OxfordAQA International A-level Sociology (9690): Unit 3 – People and development – Study Guide

This guide teaches Unit 3, People and development, of the OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Sociology (9690) specification, Version 1.1 (first teaching September 2026; first A-level exams May/June 2028). It covers every content point in section 3.2.1, from 3.2.1.1 to 3.2.1.5. The specification assesses this content in the Unit 3 exam: 1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks, 20% of the International A-level, with short and extended response questions.

Use it with the revision notes for this unit and the practice questions for this unit. For the whole course, see the OxfordAQA A-level Sociology hub and the 9690 checklist.

Coverage table

Syllabus reference	What you must know or be able to do (from the specification)	Where assessed
3.2.1.1 The Great Divergence	How a gap developed between fast and slow developers; imperialism (European empires, exploration and trade, enslavement, colonialism, neocolonialism); industrialisation, urbanisation and capitalism; why Europe industrialised (modernisation theory, Weber’s Protestant work ethic, dependency theory, enslavement); legacies of colonialism and enslavement; factors linked to development (life expectancy, living standards, reduced poverty, education, health, rights of women and other groups, human rights, democracy)	Unit 3 exam
3.2.1.2 What is meant by globalisation?	Cultural, political and economic globalisation; the extent of each; neo-liberal (positive globalist), negative globalist and transformationalist views; who benefits and loses; the global and the local, glocalisation	Unit 3 exam
3.2.1.3 Who is involved in globalisation?	Roles of more and less developed nation states, transnational corporations, transnational and UN agencies, NGOs, grassroots movements and indigenous peoples; arguments for and against development aid	Unit 3 exam
3.2.1.4 Migration and diasporas	Push and pull explanations; internal and international migration; borders, passports and visas; refugees and forced migration; economic migrants, undocumented workers, digital nomads; diasporas and transnational networks; effects of climate change on migration	Unit 3 exam
3.2.1.5 Obstacles to progress	Modernisation, Marxist and feminist views; persistence of inequalities in health and education; globalisation and the climate crisis; sustainable development; effects of wars and conflicts	Unit 3 exam

How Unit 3 is assessed

The specification prints these facts about the paper: 1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks, 20% of the International A-level, short and extended response questions. Unit 3 carries roughly 7% AO1 (knowledge), 6% AO2 (application and interpretation) and 7% AO3 (analysis and evaluation) of the whole A-level. The specification also says you must use examples from your own society, or one you know about, in selected extended answers. It recommends the work of Bello, Braudel, Frank, Polanyi, Rodney and Sachs, and credits other sociologists used well. Question styles and mark tariffs are not printed; your teacher will confirm them.

3.2.1.1 The Great Divergence

The gap. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, western Europe and North America pulled far ahead of most of the world in income and industrial output. Kenneth Pomeranz’s book The Great Divergence (2000) popularised the term. He argued that the most advanced regions of China and Europe were broadly comparable around 1750, and that Britain’s lead owed much to cheap coal and to land and resources from its colonies, not to unique European virtues.

Imperialism. European states built empires through exploration and trade, then direct rule. The Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans moved millions of people by force to work plantations in the Americas. Colonialism meant political control plus extraction of raw materials. Neocolonialism, a term made widely known by Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah (1965), describes control through debt, trade terms and investment after formal independence.

Why Europe industrialised: four explanations.

• Modernisation theory. Walt Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth (1960) set out five stages, from traditional society through “take-off” to high mass consumption. Europe moved first because its values favoured enterprise and science.
• Weber’s Protestant work ethic. Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1905) argued Calvinist belief in predestination drove disciplined work and reinvestment rather than spending. This “spirit of capitalism” helped modern capitalism grow in Protestant northern Europe.
• Dependency theory. Andre Gunder Frank argued that development and underdevelopment are two sides of one process. Rich “metropolis” nations grew by extracting surplus from “satellites”. Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) applied this to Africa.
• Enslavement. Eric Williams (Capitalism and Slavery, 1944) argued profits from slavery and the plantation trade helped finance British industrialisation.

Fernand Braudel’s idea of the longue durée adds a time scale: slow changes in geography, trade routes and markets over centuries matter more than single events. He is seen as a forerunner of world-systems theory.

Indicators of development. Development is not only income. The specification lists life expectancy, living standards and reduced poverty, education, health, rights of women and other groups, human rights and democracy. The UN’s Human Development Index (1990) combines life expectancy, education and income.

Evaluation.

• Weber: Catholic regions such as northern Italy had early capitalism, and later growth in East Asia shows other value systems can support it.
• Rostow: ethnocentric; assumes all societies must copy the Western route.
• Dependency theory: struggles to explain why some former colonies (South Korea, Singapore) grew fast.
• Pomeranz’s view challenges both value-based and purely exploitation-based accounts.

Worked paragraph. Assess one explanation of why Europe industrialised first.

Weber argued that Calvinist Protestantism produced a “spirit of capitalism”: believers worked hard and reinvested profit as a sign they were saved (knowledge). This fits Britain, a largely Protestant country and the first to industrialise (application). It suggests ideas, not only resources, shaped economic change (analysis). However, Pomeranz shows coal and colonial land gave Britain a material advantage, and Williams links industrial capital to slavery, so Weber’s account leaves out exploitation (evaluation).

3.2.1.2 What is meant by globalisation?

Types.

• Cultural: spread of languages (notably English), religious beliefs, popular culture, the internet and global communication. Marshall McLuhan’s “global village” describes how media shrink distance. Cultural imperialism is the claim that Western, especially American, culture swamps local cultures; George Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (1993) is often used here.
• Political: spread of democracy, human rights and gender equality as global norms, through bodies such as the UN.
• Economic: global spread of capitalism and trade, transnational corporations (TNCs), and global activism against corporate power, such as Naomi Klein’s No Logo (1999).

Extent. Economic globalisation is the most advanced: supply chains span continents. Political globalisation is uneven; many states reject parts of the human rights agenda. Cultural flows run in several directions, for example Bollywood, K-pop and anime reaching Western audiences.

Three theoretical views.

View	Core claim	Example thinker
Neo-liberal (positive globalist)	Free markets and open borders spread prosperity and weaken the nation state	Kenichi Ohmae, The Borderless World (1990)
Negative globalist	Globalisation deepens inequality and serves rich states and TNCs	Walden Bello, who calls for “deglobalisation”: economies producing mainly for local and national markets
Transformationalist	Globalisation is real but reshapes, rather than ends, states and cultures; outcomes are mixed	Held and colleagues, Global Transformations (1999)

Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation (1944) is useful for negative globalists. He argued that the self-regulating market “disembeds” the economy from society, treating land, labour and money as commodities, and that society pushes back to protect itself (the “double movement”).

Benefits and harms. China and India have seen large falls in extreme poverty during their integration into world trade. Critics point to job losses in old industrial regions, sweatshop labour and loss of local languages.

The global and the local. Local cultures often survive by mixing with global forms. Roland Robertson popularised glocalisation: global products adapted to local tastes, such as fast-food chains offering vegetarian menus in India.

Worked paragraph. Evaluate the view that globalisation is cultural imperialism.

Cultural imperialism suggests American media and brands replace local cultures (knowledge). In [your society], global streaming platforms and fast-food chains are widespread among urban young people (application). Yet these products are often glocalised, and local music or film industries export abroad too (analysis). Transformationalists argue the result is hybrid culture, not simple replacement, which weakens the imperialism claim (evaluation).

3.2.1.3 Who is involved in globalisation?

• Nation states. More developed states shape trade rules and lead lending bodies. Less developed states may compete for investment by lowering taxes or labour standards, though some (China, Vietnam) direct development strongly.
• TNCs. Bring investment, jobs and technology; critics stress profit repatriation, tax avoidance and weak labour protection.
• Transnational and UN agencies. The World Bank and IMF lend money; in the 1980s and 1990s their structural adjustment programmes required cuts in state spending. The WTO sets trade rules. UN agencies such as UNICEF, the WHO and UNHCR work on children, health and refugees. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015) set 17 global targets.
• NGOs. Charities and campaign groups deliver aid and lobby; they can be flexible but may answer to Northern donors.
• Grassroots movements. Local action from below, such as the Chipko tree-protection movement in India in the 1970s, or Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya.
• Indigenous peoples. Often affected by mining, dams and logging; the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007.

Development aid: for and against.

• For. Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty, 2005) argues the poorest countries are stuck in a poverty trap. A targeted “big push” of aid for health, farming and infrastructure can lift them out.
• Against. Dambisa Moyo (Dead Aid, 2009) argues aid breeds dependency and corruption. William Easterly argues top-down plans ignore local knowledge. Marxists see tied aid as a tool of donor interests.

Worked paragraph. Assess the argument that aid helps development.

Sachs argues aid can break a poverty trap by funding bed nets, fertiliser and clinics (knowledge). In a rural region with high malaria rates, such spending raises health and work capacity (application). Yet Moyo argues long-term aid lets governments avoid accountability to citizens (analysis). The type of aid matters: targeted health aid has stronger support than large budget transfers (evaluation).

3.2.1.4 Migration and diasporas

Push and pull. Everett Lee’s A Theory of Migration (1966) set out push factors at origin (poverty, conflict, persecution), pull factors at destination (jobs, safety, family) and intervening obstacles (distance, cost, law). Critics say it treats migrants as rational individuals and ignores structures such as colonial ties and labour recruitment.

Internal and international. Internal migration, especially rural to urban, drives urbanisation. International migration crosses borders and is controlled by passports and visas, which give very unequal freedom of movement depending on citizenship.

Types of migrant.

• Refugees: under the 1951 Refugee Convention, people outside their country with a well-founded fear of persecution for race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
• Forced migration also includes people displaced inside their own country.
• Economic migrants move mainly for work.
• Undocumented workers live or work without legal permission.
• Digital nomads work remotely online while moving between countries; usually high-skilled and from richer states.

Views on migration are contested. Some stress labour shortages, remittances and cultural exchange. Others stress pressure on wages, services and social cohesion in receiving areas, or “brain drain” from sending countries. Present both sides.

Diasporas and transnational networks. A diaspora is a population dispersed from a homeland that keeps links with it. Robin Cohen (Global Diasporas, 1997) distinguished types of diaspora, including victim, labour, trade and imperial diasporas. Cheap travel, money transfer and social media let families live transnationally, sending remittances and keeping dual identities.

Climate change. Drought, sea-level rise and storms add push factors. People displaced by climate alone are not refugees under the 1951 Convention.

Worked paragraph. Evaluate push-pull explanations.

Lee explains migration through push factors such as unemployment and pull factors such as higher wages (knowledge). This fits young workers moving from [your country] to Gulf states (application). But networks matter: people follow relatives, so flows run along existing diaspora links (analysis). Push-pull also ignores state recruitment schemes and visa rules, which structure who can move (evaluation).

3.2.1.5 Obstacles to progress

• Modernisation view. The obstacle is the persistence of traditional values and practices: fatalism, extended kinship obligations, ascribed status. Criticism: blames poor societies for their own poverty.
• Marxist views. Capitalism and globalisation keep periphery nations poor. Frank argued satellites developed most when ties to the metropolis were weakest. Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems theory (1974) divides the world into core, semi-periphery and periphery. Bello sees WTO and IMF rules as locking poorer states into unequal trade.
• Feminist views. Globalisation can reinforce patriarchy. Maria Mies (Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, 1986) described “housewifisation”: women’s work treated as cheap or unpaid. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson (1981) showed export factories hiring young women on the stereotype of “nimble fingers”. Arlie Hochschild’s “global care chains” describe women from poorer countries caring for richer families. Counter-view: factory jobs can raise women’s independence.
• Persistence of inequalities. Gaps in health (clinic access, maternal and child mortality) and education (girls’ schooling, rural-urban gaps) persist because of poverty, debt, weak public services and gender norms.
• Climate crisis. Industrialised countries produced most historical emissions, yet poorer countries face many of the worst effects. The Brundtland Report (1987) defined sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs.
• Wars and conflicts. Paul Collier (The Bottom Billion, 2007) describes a “conflict trap”: war destroys infrastructure and investment, making renewed war more likely. Mary Kaldor’s “new wars” (1999) stress civilians, militias and illegal trade.

Worked paragraph. Assess feminist views of obstacles to progress.

Mies argues global capitalism relies on women’s undervalued labour (knowledge). Export garment factories in [your region] employ mainly young women on low wages (application). This keeps household incomes and women’s status low, so growth does not mean progress for women (analysis). However, some studies find factory wages increase women’s bargaining power at home, so effects vary by context (evaluation).

The recommended sociologists at a glance

Name	Key idea for Unit 3
Bello	Negative globalist; “deglobalisation” toward local and national markets
Braudel	Longue durée; long-run structures of trade and capitalism
Frank	Dependency; metropolis and satellite
Polanyi	The Great Transformation; market disembedding and the double movement
Rodney	Europe developed by underdeveloping Africa
Sachs	Poverty trap; aid as a “big push”

Common errors

• Treating “development” as GDP only, when the specification lists health, education, rights and democracy.
• Using Weber as a dependency theorist; his explanation is about values.
• Calling every migrant a refugee; the 1951 Convention definition is narrow.
• Writing “globalisation” without saying which type.
• Describing the three globalisation views without linking each to evidence.
• Forgetting own-society examples where the question asks for them.
• Giving one-sided answers on migration or aid.

Where next

The OxfordAQA 9690 exam preparation guide explains how the five units fit together. For transnational families, which links Unit 1 to diasporas here, see the Introducing Sociology study guide. Units 4 and 5: People and the environment and People and technology.

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Sociology (9690) specification, Version 1.1 (first teaching September 2026; first A-level exams May/June 2028), section 3.2.1 People and development, and the Unit 3 assessment details in section 2.2.