Originally published in 1974 Sociology and Development are a selection papers from the British Sociological Association’s conference on development. The book combines both theoretical discussion and empirical material drawn from both urban and rural areas in Africa, Latin America, China, the USSR and Great Britain, as well as from specific studies on the mass media and the health services. Above all, the papers contribute to a greater understanding of reality in dependent, less developed societies, and so modify some of the over-simplifications introduced by the sweeping vision of the new theorists.