aid in general.

5. The environment, and war and conflict

Environment. The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (1987), defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Modernisation implies rising consumption, which strains resources. Dependency theorists note that rich countries have produced most historic emissions while poorer countries often face the worst effects. Some argue that technology and green investment allow growth without damage.

War and conflict. Conflict destroys infrastructure, displaces people and diverts spending to arms. Collier’s conflict trap describes how war causes poverty and poverty raises the risk of war. Mary Kaldor’s “new wars” idea describes conflicts within states, involving non-state groups, identity politics and attacks on civilians, financed through global networks.

• Evaluation: critics question how “new” these wars are, since civilians have long been targets.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: the conflict trap links war and poverty. Application: a country whose rebel groups fund themselves through mineral exports shows the natural resource and conflict traps working together. Analysis: development policy that ignores security may fail. Evaluation: however, dependency theorists would add that global demand for those minerals, and arms supplied by richer states, are part of the cause.

6. Employment, education, health, demographic change and gender

Employment. Global manufacturing has created formal jobs, many held by young women. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson (1981) argued that employers valued women’s supposed “nimble fingers” as a justification for low pay.

Education. Modernisation theory sees schooling as spreading achievement values and skills. The UN Millennium Development Goals (8 goals, 2000-2015) included universal primary education; the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (adopted 2015, target 2030) widened this to quality education. Critics say curricula can reflect Western priorities, and school places do not guarantee learning.

Health. Health is both a cause and a measure of development. Modernisation stresses Western biomedicine; dependency theorists point to the costs of medicines and to health workers migrating to richer countries.

Demographic change. Thomas Malthus (1798) argued that population grows faster than food. Neo-Malthusians, such as Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb, 1968), linked high birth rates to poverty. Ester Boserup argued that population pressure can drive farming innovation. The demographic transition model links falling death and then birth rates to development, though it is based on European history.

Gender. Ester Boserup’s Woman’s Role in Economic Development (1970) showed that development projects often ignored or harmed women. Women in Development approaches add women to projects; Gender and Development approaches challenge the power relations behind inequality. Microcredit, such as the Grameen Bank founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh in 1983, lends mainly to women; supporters see empowerment, critics see debt risk.

Worked paragraph: Knowledge: Elson and Pearson argue that factory jobs exploit gender stereotypes. Application: a factory that hires mainly young women for repetitive work at low pay fits this view. Analysis: waged work may still give women income and some independence from the household. Evaluation: so employment can both reproduce and weaken patriarchy, which is why feminists disagree on its effects.

Common errors

• Treating dependency theory and world systems theory as identical. Wallerstein adds the semi-periphery and mobility.
• Describing Rostow’s stages without evaluating them. Description earns knowledge marks only.
• Calling all TNCs, NGOs or aid “good” or “bad”. The specification asks about their role in strategies, so weigh evidence.
• Forgetting the core themes. Link gender to stratification, and globalisation to culture and identity.
• Ignoring research design. Say how the evidence was gathered when you can, for example the limits of national averages such as GNI per capita.

Links onward

Globalisation also appears in crime and deviance (green and state crime) and in the role of education. The transnational capitalist class returns in stratification and differentiation. For course layout, see course structure.

Official syllabus

AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021): section 4.2.6 Global Development (listed as 3.2.6 at a glance), assessed in A-level Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, Section B.