Suchergebnisse

Abstract. Marginality and development of North Atlantic maritime communities are viewed in theoretical perspective. The ecological, technological and community circumstances are similar, while the political and economic frameworks within which the communities are incorporated vary. The components of modernization are discussed and the process of structural differentiation is stressed as it produces a heterogeneous set of economic sectors thereby establishing the conditions for the evolution of marginality. The properties of traditional as opposed to modern systems are examined in a critique of the standard orthodoxies of development planning. A position is developed which states that a restructuring of the ties of economic interdependance is a necessary prerequisite for effective development. Tradition and its persistence in the North Atlantic are viewed as an adaptive response to a situation of persisting disadvantage.

Abstract. Studies of modernization and change tend to perpetuate a dichotomy between micro‐ and macro‐levels of sociological analysis. This bifurcation is used to introduce the problem of abstractive levels whereby the properties and procedures of system‐level analysis and ego‐centred approaches are discussed and compared. The contention is that both levels of abstraction must be incorporated within our explanations of social phenomena. The application of situational logic to Rossel Island and Highland Burma is briefly discussed to suggest that this particular concept set has properties which may effectively link abstractive levels that usually remain discrete.