Entering Modernity: The Marginalisation of the Poor in the Developing Countries. An Account of Theoretical Perspectives from the 1940's to the 1980's

Sammanfattning: In the present doctoral dissertation an attempt is made to qualify the theorertical assumptions about the marginal characret of the popular sectors of the developing countries. According to these theories, individuals belonging to the populart sectors cannot become fully members of their societies because they lack the attitudinal prerequisites. My argument is that their actions are quite sophisticated and elaborated and have, moreover, a high degree of rationality. Instead of being marginals, they are marginalised by social, political, economic and cultural structures that work at their disadvantage. To explain the intricancies and contradicory character of the lines of action elaborated by the poor, I elaborate a theoretical model based on the dynamic interplay between Weber's notions of Wert- and Zweckrationalität. Instead of regardin them os the opposite stations of a linear continuum, I place them within the same spatial and temporal dimension, to account for the intricancies of all social action.