Convergence and Divergence

Abstract

Chapter 1 has laid the groundwork and begun to map out a theoretical approach to the main processes of social change in the modern period. One question that has implicitly or explicitly been raised again and again here is: are advanced societies converging or diverging? Different answers could have important implications. If they are converging, taken to its logical extreme this might imply that there are no (or only restricted) options for social development. If they are diverging, this might entail that different paths of social development are not really comparable, and so they do not hold any lessons for each other. Put in terms of social theory, convergence often goes hand in hand with ‘one best way’ functionalism or ‘survival of the fittest’ evolutionism, whereas divergence supports (among others) the postmodern and social constructivist notions that there are irreducible differences between societies, and that generalizations across them are futile.