Transnational processes, development studies and changing social hierarchies in the world system: a Central American case study

Globalisation is bringing about changes in social hierarchies in the world capitalist system which traditional categories and frameworks in developmen t studies and macro-sociologies are unable to capture. Under globalisation processes of uneven accumulation are unfolding in accordance with a social and not a national logic. The increasing subordination of the logic of geog raphy to that of production and the rising disjuncture between the fortunes of social groups and of nation-states, among other processes, demand that we rethink development. The social configuration of space can no longer be conceived in the nation-state terms that development theories posit but rat her as processes of uneven development denoted primarily by social group ra ther than territorial differentiation. Social polarisation, the fragmentati on of national economies, and the select integration of social groups into transnational networks, suggest that development may be reconceived not as a national process, in which what 'develops' is a nation, but in terms of d eveloped, underdeveloped and intermediate population groups occupying contr adictory or unstable locations in a transnational environment. The shift to flexible accumulation worldwide and from an international to a global divi sion of labour result in an increasing heterogeneity of labour markets in e ach locale. Labour market participation becomes a key determinant of new so cial hierarchies and of development conceived in social groups terms. Local and national labour markets are themselves increasingly transnationalised, part of a global labour market, in which differentiated participation dete rmines social development. This article applies these propositions to a cas e study of Central America, examining the changing fortunes of one particul ar region under global capitalism and the lessons it offers for changing so cial hierarchies in the world capitalist system and for a renewal of the so ciology of development.