Literature Review

WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?

A literature review is a description of the literature relevant to a particular field or topic. This is often written as part of a postgraduate thesis proposal, or at the commencement of a thesis. A critical literature review is a critical assessment of the relevant literature. It is unlikely that you will be able to write a truly critical assessment of the literature until you have a good grasp of the subject, usually at some point near the end of your thesis.

How does a literature review differ from other assignments?

The review, like other forms of expository writing, has an introduction, body and conclusion, well-formed paragraphs, and a logical structure. However, in other kinds of expository writing, you use relevant literature to support the discussion of your thesis; in a literature review, the literature itself is the subject of discussion.

What counts as 'literature'?

‘Literature’ covers everything relevant that is written on a topic: books, journal articles, newspaper articles, historical records, government reports, theses and dissertations, etc. The important word is 'relevant'. Check with your supervisor or tutor when in doubt.

WHY DO A LITERATURE REVIEW?

A literature review gives an overview of the field of inquiry: what has already been said on the topic, who the key writers are, what the prevailing theories and hypotheses are, what questions are being asked, and what methodologies and methods are appropriate and useful.

A critical literature review shows how prevailing ideas fit into your own thesis, and how your thesis agrees or differs from them.

HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Conduct the literature search

Find out what has been written on your subject. Use as many bibliographical sources as you can to find relevant titles. The following are likely sources:

Bibliographies and references in key textbooks and recent journal articles. Your supervisor or tutor should tell you which are the key texts and relevant journals.

Abstracting databases, such as PsycINFO, Medline, etc

Citation databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus.

Many abstracting journals and electronic databases are available through the University Library's Research Gateway.

A useful reference book for information searches:

Lane, Nancy D 1996. Techniques for Student Research: A Practical Guide. Second edition. Melbourne: Longman (UC library call number Z 711.2 L36).

Using the specialist librarians

The University Library has three specialist librarians, one for each Faculty. They can help you decide which databases and bibliographies are relevant to your field, and can advise you on other sources for your literature search. Use them!

2. Note the bibliographical details

Write down the full bibliographical details of each book or article as soon as you find a reference to it. This will save you an enormous amount of time later on.

3. Find the literature

Once you have what looks like a list of relevant texts, you have to find them.

• Use the UC library catalogue to see if the books and journals are held at UC.
• For ejournals, look at the A-Z listing.
• For books and journals, you can use the UC library pages to search other Canberra library catalogues (including the National Library).
• For journals, articles, theses, particularly on Austalian topics, use the Trove Database http://trove.nla.gov.au .
• If the book or journal you want is not held in Canberra, you may be able to access it through inter-library loans. Check with your supervisor to see if this facility is available to you. (Someone has to pay for inter-library loans!)

The full text of many journal articles can be found on electronic databases such as Business Source Complete, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect.

4. Read the literature

Before you begin to read a book or article, make sure you written down the full details (see note bibliographical 2 above).

Take notes as you read the literature. You are reading to find out how each piece of writing approaches the subject of your research, what it has to say about it, and (especially for research students) how it relates to your own thesis:

• Is it a general textbook or does it deal with a specific issue(s)?
• Is it an empirical report, a theoretical study, a sociological or political account, a historical overview, etc? All or some of these?
• Does it follow a particular school of thought?
• What is its theoretical basis?
• What definitions does it use?
• What is its general methodological approach? What methods are used?
• What kinds of data does it use to back up its argument?
• What conclusions does it come to?
• Other questions may be relevant. It depends on the purpose of the review.

Usually, you won’t have to read the whole text from first to last page. Learn to use efficient scanning and skimming reading techniques.

5. Write the review

Having gathered the relevant details about the literature, you now need to write the review. The kind of review you write, and the amount of detail, will depend on the level of your studies.

Important note: do not confuse a literature review with an annotated bibliography.

An annotated bibliography deals with each text in turn, describing and evaluating the text, using one paragraph for each text.

In contrast, a literature review synthesises many texts in one paragraph. Each paragraph (or section if it is a long thesis) of the literature review should classify and evaluate the themes of the texts that are relevant to your thesis; each paragraph or section of your review should deal with a different aspect of the literature.

Like all academic writing, a literature review must have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

The introduction should include:

• the nature of the topic under discussion (the topic of your thesis)
• the parameters of the topic (what does it include and exclude)?
• the basis for your selection of the literature

The conclusion should include:

• A summary of major agreements and disagreements in the literature
• A summary of general conclusions that are being drawn.
• A summary of where your thesis sits in the literature (Remember! Your thesis could become one of the future texts on the subject—how will later research students describe your thesis in their literature reviews?)

The body paragraphs could include relevant paragraphs on:

• historical background, including classic texts
• current mainstream versus alternative theoretical or ideological viewpoints, including differing theoretical assumptions, differing political outlooks, and other conflicts
• possible approaches to the subject (empirical, philosophical, historical, postmodernist, etc)
• definitions in use
• current research studies
• current discoveries about the topic
• principal questions that are being asked
• general conclusions that are being drawn
• methodologies and methods in use

… and so on.

article credit: http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing/literature

Sex typing of Work

Anthropologist George Murdock (1937) analyzed data that researchers had reported on 324 societies around the world. He found that in all of them, activities are sex typed. Every society associates certain activities with one sex or the other. He also found that activities that are considered “female” in one society might be considered “male” in another.

He also found out that the making weapons and hunting was almost universally the domain of men, but in a few societies women participated in these activities.

Although Murdock found no specific work that was universally as- signed only to women, he did find that making clothing, cooking, carrying water, and grinding grain were almost always female tasks. In a few societies, however, such activities were regarded as men’s work.

Credit: Notes from James M Henslin, “Sociology- A Down to Earth Approach”

Biology Versus Culture view - Gender

Culture View

According to sociologist Cynthia Fuchs Epstein the differences between the behavior of males and females are solely the result of social factors specifically, socialization and social control. According to her the anthropological record shows greater equality between the sexes in the past. In earlier societies, women, as well as men, hunted small game, made tools, and gathered food. In hunting and gathering societies, the roles of both women and men are less rigid.

This proves that hunting and gathering societies exist in which women are not subordinate to men. Anthropologists claim that in these societies women have a separate but equal status. When these socially constructed barriers are removed, women’s work habits are similar to those of men. The types of work that men and women do in each society are determined not by biology but by social arrangements.

This division of work by gender serves the interests of men, and both informal customs and formal laws enforce it. Biology “causes” some human behaviors, but they are related to re- production or differences in body structure. Female crime rates are rising in many parts of the world. This indicates that aggression, which is often considered a male behavior dictated by biology, is related instead to social factors.

Biology View

Sociologist Steven Goldberg questions the premise that anyone should doubt “the presence of core-deep differences in males and females, differences of temperament and emotion of masculinity and femininity.”

Goldberg’s argument is that it is not environment but inborn differences that give masculine and feminine direction to the emotions and behaviors of men and women. The anthropological record shows that all societies are patriarchies Stories about long-lost matriarchies are myths.

                                                          

In all societies, past and present, the highest statuses are associated with men. In every society, “hierarchies overwhelmingly dominated by men” rule politics. Male dominance of society is “an inevitable resolution of the psychophysiological reality.” Socialization and social institutions merely reflect and sometimes exaggerate inborn tendencies.

Credit: Notes from James M Henslin, “Sociology- A Down to Earth Approach”

Theory on the origin of Patriarchy - Gender

The major theory of the origin of patriarchy men dominating society points to social consequences of human reproduction. In early human history, life was short therefore to balance the high death rate and maintain the population, women had to give birth to many children.

Consequently, around the world women assumed tasks that were associated with the home and child care, while men took over the hunting of large animals and other tasks that required both greater speed and longer absences from the base camp.

As a result, men became dominant. It was the men who left camp to hunt animals, who made contact with other tribes, who traded with these groups, and who quarreled and waged war with them. It was they who accumulated possessions in trade and gained prestige by returning to the camp triumphantly, leading captured prisoners or bringing large animals they had killed to feed the tribe.

In contrast, little prestige was given to the routine, taken-for- granted activities of women who were not perceived as risking their lives for the group. Eventually, men took over society. Their sources of power were their weapons, items of trade, and knowledge gained from contact with other groups. Women became second- class citizens, subject to men’s decisions.

Male dominance may be the result of some entirely different cause. For example, anthropologist Marvin Harris (1977) proposed that because most men are stronger than most women and survival in tribal groups required hand-to-hand combat, men became the warriors, and women became the reward that enticed men to risk their lives in battle.

Frederick Engels proposed that patriarchy came with the development of private property. He could not explain why private property should have produced male dominance, however. Gerda Lerner (1986) suggests that patriarchy may even have had different origins in different places.

Whatever its origins, a circular system of thought evolved. Men came to think of themselves as inherently superior based on the evidence that they dominated society. Even today, patriarchy is always accompanied by cultural supports designed to justify male dominance such as designating certain activities as “not appropriate” for women.

As tribal societies developed into larger groups, men, who enjoyed their power and privileges, maintained their dominance. Long after hunting and hand-to-hand combat ceased to be routine, and even after large numbers of children were no longer needed to maintain the population, men held on to their power. Male dominance in contemporary societies, then, is a continuation of a millennia-old pattern whose origin is lost in history.

Credit: Notes from James M Henslin, “Sociology- A Down to Earth Approach”

Gender

Around the world, gender is the primary division between people. Every society sort’s men and women into separate groups and give them different access to property, power, and prestige. These divisions always favor men as a group. This is known as gender stratification.

According to historian and feminist Gerda Lerner there is not a single society known where women-as-a-group have decision-making power over men (as a group). Consequently, sociologists classify females as a minority group.

Some analysts believe that in hunting and gathering societies, women and men were social equals and that agricultural societies also had less gender discrimination than is common today .In these societies, women may have contributed about 60 percent of the group’s total food. Yet, around the world, gender is the basis for discrimination.

Difference between sex and gender are defined as Sex refers to biological distinctions between males and females. It consists of both primary and secondary sex characteristics. Gender, in contrast, is what a society considers proper behaviors and attitudes for its male and female members. Sex physically distinguishes males from females; gender refers to what people call “masculine” and “feminine.”

Credit: Notes from James M Henslin, “Sociology- A Down to Earth Approach”

Forms of Domestic Violence

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GENDER IDENTITY

Gender identity is a person's private sense, and subjective experience, of their own gender. This is generally described as one's private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female. All societies have a set of gender categories that can serve as the basis of the formation of a social identity in relation to other members of society. In most societies, there is a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females. In all societies, however, some individuals do not identify with some (or all) of the aspects of gender that are assigned to their biological sex.

In most Western societies, there exists a gender binary, a social dichotomy that enforces conformance to the ideals of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of gender and sex - gender identity, gender expression and biological sex. Some societies have so-called third gender categories that can be used as a basis for a gender identity by people who are uncomfortable with the gender that is usually associated with their sex; in other societies, membership of any of the gender categories is open to people regardless of their sex.

Gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to change after that. The formation also commonly concludes between the ages of four and six. Gender identity is affected by influence of others, social interactions, and a child’s own personal interest. Understanding gender can be broken down into four parts: (1) understanding the concept of gender, (2) learning gender role standards and stereotypes, (3) identifying with parents, and (4) forming gender preference (Newman 243). A three year old can identify themselves as a boy or a girl, though they do not yet fully understand the implications of gender.[citation needed]

Gender identity is formed as children search for social cues and display approval for others based upon the gender with which the child identifies, though gender identity is very fluid among young children. Studies suggest that children develop gender identity in three distinct stages: as toddlers and preschoolers, they learn about defined characteristics, which are socialized aspects of gender; the second stage is consolidation, in which identity becomes rigid, around the ages of 5–7 years; after this "peak of rigidity," fluidity returns and socially defined gender roles relax somewhat.

Although the term "gender identity" was originally a medical term used to explain sex reassignment surgery to the public, it is most often found in psychology today, often as core gender identity. Although the formation of gender identity is not completely understood, many factors have been suggested as influencing its development. Biological factors that may influence gender identity include pre- and post-natal hormone levels and genetic makeup. Social factors which may influence gender identity include ideas regarding gender roles conveyed by family, authority figures, mass media, and other influential people in a child's life. Another factor that has a significant role in the process of gender identity is language, there are ways that certain words are associated with specific genders, "The relationship between language and gender has largely reflected how linguistic practices, among other kinds of practices, are used in the construction of social identities relating to issues of masculinity and femininity." (Adegoju,2000).[full citation needed] So children while learning a language learn to separate masculine and feminine characteristics and unconsciously adjust their own behavior to these predetermined roles. Children are often shaped and molded by the people surrounding them by trying to imitate and follow. One's gender identity is also influenced by the social learning theory, which assumes that children develop their gender identity through observing and imitating gender-linked behaviors, and then being rewarded or punished for behaving that way. In some cases, a person's gender identity may be inconsistent with their biological sex characteristics, resulting in individuals dressing and/or behaving in a way which is perceived by others as being outside cultural gender norms; these gender expressions may be described as gender variant or transgender.

Since the development of gender identity is influenced by many factors, it is understandable that there are diagnoses, disorders and conditions associated with it as well. One of the major diagnoses is gender identity disorder (GID). Gender identity disorder is the formal diagnosis to describe persons who experience significant dysphoria (discontent) with the sex they were assigned at birth and/or the gender roles associated with that sex. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (302.85) has five criteria that must be met before a diagnosis of gender identity disorder can be made. "In gender identity disorder, there is discordance between the natal sex of one's external genitalia and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine or feminine." Interestingly, gender identity disorder is also made up of more specific disorders, each of which focuses on the disorder in people of certain age groups. For example, gender identity disorder in children is specific to children who experience gender dysphoria.

Empowerment Approach

-          by Sara Hlupekile Longwe 

Sara Hlupekile Longwe is a consultant on gender and development based in Lusaka, Zambia. She was the chairperson of FEMNET between 1997 and 2003. She is the author of the Longwe Framework for Gender Analysis. Longwe describes herself as a radical feminist activist.

Sara Longwe. "Women’s Empowerment Framework."

The Women’s Empowerment Framework was developed by Sara Hlupekile Longwe as a way to conceptualize the process of empowerment through a sequence of measurable actions. The tool highlights the ascending levels of gender equality, although the levels are not linear in nature, but rather are conceptualized as reinforcing in nature. The path can be used as a frame of reference for progressive steps towards increasing equality, starting from meeting basic welfare needs to equality in the control over the means of production.

 Women's Empowerment Framework

Longwe developed the Women's Empowerment Framework, or Longwe Framework, published in 1990. This Gender analysis framework helps planners understand the practical meaning of women's empowerment and equality, and then to evaluate whether a development initiative supports this empowerment. The basic premise is that women's development can be viewed in terms of five levels of equality: welfare, access, "conscientization", participation and control. Empowerment is essential at each of these levels. Welfare addresses basic needs, and access addresses ability to use resources such as credit, land and education. "Conscientization" is a key element of the framework: recognition that discrimination creates gender-related problems and women may themselves contribute to this discrimination. With participation, women are equal to men in making decisions, and with control the balance of powers between the genders is equal.

The five “levels of equality” in the Women’s Empowerment Framework include:

·         Welfare, meaning improvement in socioeconomic status, such as income, better nutrition, etc. This level produces nothing to empower women.

·         Access, meaning increased access to resources. This is the first step in empowerment as women increase their access relative to men.

·         Conscientisation, involving the recognition of structural forces that disadvantage and discriminate against women coupled with the collective aim to address these discriminations.

·         Mobilization, implementing actions related to the conscientisation of women.

·         Control, involving the level of access reached and control of resources that have shifted as a result of collective claim making and action. 

The model is explicitly political, linking women’s inequality and poverty to structural oppression. As such, in order to secure women’s equality and empowerment, both materially and financially, women must be empowered. The tool examines a program, such as a health or education intervention, to assess how it influences the five levels of empowerment, i.e., negatively, positively, or neutrally. It postulates an ascending level of equality impacts that can be tracked and assessed over time to see if progression or regression is taking place.

Strengths of the Women’s Empowerment Framework: 

The Women’s Empowerment Framework may assist organizations in developing more explicit programmatic strategies that aim to fundamentally shift the bases of gender inequality.

Gendered assumptions of equality are made explicit. This provides an excellent opportunity for a feminist context analysis, highlighting the political dimensions of gender inequality.

The three levels of a program effect, e.g., positive, neutral, or negative impact, can be easily compared across programs. This also helps clarify areas of program strength and weakness, which can be used for program learning purposes.

It is unique in explicitly allowing negative impacts to be located and analyzed.

Weaknesses (or not designed for):

The Women’s Empowerment Framework is not designed to explain how or why a program works, exploring the contributing or causal factors that led to the progression from one level of impact to the next. 

Focus is only placed on three levels of equality, e.g., positive, neutral, or negative impact, which limits important qualitative assessments of “success” that provide valuable information critical for program improvement.

The assumption that there is a hierarchy of gender equality levels suggests a somewhat more linear change trajectory than is often found in practice.

World System Approach - Dependency Theory

Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. It is a central contention of dependency theory that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the "world system."

The theory arose as a reaction to modernization theory, an earlier theory of development which held that all societies progress through similar stages of development, that today's underdeveloped areas are thus in a similar situation to that of today's developed areas at some time in the past, and that therefore the task in helping the underdeveloped areas out of poverty is to accelerate them along this supposed common path of development, by various means such as investment, technology transfers, and closer integration into the world market. Dependency theory rejected this view, arguing that underdeveloped countries are not merely primitive versions of developed countries, but have unique features and structures of their own; and, importantly, are in the situation of being the weaker members in a world market economy.

Background                         

Dependency Theory developed in the late 1950s under the guidance of the Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, Raul Prebisch. Prebisch and his colleagues were troubled by the fact that economic growth in the advanced industrialized countries did not necessarily lead to growth in the poorer countries. Indeed, their studies suggested that economic activity in the richer countries often led to serious economic problems in the poorer countries. Such a possibility was not predicted by neoclassical theory, which had assumed that economic growth was beneficial to all (Pareto optimal) even if the benefits were not always equally shared. Prebisch's initial explanation for the phenomenon was very straightforward: poor countries exported primary commodities to the rich countries that then manufactured products out of those commodities and sold them back to the poorer countries. The "Value Added" by manufacturing a usable product always cost more than the primary products used to create those products. Therefore, poorer countries would never be earning enough from their export earnings to pay for their imports. Prebisch's solution was similarly straightforward:  poorer countries should embark on programs of import substitution so that they need not purchase the manufactured products from the richer countries. The poorer countries would still sell their primary products on the world market, but their foreign exchange reserves would not be used to purchase their manufactures from abroad. Three issues made this policy difficult to follow. The first is that the internal markets of the poorer countries were not large enough to support the economies of scale used by the richer countries to keep their prices low. The second issue concerned the political will of the poorer countries as to whether a transformation from being primary products producers was possible or desirable. The final issue revolved around the extent to which the poorer countries actually had control of their primary products, particularly in the area of selling those products abroad. These obstacles to the import substitution policy led others to think a little more creatively and historically at the relationship between rich and poor countries. At this point dependency theory was viewed as a possible way of explaining the persistent poverty of the poorer countries. The traditional neoclassical approach said virtually nothing on this question except to assert that the poorer countries were late in coming to solid economic practices and that as soon as they learned the techniques of modern economics, then the poverty would begin to subside. However, Marxists theorists viewed the persistent poverty as a consequence of capitalist exploitation. And a new body of thought, called the world systems approach, argued that the poverty was a direct consequence of the evolution of the international political economy into a fairly rigid division of labor which favored the rich and penalized the poor.

Dependency can be defined as an explanation of the economic development of a state in terms of the external influences--political, economic, and cultural--on national development policies (Osvaldo Sunkel, "National Development Policy and External Dependence in Latin America," The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 6, no. 1, October 1969, p. 23). Theotonio Dos Santos emphasizes the historical dimension of the dependency relationships in his definition: [Dependency is]...an historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favors some countries to the detriment of others and limits the development possibilities of the subordinate economics...a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected. (Theotonio Dos Santos, "The Structure of Dependence," in K.T. Fann and Donald C. Hodges, eds., Readings in U.S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1971, p. 226).

Dependency theory became popular in the 1960’s as a response to research by Raul Prebisch. Prebisch found that increases in the wealth of the richer nations appeared to be at the expense of the poorer ones.

In its extreme form, dependency theory is based on a Marxist view of the world, which sees globalization in terms of the spread of market capitalism, and the exploitation of cheap labour and resources in return for the obsolete technologies of the West.  The dominant view of dependency theorists is that there is a dominant world capitalist system that relies on a division of labour between the rich 'core' countries and poor 'peripheral' countries. Over time, the core countries will exploit their dominance over an increasingly marginalized periphery.

Dependency theory advocated an inward looking approach to development and an increased role for the state in terms of imposing barriers to trade, making inward investment difficult and promoting nationalization of key industries.

Although still a popular theory in history and sociology, dependency theory has disappeared from the mainstream of economic theory since the collapse of Communism in the early 1990s. The considerable inefficiencies associated with state involvement in the economy and the growth of corruption, have been dramatically exposed in countries that have followed this view of development, most notably a small number of African economies, including Zimbabwe.

Theory

Meta Theory

A metatheory or meta-theory is a theory whose subject matter is some theory. All fields of research share some meta-theory, regardless whether this is explicit or correct. In a more restricted and specific sense, in mathematics and mathematical logic, metatheory means a mathematical theory about another mathematical theory.

The following is an example of a meta-theoretical statement:

“Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory.”

Meta-theoretical investigations are generally part of philosophy of science. Also a metatheory is an object of concern to the area in which the individual theory is conceived.

Grand Theory

A Grand theory refers to any theory that attempts to offer an overall explanation of history, social life and the human experience. The grand theory is normally compared and differentiated with empiricism positivism, which opines that understanding can only be achieved through studying societies and phenomenon.

Grand Theory is a term invented by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination to refer to the form of highly abstract theorizing in which the formal organization and arrangement of concepts takes priority over understanding the social world. In his view, Grand Theory was more or less separated from the concrete concerns of everyday life and its variety in time and space.

The main target of Mills was Talcott Parsons, also an American sociologist and the architect of structural functionalism, against whom he insisted that there is no Grand Theory in the sense of one universal scheme to understand the unity of social structures, according to Gregory. In Parsons view "grand theory" integrated not only sociological concepts, but also psychological, economic, political, and religious or philosophical components. He tried to integrate all the social sciences within an overarching theoretical framework.

By the 1980s the Grand Theory was reformulated and included theories such as; critical theory, structuralism, structural Marxism, and Structuration Theory, all influenced human geography. Barnes and Gregory confirmed this and noticed in addition; “No matter the phenomenon investigated, it could always be slotted into a wider theoretical scheme. Nothing would be left out; everything would be explained.”

According to Gregory there are two critical responses to this (reformulated) Grand Theory. First there has been a continuing debate about the scope of theory in human geography, with the focus on the relation between theory and empiricism. Wherein some authors thought of a ‘theory-less world of empiricism’, in contrast to others which foresaw a fixation upon theory, meaning the threat of the ‘theorization of theories’, second order abstractions ‘doubly removed from the empirical world’. Secondly, that no single theoretical system can possibly ask all the interesting questions or provide all the satisfying answers.

Substantive Theory

A substantive theory may be constructed within the process of identifying differences and similarities of contextualized instances, and patterns, across and within case studies focused on a similar theme. The content of substantive theory is mainly descriptive, focused on the essence, or substance, of the numerous case instances in a parsimonious relational structure. In the construction of substantive theory the theorizer seeks to enhance understanding by identifying similarities and differences of contextualized instances across and within case studies focused on a similar theme. For the most part the instances include an element of intentionality. Suppose a researcher has collected many case studies on a common theme, say, unemployment or public housing or school principals. He reads these and notes instances and patterns of similarity and difference as well as instances that seem to relate only and specifically to a particular case study.

Middle Range Theory

Middle-range theory, developed by Robert K. Merton, is an approach to sociological theorizing aimed at integrating theory and empirical research. It is currently the de facto dominant approach to sociological theory construction, especially in the United States. Middle-range theory starts with an empirical phenomenon (as opposed to a broad abstract entity like the social system) and abstracts from it to create general statements that can be verified by data. This approach stands in contrast to the earlier "grand" theorizing of social theory, such as functionalism and many conflict theories. Raymond Boudon has argued that "middle-range theory" is the same concept that most other sciences simply call 'theory'. The analytical sociology movement has as its aim the unification of such theories into a coherent paradigm at a greater level of abstraction.

Sociological theory, if it is to advance significantly, must proceed on these interconnected planes: 1. by developing special theories from which to derive hypotheses that can be empirically investigated and 2. by evolving a progressively more general conceptual scheme that is adequate to consolidate groups of special theories.

— Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure

History

The midrange approach was developed by Robert Merton as a departure from the general social theorizing of Talcott Parsons. Merton agreed with Parsons that a narrow empiricism consisting entirely of simple statistical or observational regularities cannot arrive at successful theory. However, he found that Parsons' "formulations were remote from providing a problematic and a direction for theory-oriented empirical inquiry into the observable worlds of culture and society". He was thus directly opposed to the abstract theorizing of scholars who are engaged in the attempt to construct a total theoretical system covering all aspects of social life. With the introduction of the middle range theory program, he advocated that sociologists should concentrate on measurable aspects of social reality that can be studied as separate social phenomena, rather than attempting to explain the entire social world. He saw both the middle-range theory approach and middle-range theories themselves as temporary: when they matured, as natural sciences already had, the body of middle range theories would become a system of universal laws; but, until that time, social sciences should avoid trying to create a universal theory.

Merton's original foil in the construction was Talcott Parsons, whose action theory Merton classified as a "grand theory". (Parsons vehemently rejected this categorization.) Middle range theories are normally constructed by applying theory building techniques to empirical research, which produce generic propositions about the social world, which in turn can also be empirically tested. Examples of middle range theories are theories of reference groups, social mobility, normalization processes, role conflict and the formation of social norms. The middle-range approach has played a key role in turning sociology into an increasingly empirically-oriented discipline. This was also important in post-war thought.

In the post-war period, middle-range theory became the dominant approach to theory construction in all variable-based social sciences. Middle range theory has also been applied to the archaeological realm by Lewis R. Binford, and to financial theory by Harvard Business School Professor Robert C. Merton, Robert K. Merton's son.

In the recent decades, the analytical sociology program has emerged as an attempt synthesizing middle-range theories into a more coherent abstract framework (as Merton had hoped would eventually happen). Peter Hedstrom at Oxford is the scholar most associated with this approach, while Peter Bearman is its most prominent American advocate.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, dating abuse, and intimate partner violence (IPV), is a pattern of behavior which involves the abuse by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage, cohabitation, dating or within the family. Domestic violence can take many forms, including physical aggression or assault (hitting, kicking, biting, shoving, restraining, slapping, throwing objects, battery), or threats thereof; sexual abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation; stalking; passive/covert abuse (e.g., neglect); and economic deprivation.

Alcohol consumption and mental illnesscan be co-morbid with abuse, and present additional challenges in eliminating domestic violence. Awareness, perception, definition and documentation of domestic violence differs widely from country to country, and from era to era.

Domestic violence and abuse is not limited to obvious physical violence. Domestic violence can also mean endangerment, criminal coercion, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing, harassment, and stalking.

Laws on domestic violence vary by country. While it is generally outlawed in the Western World, this is not the case in many developing countries. For instance, in 2010, the United Arab Emirates's Supreme Court ruled that a man has the right to physically discipline his wife and children as long as he does not leave physical marks. The social acceptability of domestic violence also differs by country. While in most developed countries domestic violence is considered unacceptable by most people, in many regions of the world the views are different: according to a UNICEF survey, the percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is, for example: 90% in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87% in Mali, 86% in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81% in Laos, 80% in Central African Republic. Refusing to submit to a husband's wishes is a common reason given for justification of violence in developing countries: for instance 62.4% of women in Tajikistan justify wife beating if the wife goes out without telling the husband; 68% if she argues with him; 47.9% if she refuses to have sex with him.

Traditionally, in most cultures, men had a legal right to use violence to "discipline" their wives. Although in the US and many European countries this right was removed from them in the late 19th/early 20th century, before the 1970s criminal arrests were very rare (occurring only in cases of extreme violence), and it was only in the 1990s that rigorous enforcement of laws against domestic violence became standard policy in Western countries.

Social Stratification

Social Stratification

The process by which individuals and groups are ranked in a more or less enduring hierarchy of status is known as stratification. Even the most primitive societies had some form of social stratification. As Sorokin pointed out stratified society with real equality of its members is a myth that has never been realized in the history of the mankind. Social stratification means the differentiation of a given population into hierarchically superimposed classes. It is manifested in the existence of upper and lower social layer. Its basis and very essence consists in an unequal distribution of rights and privileges, duties and responsibilities, social values and privations, social power and influences among the members of a society. No society is unstratified. Stratification involves the distribution of unequal rights and privileges among the members of a society. Social stratification is the division of society into permanent groups or categories linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and subordination.

Homosexuality

The term homosexual is applied both to persons who have a strong preference for sex partners of the same sex and to those who regardless of sex preference engage in sex relations with persons of the same sex. According to Ford a capacity to respond sexually to both sexes is present among humans and many other species. Homosexuality appears at least occasionally in all or nearly all human societies. It is either absent, rare or secret in about one third of the societies studied by Ford and Beach. In about two-thirds some form of homosexual behavior is considered acceptable and normal for at least some categories of people or stages of life. Homosexuals are very much like heterosexuals in everything except sexual preference. A number of studies have found no other personality traits that distinguish homosexuals from heterosexuals. Apart from difficulties arising from the social treatment of homosexuals, personality maladjustments are no more common among homosexuals than among heterosexuals. The mental illness theory sees homosexuals as victims of sex-role confusion. According to psychiatric opinion the male homosexual is often a product of a dominating but seductive mother and a cold remote father. But the most comprehensive research study of homosexuals comparing large samples of homosexuals and heterosexuals found no significant differences in family backgrounds, parental types or relationships with parents. Several studies have found significant differences between the hormone levels of homosexuals and heterosexuals.

Sexuality

Sexuality

Approaches to understanding sexuality are categorized as either essentialist or social constructionist. Essentialism, focusing on the individual expression of human desire and pleasure, favors a biological explanation. Social constructionism, focusing on the relationship between individual and society, explores how sexuality is embedded in historical, political, and social practices. Foucault (1979) traces the history of the heterosexuality/homosexuality dichotomy to processes that began in the nineteenth century and the birth of sexology. Challenging essentialist conceptualizations of sex and sexuality as transhistorical and stable categories, Foucault claims that the discursive invention of sexuality as a biological instinct fundamental to understanding an individual's health, pathology and identity lead to biopower. While sex denoted the sexual act, sexuality symbolized the true essence of the individual. Sexual behavior represented the true nature and identity of an individual. While the sexologists favored a biological explanation, Freud's psychoanalytic theory of sexual development led to the psychological construction of different sexual identities. The individual progresses from an initial polymorphous sexuality in early childhood through to the development of a mature stable heterosexual identity in adulthood; homosexuality is a temporary (adolescent) stage of development. To sociologists, sexuality is derived from experiences constructed within social, cultural, and historical contexts. Sexual identities and behaviors develop herein; norms and cultural expectations guide individuals.

Sexual Foundations of society

The sex drive is one of the building blocks of human social life. While no inborn drive compels humans to act in any particular way, each drive consists of a set of recurrent tension states which impels people to some kind of activity to relieve the tension. Sexuality includes all the feelings and behavior linked to sex through either biology or social learning. The human shares with the anthropoids the biological fact of continuous sexuality meaning that the female may be sexually active at any time. The human female passes through no biological cycles of sexual acceptance and rejection. There are some species whose males and females associate continuously while mating only seasonally. Continuous sexuality therefore is not necessary for continuous association but it is a guarantee that the sexes will associate continuously. This makes continuous sexuality a part of the biological basis for human social life.

Thus human sex drive is notable for continuous sexuality which ensures the continuous association of the sexes, desire for continuity which makes for enduring sexual partnerships, the desire for variety which conflicts with the desire for continuity and remarkable pliability with sex interest channeled through whatever patterns a society has established as normal.

Sex – Differences

The human sexes are visibly different in some physical characteristics. Work-role ascription in simple societies was highly affected by physical sex differences. Men considerably exceed women in average upper body strength. Although women do a lot of moderately heavy physical labor in many societies, tasks calling for great strength or speed such as hunting, fighting, tree clearing or heavy lifting are nearly always done by men. The almost continuous childbearing and nursing in most societies has generally limited women’s work to that which could be combined with baby care work which was reptetive, interruptible and calling for no great physical strength. This had the effect of assigning most of the adventurous and exciting work to men and most of the drudgery to women. Yet there are several instances showing that functional practicality was not the only determinant of the gender work roles. In modern societies physical strength and reproductive function are less important factors in work-role ascription. Even the physical differences are shrinking.

In many fields of athletic competition, women are catching up with men. The gap between men’s and women’s records in all events which both enter has narrowed by an average of 1/3.According to Maccoby and Jacklin about the sex differences among Americans- the research shows boy’s greater aggressiveness, boys’ greater mathematical and visual –spatial differences and girls’ greater verbal ability. There are no significant sex differences in sociability, self-esteem, higher cognitive learnings, analytic ability, achievement motivation and responsiveness to visual stimuli. It is not certain that these ability differences are biological. They may be but not proved. All sex differences apart from reproductive system are average differences. These are not very great with a great deal of overlapping. It clearly shows that aside from physical strength and reproduction most sex differences are social products, not biological building blocks.Sex roles can be whatever a society makes them.

Changing sex roles

Women’s roles have shown great change throughout history. Women’s status was fairly high in ancient Egypt in sense of considerable independence, power and choice and low in early Greece and Roman Empire. The traditional sex-role ascription assumed a series of sex differences in abilities and limitations which are no longer believed by educated people. In traditional societies like Indian society it was easy to attribute one’s discriminatory practices to the will of God but it is now not acceptable. It is widely believed that normal sex roles are normal for only a specific time and place .Thus the intellectual foundation for the subordinate roles of women have been negated. The importance attributed to the work one does have always been closely related to one’s status and power. In ancient societies priests seemed to have greater control over the people. In hunting societies where men caught the food and women generally prepared it the man’s success in hunting determined whether the group ate or starved.

In agricultural societies, women’s contribution to food supply increased and women’s power also increased. Industrialization both in developed and developing countries lowered the status of women. It made men the primary breadwinners and women the helpers. But during the later stages of industrialization and in the post industrial society family size started shrinking and more women started working in factories. According to a research done by Blood and Wolfe the wife’s power within the family tends to vary according to how closely her pay check matches her husband’s. It can be safely said that while women have been slow in gaining power equal to their economic contribution, the economic base for male dominance is reducing considerably in both developed and developing nations.

Masculinity and Feminity

Masculinity and femininity refer to the differing feelings and behavior expected of males and females at a particular time and place and is largely a product of sex-role socialization. Such socialization has been accomplished in many ways, many of which are unintended and unconscious. In many societies men are being rewarded for being aggressive, competitive and career –oriented. Girls are required to be gentle and homely. Men have been trained to direct and command, women have been trained to obey and serve and to get their way through manipulation. Men are rated according to their career advancement while women are evaluated by their domestic skills. In many ways the sexes have been socialized to feel differently about themselves and to act differently. There is ample evidence to prove that sex-role stereotypes are very much alive today. In almost every work activity men are judged to be more competent than women.

A number of studies show that when women are successful it is likely to be attributed to either luck or great effort while men’s success is more often attributed to ability. No legislation can achieve genuine sex equality unless there are changes in the ways men and women feel about themselves and each other. Changing sex-role stereotypes is not easy. Our institutions are saturated with sexism deeply entrenched with tradition. Most personnel policies have been based upon the assumption that men’s career interests are primary and enduring while women’s career interests are temporary and secondary to their other interests.

Homosexuality

The term homosexual is applied both to persons who have a strong preference for sex partners of the same sex and to those who regardless of sex preference engage in sex relations with persons of the same sex.According to Ford a capacity to respond sexually to both sexes is present among humans and many other species. Homosexuality appears at least occasionally in all or nearly all human societies. It is either absent, rare or secret in about one third of the societies studied by Ford and Beach. In about two-thirds some form of homosexual behavior is considered acceptable and normal for at least some categories of people or stages of life. Homosexuals are very much like heterosexuals in every thing except sexual preference. A number of studies have found no other personality traits that distinguish homosexuals from heterosexuals. Apart from difficulties arising from the social treatment of homosexuals, personality maladjustments are no more common among homosexuals than among heterosexuals. The mental illness theory sees homosexuals as victims of sex-role confusion. According to psychiatric opinion the male homosexual is often a product of a dominating but seductive mother and a cold remote father. But the most comprehensive research study of homosexuals comparing large samples of homosexuals and heterosexuals found no significant differences in family backgrounds, parental types or relationships with parents. Several studies have found significant differences between the hormone levels of homosexuals and heterosexuals.

The social –learning theory holds that one learns homosexual behavior through the same reward-punishment system that shapes most social learning. According to this theory if most childhood and adolescent interaction with the opposite sex is pleasant and rewarding one becomes a heterosexual; if these experiences are uncomfortable and anxiety laden and if attempts at heterosexual intercourse are unsatisfying one may become a homosexual. The increased social acceptance of homosexuals in recent years has apparently not increased the number of homosexuals as expected if homosexuality were a learned sex role. There is no convincing evidence that having a homosexual parent, uncle or neighbor increases the likelihood of a child’s becoming a homosexual. It is difficult to agree upon rational set of social policies concerning homosexuality unless more research and studies are carried out.

The Kerala Model

The Kerala model of development, based on the development experience of the southern Indian state of Kerala, refers to the state's achievement of significant improvements in material conditions of living, reflected in indicators of social development that are comparable to that of many developed countries, even though the state's per capita income is low in comparison to them. Achievements such as low levels of infant mortality and population growth, and high levels of literacy and life expectancy, along with the factors responsible for such achievements have been considered the constituting elements of the Kerala model.

More precisely, the Kerala model has been defined as:

• A set of high material quality-of-life indicators coinciding with low per-capita incomes, both distributed across nearly the entire population of Kerala.
• A set of wealth and resource redistribution programmers that have largely brought about the high material quality-of-life indicators.
• High levels of political participation and activism among ordinary people along with substantial numbers of dedicated leaders at all levels. Kerala's mass activism and committed cadre were able to function within a largely democratic structure, which their activism has served to reinforce.

In 1970

The Human Development Index, which was introduced by the United Nations Development Programme (a branch of the United Nations Organization), has become one of the most influential and widely used indices to measure human development across countries.

The economists noted that despite low incomes, the state had high literacy rates, healthy citizens, and a politically active population. Researchers began to delve more deeply into what was going in the Kerala Model, since human development indexes seemed to show a standard of living which was comparable with life in developed nations, on a fraction of the income. The development standard in Kerala is comparable to that of many first world nations, and is widely considered to be the highest in India at that time.

Despite having high standards of human development, the Kerala Model ranks low in terms of industrial and economic development. The high rate of education in the region has resulted in a brain drain, with many citizens migrating to other parts of the world for employment. The overall job market in Kerala is also very depressed, forcing many to relocate to places like Dubai.

In 1990

From 1990 onwards, the United Nations came with the Human Development Index (HDI). This is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate developed (high development), developing (middle development), and underdeveloped (low development) countries. The statistic is composed from data on Life Expectancy, Education and per-capita GDP (as an indicator of Standard of living) collected at the national level using a formula. This index, which has become one of the most influential and widely used indices to measure human development across countries, give Kerala Model an international recognition. The HDI has been used since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme for its annual Human Development Reports. From the starting of this index, Kerala has topped in all parameters, even more than the developed countries.

In 2011

The India Human Development Report, 2011 prepared by Institute of Applied Manpower Research placed Kerala on top of the index for achieving highest literacy rate, quality health services and consumption expenditure of people.

6.2.3 Mass science education and local planning

Education

The Pallikkoodams started by Christian Missionaries paved the way for an Educational Revolution in Kerala by making education accessible to all, irrespective of caste or religion. Christian Missionaries introduced Modern Education to empower the common man to throw away the yoke of bondage inflicted by themselves by centuries old customs and practices. Communities such as Ezhavas, Nairs and Harijans were guided by great visionaries and monastic orders (Ashrams) – Sree Narayana Guru, Sree Chattambi Swamigal & Ayyankali – who exhorted them to educate themselves by starting their own schools. That resulted in numerous Sree Narayana schools and Nair Service society schools. The teachings of these saints have also empowered the poor and backward classes to organize themselves and bargain for their rights. Muslim Educational Society (MES) also made significant contributions to Education. However, all these would not have been possible unless under the 'Aided School' system had the Government of Kerala not undertook the operating expenses such as Salaries for running these Schools.

Kerala had been a notable centre of Vedic learning, having produced one of the most influential Hindu philosophers, Adi Shankaracharya. The Vedic learning of the Nambudiris is an unaltered tradition that still holds today, and is unique for its orthodoxy, unknown to other Indian communities. However, in feudal Kerala, though only the Nambudiris received an education in Vedam, other castes as well as women were open to receive education in Sanskrit, Mathematics and Astronomy, in contrast to other parts of India.

The upper castes, such as Nairs, Tamil Brahmin migrants, Ambalavasis, as well as backward castes such as Ezhavas had a strong history of Sanskrit learning. In fact many Ayurvedic Physicians (such as Itty Achudan) were from the backward Ezhava community. This level of learning by non-Brahmin learning was not seen in other parts of India. Also, Kerala had been the site of the notable Kerala School which pioneered principles of mathematics and logic, and cemented Kerala's status as a place of learning.

The prevalence of education was not only restricted to males. In pre-Colonial Kerala, women, especially those belonging to the matrilineal Nair caste, received an education in Sanskrit and other sciences, as well as Kalaripayattu (martial arts). This was unique to Kerala, but was facilitated by the inherent equality shown by Kerala society to females and males, since Kerala society was largely matrilineal, as opposed to the rigid patriarchy in other parts of India which led to a loss of women's rights.

The rulers of the Princely state of Travancore (Thiruvithaamkoor) were at the forefront in the spread of education. A school for girls was established by the Maharaja in 1859, which was an act unprecedented in the Indian subcontinent. In colonial times, Kerala exhibited little defiance against the British Raj. However, they had mass protests for social causes such as rights for "untouchables" and education for all. Popular protest to hold public officials accountable is a vital part of life in Kerala.

In the 1860s, the government spread the educational programs into Malabar, the northern state that had been ruled directly by the British, and began granting scholarships to Harijan (untouchables) and tribal peoples.[citation needed] By 1981, the general literacy rate in Kerala was 70 per cent – almost twice the all-India rate of 36 per cent. The rural literacy rate was almost identical, and female literacy, at 66 per cent, was not far behind. The government continued to press the issue, aiming for "total literacy," usually defined as about 95 per cent of the people being able to read and write.

A pilot project began in the Ernakulam region, an area of 3 million people that includes the city of Kochi. In late 1988, 50,000 volunteers fanned out around the district, tracking down 175,000 illiterates between the ages of 5 and 60, two-thirds of them women. Within a year, it was hoped, the illiterates would read Malayalam at 30 words a minute, copy a text at 7 words a minute, count and write from 1 to 100, and add and subtract three-digit numbers. On 4 February 1990, 13 months after the initial canvass, Indian Prime Minister V. P. Singh marked the start of World Literacy Year with a trip to Ernakulam, declaring it the country's first totally literate district. Kerala's literacy rate 91% (2001 survey) is almost as high as in China (93%) or Thailand (93.9%).

Local Planning

People's Plan Campaign, held in 1996 in Kerala State, was a remarkable experiment in decentralization of powers to local governments with focus on local planning. Kerala State lying in the south-west part of India, is considered a fertile land for decentralization. In India's Ninth Five-Year Plan, each state within the national federation was expected to draws up its own annual plan and the Peoples Plan was an off-shoot of it.

In the beginning of the ninth plan, the Government of Kerala took a bold decision to devolve 35% of the state development budget down from a centralized bureaucracy to local governments where local people could determine and implement their own development priorities under the People’s Plan Campaign (PPC).

Decentralization is, basically, the process of devolving the functions and resources of the State from the centre to the elected governments at the lower levels so as to facilitate greater direct participation by the citizens in governance. Peoples Planning is an attempt in this direction.

In Kerala, decentralized planning that followed the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments and enabling enactments in the State in 1994 started off as the People’s Plan Campaign and progressed with institutionalization at different levels. The important landmarks during the 9th Five Year Plan (since 1995)

include:

 · Transfer of powers, functions, institutions and staff to local governments initiated in October 1995 and completed by July 2000; the transferred officials were given a dual responsibility and accountability to both the PRIs and the line Departments for execution of their respective plan programs;

 · Adoption of a separate budget document exclusively for Local Self Governments (LSGs) {since February 1996} and the introduction of a formula for allocation of Plan funds(Grants in aid) among LSGs

 · Decision to devolve 35 to 40% of the plan funds to local governments announced in July 1996; around 90% of this was devolved with the condition that at least 30% should be spent on Productive sectors, not more than 30% should be invested on Infrastructure and at least 10% should be earmarked for Development programs for Women;

 · Launching of the People’s plan Campaign in August 1996 with multi-pronged socio-political mobilization and sensitization of people with effective participation of organizations like Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP); this was being associated with institution-building at different tiers and levels; Restructuring of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipality Act in 1999,based on the recommendations of the Committee on Decentralization of Powers (known as Sen Committee)

· Submission of First and Second State Finance Commission Reports in February 1996 and January 2001 respectively, reviewing the financial position of Local Self Governments and making recommendations therein.

6.2.3 Does Kerala show an alternative model of sustainable development?

At a time when disillusion with neo-liberal development nostrums is mounting, alternative models of development are being revisited. Kerala's 30 million people may not have experienced rapid growth in GDP per capita, but they have for the past several decades achieved a remarkable social record in terms of adult literacy, infant mortality, life expectancy, stabilizing population growth, and narrowing gender and spatial gaps. What are the political, social and cultural factors responsible for Kerala's success? Does its human development record necessarily relate to sustainability in environmental terms? What realistic view can be taken of its replicability elsewhere in India or further afield in the South? These are among the most important questions explored in this timely reassessment.