Tag: Global Development

  • Why are so many Nigerian schoolchildren being kidnapped?

    More than 600 students have been abducted from schools in the North West of Nigeria since December 2020. The latest Mass kidnapping was in late February 2021, when over 300 girls were kidnapped from a secondary school, although they were released after a relatively short period of time afterwards. This rather grim trend is clearly…

  • How War and Conflict Harm Societies and Prevent Development

    While immediate violent death or injury in battle are two of the more obvious direct consequences of war and conflict, there are many other direct immediate and indirect, longer term negative consequences that can drastically add to people’s misery and retard any kind of positive development happing in a country for several years after a…

  • Outline and Explain two reasons why some sociologists think improving gender equality is the primary development goal.

    This is a possible 10 mark question which could come up on exam paper 7192 (2) – topics in Sociology, under the Global Development Option. For more general advice on answering exam questions for A-level sociology please see this page. The strategy for these 10 markers is to join up the dots, make links between…

  • Poverty in America

    The 2019 video below features Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs in a discussion of why there is so much poverty in America and what can be done about it. While the discussion was before the 2020 elections, it’s still worth a watch because it’s quite rare to see such big names on the A-level sociology…

  • Has neoliberalism been oversold?

    The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have been the two global institutions most associated with pushing neoliberal policies onto developing countries since the 1980s, but a recent (2016) article posted to the IMF’s Financial Development newsletter points out that neoliberal policies have caused problems in several countries, suggesting that neoliberalism hasn’t been universally successful.…

  • Beyond Neoliberalism

    In this TED talk, Dr Johannes Meier argues that Neoliberalism has become and orthodoxy, but now it has reached its expiration date… This material should be of interest as a balanced critique of neoliberalism, which should be especially relevant to students studying the Global Development option for A-level sociology. The current economic orthodoxy is one…

  • Neoliberalism: A Short Introduction

    Neoliberalism has been one of the most influential political ideas of the last century, and it has been especially influential in shaping global policies of international development since the 1980s. Below is a useful four minute video on 10 things you should know about Neoliberalism, as summarised by Ravi K. Roy, co-author of Neoliberalism: A…

  • Economic and Social Development in Kenya since 2000

    How successful has economic and social development in Kenya been since the year 2000? This post has primarily been written for students studying the global development option for A-level sociology. The purpose of this post is to provide a specific example of a country which has, overall, experienced rapid and positive development over the last…

  • Global development trends 2020

    Is the world becoming a better place to live? What do the latest trends in global development suggest?

  • The Rich, The Poor and the Trash

    Summary of a documentary on global inequalities and waste