Sociology and Social Sciences

The traditional neighborly sciences which pay off been developed as scatter of the totality of learning in the West ask been brought over to Asia. It is now becoming increasingly plain that the validity of such affable sciences, whether in the soil of enquiry supposition or of performance insurance policy, keep no longer be accepted uncritically. An appreciation of what is valid or invalid, applicable or inapplicable, is therefore imperative.Such abstract is necessary non l iodine(prenominal) as an academic venture kindly interpolate is basic to the Asian aspiration for modernization and the need is pressing for such change to be enjoin towards the acquirement of what may healthful be Asian as distinguished from non-Asian goals. CULTURE The line of work is clean-cut and present. The Asian academic world, until now, has been staffed with many scholars whose training has been, for the to the highest stratum part, in Hesperian universities and institutions. At the same time, the political and intellectual leadership in the large life of its society is held to a signifi burnt degree of horse opera-trained leaders.The orientation of many of these leaders has been conditioned by the predominantly western sandwich ending. Trained to reckon in Western terminations by dint of the medium of Western languages, rough argon experiencing a reawakening to the reality of their situation. Asian intellectuals argon undergoing an agonizing tip of soul-searching. Their system of set, developed through years of training in, and encompassing moving picture to, Western philosophies, is being shattered by a realization that these set may not be suitable to the Asian environment.Recently, Professor Ruben Santos-Cuyugan of the University of the Philippines convey misgivings ab place the movement towards the unification of all knowledge, including the assumption of universal categories of enculturation and the universality of value judgment. This movement, according to him, makes the affectionate scientist evade one of his profound responsibilities which is to examine the ways by which his science and thought, indeed his in truth perceptions, argon rooted in the matrix of his own culture (Santos-Cuyugan 1967). POLITICSIn the meantime, in the realm of politics, the postwar leaders of Asia go through discovered that independence has not automatically ushered in the Utopia. Thus, they are not seeking the nature and bodily structure of governing that pass on best meet their involve, the political philosophies their rafts should embrace or adopt, and the policies that will bring about the good society by their indigenous standards and values. A starting point is the particular that with a few yetions, the developing countries of Asia feign belief in freedom and mankind rights, the rule of law and complete government.These apprehensions and maxims are manifested in their constitutions. However, in spite of guarantee s enshrined in their constitutions, these countries find it toilsome to achieve real constitutional democracy. For the constitutions of the West have, in many cases, been transplanted to Asian soil without the historical experience that nurtured them in the West, where they were the products of a long compass point of evolution and ontogenesis. Democracy implies mass participation by the lot in the political subprogram. barely if the people are not sufficiently educated in the processes of democracy, or have not sufficiently imbibed its spirit, how can it flourish? In fact, one wonders whether or not the structure of government of the Philippines, patterned as it is after the outlined in the American Constitution, is not really a hindrance to, alternatively than an instrument for, national didactics. In any case, it has turn quite clear that Western-style democracy has to be modified so as to satisfy the urgent Asian desire for economical progress and friendly justice.Lib erty, as this term is employ in the West, has in general the negative intension of freedom from arbitrary restraint. In the Asian setting, it must be given a positive content governments have to assume a greater responsibility for providing opportunities for the growth and self-realization of citizens. In the same manner, justice has had mainly a political connotation in the West, where it is unremarkably associated with law and kindly behavior. In Asia, if political justice were not integrally related to economic justice, it would be close peripheral to the real fusss.In so far as Asians are concerned, economic justice is the much relevant concept because it touches the marrow of the existing affable order. In this sense, it is associated with the eradication of poverty and the alleviation of human suffering. Another qualification should be make. There is so much lip-service to the concept of rule of law in many Asian societies. By this, people are supposed to be guided b y certain ratified precepts in their well-disposed relations. However, in the Philippine experience, despite the fact that most Filipinos are professed and vocal adherents of the rule of law.They do not find barrier in transgressing legal rules because in the business of everyday living, non-legal rules oftentimes tender greater obedience than legal ones, especially when values such as family and kinship ties are involved. This is part of the history of such phenomenon as nepotism. Which is sure as shooting frowned upon by the formal laws of society, that which is carried out in practice by almost everyone in political authority. Finally, bureaucracy, as an institution, is in external forms and manifestations kindred to its prototype in the West.The same formal methods of recruitment, of organizational charts, of job descriptions, and so forth , are utilized. But the ethos that animates Asian bureaucracy is obviously quite diametrical from what animates Western bureaucracy. ECONOMICS The discipline of economics fives many illustrations of the limits of applicability of Western concepts, values and methods. The most evident at the moment is the matter of smart branches of take on, such as development economics, and of a more socio-psychological approach to the study of economic systems than Keynesian economics allowed at an earlier period.Thus even in the West, there is a growing recognition (e. g. , Hagen 1962), that if economic growth is to occur, a countrys cultural patterns must be such as to produce high need-achievement directed towards clusters of followers once constructs are made. In fact, to achieve substantial economic development, it is suggested that the number of individuals with the entrepreneurial-motivational complex, and particularly with high achievement drives, will have to be significantly increased.Again, many Western economists have been laboring under the assumption of conventional analysis that the missing elements in devel oping societies are modern technical knowledge, capital, specially trained manpower, and a sound plan for using capital, manpower and technical knowledge. Once these elements were made available, they assumed, progress will automatically ensue. The international economic policy of the Western nations have therefore generally been geared towards providing these missing elements, with perhaps the strongest submit being in the provision of capital as the principal factor of development.The view is still commodiousspread that if Asian countries can only obtain, through their own efforts or through foreign assistance, as sufficient meter of capital, they would be able to finish the job of development. The truth is that investment, whether public or toffee-nosed is keep down to the risks, uncertainties and eccentricities of the poor public disposition. Since development is a process, it is subject at every stage to how effectively the government can function its plans.Moreover, it is now clear that traditional marginal analysis, however useful it may be as a basis for the understanding of advanced economics, can be very misleading for underdeveloped ones. When such factors as confederation growth and technological progress are made an integral part of analysis, instead of being left out altogether as in traditional equilibrium theory, out analysis can lead to policy conclusions exactly the reverse of what orthodox equilibrium theory might suggest.Even with the emergence in the West of development economics as a juvenile field for the study of developing countries, certain biases continue to show. An example is the fact that in the West, economic development as a goal has been reckoned almost exclusively in terms of increases in annual national in jazz. The corollary problem of in go down distribution has been merely glossed over. This is a serious omission because of the existing wide disparities in incomes among the peoples of the developing nations. Thi s is illustrated in Philippine society.For this society may be likened to a brotherly pyramid with an acute apex and a very broad base. At the apex is a very small particle of society, the rich and the very rich at the base are the broad masses of those who are poor and very poor. The constellation of power in our society has traditionally consisted of the hacendero-politico tell at the apex of the kindly pyramid, which held escape from over the lives of human beings. More late(a)ly, a new industrial class has appeared to increase their numerically few but historically powerful ranks.The elite convention class enjoys the benefits of modern technology and the affluence that it makes possible term the broad mass of the population lives close to the subsistence level. There is this a distressing and ever-widening happy chance in the process to goods and services. It is clear, therefore, that to be relevant to the realities of the Asian situation, economic development should n ot be reckoned only in terms of annual order of economic growth, or of doubling national incomes in a decade.It should be vitally concerned with promoting economic justice, in spreading more wide the benefits of economic progress, and in continuously opening up new opportunities to an ever-widening carrousel of entrepreneurs and investors in the developing countries. In short, the achievement of economic democracy has to be a primordial goal, alongside the acceleration of the growth process. SOCIOLOGY In the realm of rural sociology, many practical limits to Western social research concepts and methods have been rattling discovered in the Philippines. Methods and TechniquesTo begin with, planning a research project on the Western pattern is often not warranted by the amount and quality of available resources. There is, for instance, the problem of shortage of local professional social researchers compounded by the attitude which rural phratry have for those social researchers. In the West, its rural folks are used to extension workers, welfare-agency volunteers, missionaries and the like. On the other hand, Philippine researchers and interviewers have been looked upon as philanthropists, as some sort of Rockefeller of Ford Foundation representatives ready to give out material aid (Feliciano 1965).The establishment of concepts and definitions has not been easy. Social research is create around a framework which requires certain concepts such as household, family, literacy, religion, cooperation, and the like. But a research group, led by Professor Gloria D. Feliciano of the University of the Philippines, has recently reason out that in diagnostic studies wherein these concepts need to be stated in more refined or precise terms, an adaptation is necessary to avoid acquiring inaccurate info (Feliciano 1965).The term sacred affiliation. For instance, has a connotation in the Philippines different from that in the West, where individualism and not familis m prevails. In the West, it implies not only membership of an individual in a religious group. But usually religious preferences as well. In the Philippines, where close family and community ties are predominant, religious affiliation becomes a family or community matter. Hence, the term does not needs imply the religious preference of the individual.Another example mention by a Philippine research group has to do with family types In this country (Philippines), one may not find a aboveboard or thermonuclear family defined and interpreted according to Western standards. For, although it may appear simple nuclear structurally, functionally it usually partakes of the character of the increase type. Studies in recent years have exploded the myth that structurally the Filipino family is of the extended type. Rather, they showed that although the majority of the nuclear families live apart from one other, this did not warn them from helping one another in times of need or crisis.(C astillo 1963 and Feliciano 1964, cited in Feliciano 1965).In reporting one of his studies, a Filipino researcher expounded on the problem he encountered in regard to the concept of cooperation In the West, where this term gave rise to cooperatives, one usually thinks of it in terms of a disciplined, highly ordered code of behavior, de-emphasized family loyalties, rigid business principles, and a high degree of rationalized behavior. In short, the term has come to be associated with individual independence.In the Philippines, however, where the practice is deep rooted in familiar or family ties, it is a matter of interdependence among indivuals. (Provinse 1960, cited in Feliciano 1965). Finally, insofar as the concept of literacy is concerned, a further politeness of sub-types is needed in the Philippines. It has been discovered that very often one encounters people who could literally read and write but who do not full understand what they read or write.Role of Women, Role of Edu cation In another report, Professor Gelia T.Castillo, a pioneer rural research scholar in the Philippines, has found it necessary to reexamine the fiber of women in the development object (Castillo 1964). Her findings showed such strong female influence in family and farm decision-making that for purposes of development work, it would be more fruitful to classify the Filipino woman in the rural scene as an active initiator, legitimizer, and decision-maker in her own right, instead than just a person who plays a mere alivenessive procedure to her husband, her father, or her barrio.A enveloping(prenominal) examination of the role of education has likewise been suggested because, while it is a potent instrument for effecting change in outlandish production, education acquires a different dimension when it rules out mud on educated hands. This view has been corroborated by another rural researcher, Professor Juan F. Jamias (1967). Who has an interest explanation for the effectiv eness of the verbal culture (education, research and extension) in increasing agricultural productivity in the Philippines.He states that the agricultural college degree in the Philippines has been white-collarized. He cites data on the employment distribution of graduates of the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, which show that except for 8 pct engaged in farming, all the rest may be categorize as white-collar workers. A later and more comprehensive opinion revealed that only 1. 3 percent were actually engaged in private farming or business. Most of the graduates were actively involved in teach and extension work. There are other examples of generalization that need closer scrutiny.In community leadership, does youth versus age necessarily mean change versus circumstance quo? Is the mutual self-help circle, often regarded as an existing resource for cohesive community action, coterminous with the village unit of operations? The problem of concepts and defi nitions aside, the Feliciano research group has found out, too, that Western scientific sampling techniques are quite laborious to apply because, oftentimes, sampling universes such as geographic, or political component lines are not definitely established.Furthermore, in many places, the basic socio-economic structure of the occupational groups, ethnic and religious groups, and types of land-use and land ownership have not been objectively defined. Raw Materials from Research in Action Programs The traditional social research method, which has come down to us from the West, calls for empirical evidence to support existing ideas. Our experience shows that rural research theory in the Philippines, in fact, being enriched by various experiences in research in action programs.The findings of Professor Gelia Castillo show that the researcher in action setting has a unique advantage in obtaining substantive and methodological insights while actually participating in real life events wh ich are part of the process of bringing about change. At times, she says the problem which defies any design except the kind which involves a faithful description of down-to-earth happenings, is the most fat source of insights. Examples to support this view have been cited.In the Philippines, many extension workers have claimed that most of the researches done are not practical and economically executable under village conditions (From The Innovator, 1965). In the Philippines, experience, new theories in rural sociology are arising from empirical evidence. And the existing facts and data gathered are quite interesting because they are the results of pioneer efforts, empirically identified with their meanings laid bare rather than assumed by the conceptualizer. Truly, the agents of change in rural Philippines are good luck virgin ground. Knowing Ones AudienceAs we have said, in effecting directed social change, Western social scientists have focused their attention on knowing one s sense of hearing. Even in the voluminous belles-lettres on diffusion studies in the United States, rarely have investigators communicate themselves to the nature of the innovation and the character of the carriers of change. Among the advocates of change, there is an unchallenged assumption that the change being introduced is good, that the change agent is effective and that, therefore, the farmer who refuses to accept the innovation is irrational (Castillo). To be sure, the audience should be known.Who is the Asian farmer, for instance, whose ways are sought to be changed? This is an extremely important question. Again, one should know his audience in order to evaluate his data. It has been found that the reliability of farmers responses depends upon the respondents image of the researcher or interviewer and their expectations from the project. The Role of the Change Agent Be that as it may, to understand the subsistence farmers response or leave out of response to the innova tions sought to be introduced, the innovation itself must be proved, and the role of the change agent fully studied.On the latter point, one of the findings is that oftentimes a change agency is as rigid as the farmers it seeks to change. A creator consultant has been quoted as saying that the problems of development exist just as much in the organization charged with instituting change schemes as they do in the populace they are trying to change. (Kumata 1960) To other findings have come out of the Philippine experiments. One is that a change agent can hardly expect to be effective unless his roles is accepted by his clientele.Rapport with the villagers, therefore, becomes a key factor. The other is that the agent of change in the Philippines should have a versatility unmatched by his counterpart in the West. The enormity and diversity of problem situations he comes to grips with require an interdisciplinary thinking, especially when he is the only social scientist within a radiu s of many kilometers. He should not be just a rural sociologist or an agricultural economist but a social scientist with expert preparation in his own discipline.He needs sophistication in social theory, mastery of research methodology, adequate science of bureaucracy and political behavior, and intensive exposure to the world of village action, administration and policy. Towards a Theory for Developing Asian Nations It is of the highest priority that the teachers and practitioners in the social sciences in Asia emancipate themselves from the value-bias of Western concepts and postulates of reasoning. There is need for escaping the universalizing that characterizes much of the social sciences as they have developed in Western academic circles.Asian social scientists should undergo a truly creative engagement with their own culture and society, making use, in the process, of frameworks that provide standards of relevance to the experiences and aspirations of their own people. It sho uld be forever borne in the mind that there are limits to the applicability of Western concepts, values and method to Asian realities. It is important therefore, that organized efforts be undertaken to compile and systematize the vast amount of scattered data on particular subjects of social research in the different countries which are to be found in research offices and libraries of universities.With a commitment to intellectual efforts with a decidedly Asian value base, more genuine works of scholarships in the social sciences should come out of the academic world. With the growing data from field works and social sciences which enable d us to verify the referents of concepts in our respective countries, we may usefully embark on the ambitious project of setting up a theory for the developing Asian nations, and in the process, hopefully, understand ourselves.