This chapter (chapter 6) brought some interesting ideas to the table as far as showing that poor developing countries do not necessarily need to, nor do they require the economic trappings of developed countries to reach a stable a population and increase the standard of living (example:Kerala)
What do you believe are they key aspects that must be emphasized in order for a poor country to undergo safe sustainable social modernization without becoming industrialized? Why is it difficult for many countries to acheive this?
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Social Modernization is one of those things that you can look at and think that it will be easy to accomplish. However, despite its good intentions, it will be difficult to achieve for developing countries that need any number of the goals themselves to become more "modernized" and shed the tag of "underdeveloped". Is it possible to have a country undergo social modernization without becoming industrialized? I believe that it is possible, but that the likelihood of it occuring is small.
The first modernization goal, improving education, has been a hot topic over the years. Through modernization, literacy rates and the number of women/girls educated will hopefully increase due to increased efforts. However, there are two problems that have to be cleared out of the way before this education can be provided; religion and culture. In certin cultures, women/girls are seen as inferior to men, and thus are always reminded of roles based around taking care of the household while the men go off to work to keep the family afloat. To allow these "domestic houseworkers" to go get an education is like an outsider trying to change hundreds or even thousands of years of culture just because they see it as being wrong. The believers in these cultures and religions will not give in to the influences of developed countries to allow women to have the opprotunity to reach higher goals in life, and some will resort to violence in an attempt to stop the invasive ideas from changing their culture.
Improving health is the second goal of social modernization. Unlike some of the other goals, this one is more recognized as being a good thing, as it is intended to lower child mortality rates, allowing more children to grow up into adults. However, the problem for this goal is a lack of proven vaccines for major killers, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, two major diseases that run rampant through huge swaths of Africa. Only when a good vaccine for these can be found or when it can be distributed to outlying areas can this goal be met. Until medidicne can be given to those who cannot afford it (and thus are more likely to be victims of the disease), thousands of people will die because they didn't have enough money/access to health care or are children, who are more susceptible to disease.
The third goal is to make family planning available and accessable. It is a good plan to try and lower the overall global population, and seems like a surefire way to decrease family sizes across the world. However, culture and the lack of decent employment counter this goal. As with the first goal, people who have believed in a culture their entire life do not take too kindly to an outsider telling them that they have to change their ways for the "greater good". Secondly, a lack of employment for many families forces them to have many children in order to be able to survive. Without family planning, experts fear that a huge population boom will result in over 10 billion people in total population on Earth in as early as 2050, something that they are trying to avoid through this goal. However, until employment opportunities can be found that can support a small family, high birthrates will continue.
This is coupled in with the fourth goal, to improve income through employment opportunities. Poor families in rural areas of poor countries need many children to have an "insurance" policy; by removing the need to have many children to be able to survive, the family and the total population will both benefit. However, with the high population already here on Earth, and the widespread communities in countries, it would be very difficult to provide enough employment for those who desperately need it.
The fifth and last goal of social modernization is to improve resource management. As of now, poorer countries rely on stripping natural resources in unsafe ways just to make quick cash. By improving resource management, these methods can be removed/reduced, and the environment will benefit. However, it will prove to be a struggle to promote this without industrialization accompanying it, as boosting the economy to improve the lives and incomes of workers will be based on industrial methods, which is something that requires more things than a poor, underdeveloped country cannot afford. At the same time, despite its industrial position, it would reduce the amount of resources exploited for quick cash payments, helping the environment.
Although there is no concrete method of bringing social modernization to underdeveloped countries, but the building blocks are there. If it weren't for tradition, then this plan would be easy to pull off. However, with a difference in human attitudes and beliefs, it will take some time and much effort to convince people that if they change their ways, then the planet itself can benefit. Until that day comes, social modernization is a theory at best, hindered only by ignorance from developed countries and the unwillingness to help those in need.
I believe that the key aspects that must be emphasized in order for a developing country to undergo safe sustainable social modernization without becoming industrialized is to help the people of that particular country to understand the importance of equality. This is because if there is complete equality between all of the people in that developing country, then the women will have the opportunity to go to school to get an education and therefore will be able to have jobs. This will allow them to make money that they can save so that their children will not have to support them as much when they become old.
This will then help the population because people won't have to have as many children. The problem with this is that you cannot make people change their own beliefs let alone an entire culture. If people tried to go into a developing country and try to educate them about the importance of equality, many of the people (especially the men) will not want to hear anything that they are saying because in many developing countries, men are the more powerful beings and therefore are the ones that are going to have the most say in what goes on in their country.
Two key points of view were presented in Chapter 6 concerning population control. The first school of thought centered on the idea that "development is the best contraceptive." The second school advocated for strong family planning programs. I agree equally with both sides. Poverty, population growth, and development are closely linked and need to be dealt with simultaneously. Reducing poverty and promoting economic development will greatly affect population growth.
The five components of social modernization-education, improving healthcare, family planning, employment and income, and resource management-both depend on and support the other components. As we begin to realize how to promote one aspect to improve another, we will begin to make progress toward a sustainable popultation size.
I believe that the key aspects that must be emphasized in order for a poor country to undergo safe and sustainable social modernization without becoming industrealized are equlity and education.
I think that if people are treated equally, in otherwords getting rid of sexism and racism in developing countries will open more opportunities for more people in the country. With more people being treated fairly and given opportunities, such as an education, more people will be able to get a job that pays well so they can support themselves when they are too old to work and will not need to have more children for a retierment plan.
Also, education is important. Education will help there be openings in higher paying jobs for more people,and also with people getting a higher education they will begin to see other ideas as plausible instead of just looking at their own beliefs.
I think that the key aspects needed to undergo safe sustainable social modernization are well taught teachings and thorough education. A country cannot have any safe modernization by just throwing themselves towards the goal. They must first research the best ways they can modernize and brainstorm with others on what would be the best way. Of course education is going to be a huge helping hand in this decision. When they have already learned what the best way to modernize safely is then they will just have to follow simple plans.
It is much easier for a country to skip industrialization and jump straight to modernization if all developing countries have sufficient education. This is why all countries should have equal education. It is difficult to achieve these key aspects because of how many people live in these developing countries and how in some developing countries there is almost no governmental power. It is also hard for the same reason that convincing families to have less kids is. The families are accustomed to it and that has been happening for many years. Education would be hard to institute because many women and young women are not used to and thus not going to participate in mandatory education.
The key to social modernism for poor countries without becoming industrialized is, most importantly, education. If both men and women have better educations there is a higher possibility that they will wait to get married and more importantly wait to have kids. Reasons for waiting would most likely be because they want to obtain a steady job before supporting another life. Also, an education means that they will have fewer children as well.
With education comes the need for employment so an increase in imployment oppertunities for those with a higher education will inspire more people to obtain an education. Therefore imployment oppertunities catalizes education.
Last I belive good health care is also an issue in developing countries that comes with higher education and imployment oppertunities as well. Health care would also lower infant mortality and persuade people to have less chilren because there is more faith that the ones had will survive.
Unfortunately it is difficult for countries to acheive this because to have schools, job oppertunities, and healthcare they need money and people who already have that education to teach future generations. On top of needing funding just to create these oppertunities families also need money to afford to send there child to college or pay for health care. It sounds like a great idea, but when you get down to it it's more complicated than that.
Though our culture equates money with success, all too often, people forget the importance of the value of a healthy environment, access to education and vitality.
After all, it’s difficult to put a price on a “high standard of living.” Kerala is a great example of a culture that, despite a lack of an abundance of financial wealth, its standard of living was high. This was due to a combination of factors, particularly its emphasis on education and healthcare. The importance of education and healthcare can’t be stressed enough – providing people with an education allows people to develop ways to help better their own communities and in turn further-improve living conditions for successive generations. Healthcare is also obviously linked to an increased standard of living. The quality of life can’t be expected to increase unless people are actually living! Because these two components are so important in a society’s modernization – and so difficult to attain– achieving this sort of level of stability is rare. However, when these elements are addressed, modernization results.
Before I list what should be emphasized in order to become socially sustainable, I have to suggest a reason why so many countries are mired in such a vicious cycle: it is the corruption and cruelty of the governments that control these impoverished countries.
One reason that Kerala was successful was merely that they aren't afraid that every other thing that comes their way will kill them. In countries such as Zimbabwe or Sudan, where Mugabe, an evil dictator, and Sudan's violent Northern government control everyone, intercepting humanitarian aid and leading rebels to massacre entire villages, socialization is no longer a primary concern. We talked about how populations reproduce as a means of protection and "insurance," and they only do this if they believe their lives are at stake.
It didn't take industrialization to make most countries focus on education, which I believe should be the primary goal of a country trying to undergo social modernization. Education does not have to serve to create workers for an industrialized nation; rather, it provides the foundation upon which all other goals of social modernization can rest. Once you've given a child an education, you've given them not only knowledge but the awareness of their community, a role as a responsible citizen of a society, and most of all a reason to try to survive rather than producing children as insurance policies.
I believe that the major part of social modernization
for developing countries is providing people with
resources to create their own businesses and begin to
sustain themselves. If people can't provide for
themselves then how can the country as a whole
survive? Also, while providing these developing
countries with just money can help them, sometimes it
does not go to the greatest causes. Instead, if
resources are provided for people to build a business
or purchase seeds for crops then a more sustainable
civilization can be created.
Other important elements of bringing a developing
country into social modernization include education,
equality, and improved health. If the people in these
developing countries are provided adequate education
they can then use that knowledge to begin providing
for themselves and reaching for a sustainable lifestyle. Equality is important in that everyone must be provided the same opportunities to achieve this greater life. Finally improved health is vital to social modernization. If, say, no one is receiving clean water or if the infant mortanlity rate is very high, then we are far from social modernization in that country. For a developing country to become clean, safe, and sustainable it's very important to make sure the people of the country are in good health.
I think the biggest factor in a country's development is its government. The other big one would be the people's opinion of the government they have. If they like their government, than they will follow them and be proud to live there. As the government becomes more modernized than the decisions start becoming more than just right/wrong, they choose the path for their nation. Safe sustainability will only come about if the government is willing to do so (doesn't mean the people can't change the government). If it does come about, than the other factors come into play, simply the desire of humans or the culture of the country or a big one; the amount of resources. However all of these factors can become null if a different nation is influencing. This too is an important aspect, depending on the nation it can turn out completely different. There are so many factors, and for them all to line up is a very small chance and is a very hard accomplishment to meet, that is why it's so difficult.
The poor countries need to realize their problem and make that their top priority to deal with. If we take Kerala as our example, the people of their area realized that education and improving health care was an important objective to achieve. It seems like their government realized this problem as well, and created public policies that actually were affective. Government really plays a large part in achieving a sustainable social modernization because the government is the one that leads the people. If the government doesn't think that an issue is a problem, then the people won't think it's a problem as well, no matter how obvious it may seem. Kerala was able to see the problem in their education system, gender discrimination, and health problems. With that in mind they were able to work out a system that has helped them to raise their standard lifestyle. Once a country realizes, admits, and addresses their issues and challenges, then the country will be able to take a step forward into social modernization, be it dealing with education, improving health, accesible family planning, improving employment and income, and resource management.
I think one major effect would be to find a way, through infrastructure education etc., to lower the need for men and women of these countries to having children for elderly support.
It's difficult to achieve this goal because in order to provide education and infrastructure, the countries need money and ways to teach or create these. So, unless there is help from foreign countries, the country will still struggle for a while.
I think the key aspects that a poor country needs to become socially modern are education, equality, good health care and a safe and sincere government. Of course none of these things are easy to create or maintain; even many developed and modern countries deal with issues surrounding those four things. I think it's extremely difficult for countries to do this partly because of lack of resources. If a country has no money, and a a poor infrastructure then by no means are people or a government going to be focusing on, say, education. Equality is hard because in many countries women and men have specific roles in society and have had these roles for years, and it can be difficult to change a society's ideals. A huge, huge part of the issue of poor countries becoming socially modern are corrupt governments. Governments "pave the way" for a country, and often that way is a shady one.
I think that the key aspects that must be emphasized for a country to undergo social modernization are the five ideas that relate to demographic transition. Education, Improving Health, Employment, Income, and Family Planning. Each of these five key factors help a country undergo sustainable social modernization without necessarily becoming industrialized.
Secondly, it is hard for a country to go through demographic transition or social modernization without become industrialized for one main reason. When a country becomes modernized, it naturally has more money that can then fuel its respective economy. When this money is available government spending is raised for the reason of becoming industrialized. Basically, it is the choice of the government, or the people of a country to decide weather or not it will become industrialized.
Key aspects that must be emphasized in order for a poor country to undergo safe sustainable social modernization without becoming industrialized would mainly pertain to the attitudes of the people. If developing countries are to undergo such a change without effecting whether they are industrialized or not, the only way is to deal with people.
A way in which a country can become socially modernized is through education. By displaying the possibilities of equality for all races and genders (especially gender for developing countries), people would be able to learn the ways in which a woman could contribute to a family. In many countries, men don't look at women and see people that could go out and make money for the family. However, this could be changed through proper emphasis in education--although it would be difficult.
This is difficult because of the nations that suffer the problems of gender discrimination. These nations have always viewed women below men, and have little access to proper education. Although, even if the people in small villages get education, they're remote and hard to reach; this would make it hard to feed them the modern information about gender-related issues, disabling them from being able to teach it.
It's necessary to note that not all countries and regions have the potential to do what Kerala has done; Kerala is a sort of ideal to model other regions by, but we must also be aware that in some places, economic development MAY need to come first.
There are a few notable unique features of Kerala, the most crucial, I think, being education. Kerala actually has a 96% literacy rate (amazing under the circumstances: not very high per capita income, for example). Health care in Kerala is also impressive: the government provides plentiful medical institutions, including a state-supported program for new mothers and pregnant women. Infant mortality is relatively low there (as is, of coure, the birth rate).
So these things are the key aspects: education and solid health care, which is based off of a government sans corruption that is based off of democratic principles and some ideas that could potentially be described as communist.
This is a struggle for most regions for two primary reasons. The first is the one that really needs to be tackled head-on, in my opinion, because it's just unacceptable and not quite as multi-faceted. The first problem is corrupt governments. Political leaders in these countries don't provide for their nations in the way that Kerala does. The second problem is money. It would be very difficult for a developing nation to afford all these government programs, because by being referred to as 'developing' it is implied that they don't have very high GDPs. I'm not even sure how Kerala is able to afford these programs; that's very impressive to me. It's a many-headed issue: the cycle of debt that comes with borrowing from the World Bank is not ideal, but loans are probably necessary to get these kinds of programs started.
I agree with many of the posts when they say that Social Modernization is an idea that would like to be achieved, but bot a very likely reality. However, I think some of the first steps should reforming education programs. I think with education, developing countries could achieve much more than what they could when we just lend their their governments money. With an educated population, developing countries aren't as at much of a disadvantage as they once were. With education, countries could realize themselves what aspects of their country needs improvement, and then only prosper from there.
I think that the key factors for a poor country to successfully undergo social modernization are the improvement of education and making more employment options available. With better educations, citizens of the given country would be better able to make more knowledgeable decisions in their lives. Having more employment options, that country's economy would go up, as would the incomes of that countries citizens.
The last key factor for modernization that must be taken into consideration is lowering fertility rates. Eventually this the overall population the given country's would eventually be reduced. The improvement of education can also help with this (hopefully), and employment maybe to a slight degree.
The key factors for a poor country to successfully go through and complete social modernization are education, a stable government, gender equality, family planning, and health care. These are the factors that when put together, lead to a balanced and strong nation.
Education provides the people with knowledge to advance their country. This doesn't mean industrialization, but means literacy, math, science and more. Knowledge in these areas can lead to a smarter population, which will realize things like the need for sustainability, how to provide for themselves effectively, ways to improve the economy, and more. People will understand enough to build sanitary, water, and sewage systems to clean up their country and keep it healthy. A smarter people means a more efficient people (usually).
The government must also be stable and functional for a country to undergo safe social modernization. There are many corrupt governments who nullify all efforts the people make to get ahead by draining all money, power, and resources. When the government is stable, honest(most of the time), and working for the good of the people, then so much can be done so much faster.
Gender equality is very important because if you have both men and women working to improve the country along side each other, things get done twice as fast (and most of the time faster, because women are smarter than men). Women then are not stuck in the home cleaning, cooking, and bearing children (part of family planning here). Gender equality also lessons wife abuse, and also leads to a more productive country.
Family planning, i.e. birth control and choice, allow for a nation to keep its population under control. If women can choose when to have children, they are usually more prepared because most opt to wait. The ones that don't go out usually and get educations, raising the intelligence level of the country. Less children and people means that money can be spent in moving the country forward instead of constantly trying to build more schools. Now sanitation systems can be built (also thanks to the education) and more to improve the nation.
Last but not least, good health care is vital to the people. Nutrition, medical care, disease prevention, sanitation, and more are essential for keeping the population healthy and happy. Healthier people function better and are able to get more things done. It also lowers the death rate, and the people do not need to offset that with a high birthrate.
Despite these things being the best way for a nation to safely undergo a social modernization, most nations cannot undergo them due to a lack of resources, money, and more. The stable government I discussed may be so corrupt that attempts to change it are stamped out. The people may look into the short term by forgoing education to use children as an additional labor source for collecting food. Tradition, culture, or religion may interfere with family planning aka birth control. Gender equality may take decades to reverse oppression of women. Health care may not be available because of lack of money, resources, and education (to education people how to practice medicine, science for nutrition/sanitation, etc). The people of these nations may be so busy just trying to survive each day that they don't have the available time, effort and resources to pull their country out of the rut it is in. That is where the developed countries need to step in: to help provide the resources and education for the people so they can achieve these things. All these goals need to be mostly done by the people of the country so they appreciate their hard work and try to protect it. Things aren't always as important when someone does it for you.
The most important aspect of social modernization is education. To an extent, this means education the way American high school students think of it - reading, writing, math, etc. But to begin with it is more important to educate people in subjects that affect their daily lives. Twelve years of book bound school isn't going to do much good for a heavily impoverished country. The first step would be to educate people in farming techniques, family planning methods, and basic businesses they can start to support themselves. All the while, the resources to implement learning must also be provided. Teach a farmer to use a drip irrigation system, and then help them put it in. Explain the dangers of hasty abortions done by non-professionals, and then provide the woman with contraceptives. If a foundation of skill based learning can be created, then the community or region or country will be able to move on to more traditional higher learning and further development.
Social modernization - the current buzzword among demographers. It is widely hailed as a way to reduce population growth, without needing to engage in industrialization, which not only has many costs, but hasn't exactly been seen to work thus far. Therefore, many are placing their hopes on social modernization. We will examine the key tenets of social modernization, discuss whether they should be amended, and if so how, and consider difficulties countries may face in achieving them. Before we can begin our journey, we must examine them in context, and see why they were chosen.
These five tenets were not chosen at random, but rather they were methods that have been proven to work. There are many examples of how many examples of how improving literacy has helped to lower the CBR, not least the example of the Kerala province in India. It also stands to reason that an educated woman is more likely to stand up for herself, and use contraceptives. The key to empowering women lies in education. Likewise, improving maternal health and reducing infant mortality can help to reduce the CBR, since if people know that their children will not die in childhood, they will not have as many children, and focus more on ensuring those children receive the best possible lot in life. Thus, they transition from being r-strategists to being k-strategists. Yet, it is also important to make it possible for the people to make such choices. To this end, we need to ensure that family planning is both accessible and affordable. Thus, we can fulfill the unmet need that exists among women in developing countries. However, there is another reason that women have many children - the need for children as a retirement fund. In many of these countries, there is no such thing as Social Security. If once you are old, you have no children, then you are on your own. If these women had the ability to earn money, then they would not need have as many kids. Finally, as more kids are born, a greater strain is placed upon the land. This means that the environment is further degraded, and more children are needed to extract the ever-diminishing amount of resources. If these resources are protected and preserved, then people wouldn't need as many children. In addition, if these people can support themselves, then they can better their lot. This is the key essence of social modernization. Now, that we understand what social modernization entails, let us discuss whether it should be amended.
Looking objectively, social modernization doesn't appear to need an amending. It is one of the most compact, and concrete ideas that the world has seen in a long time. It is also largely built around helping individuals build themselves up. Some would argue that debt relief and equitable distribution of food stuffs should also be included. While this is technically true, both of these are issues that very complex in their own right. To include them in social modernization, would be to take an idea that is relatively simple, and turn it into a topic akin to string theory. Therefore, including these two ideas, will merely serve to dilute social modernization. In summation, while it would technically be possible to amend social modernization, there is nothing to gain, and everything to lose by doing so.
Unfortunately, social modernization can easily arouse controversy, if it is poorly handled. There are two potential minefields – providing employment and ensuring access to family planning. The first one can arouse controversy, because the main method that has any hope of succeeding is microlending, has many criticisms. With a properly structured microfinance program – low interest, small loans, credit associations, a solid business plan, and a bank that is willing to cooperate with the creditor. The other one can be far more dangerous. If the approach to family planning is poorly handled, nobody ends up happy. Many religious institutions oppose the use of contraceptives. Initially, if it is at all possible, one should have open dialog with these institutions, along the lines that we want their help, but they may have to make some concessions. However, in exchange, we must grant them a compromise. As many family planning agencies already agree, abortion has no part in proper family-planning, and proper family-planning programs actually help to reduce this rate. Thus, while controversy can arise, we can handle it.
Thus, we have a grand vision that can lead us forward. Yet, this idea is not just a vision or an abstract ideal that we should strive for, but rather a concrete reality. It is something that we can achieve within this world, and within our lifetimes. We have the power to effect change, but we are obliged to realize the fact that we must merely make use of this power, and use it to make a better world. Therefore, let us go forth, and make this reality manifest, in our actions and in our words, in spirit and in truth.
I believe that the important components of a developing nation undergoing this transition is family planning aid from developed countries because the reason that they have huge families is because of the high mortality rate and the lack of proper health care, or any at all. With that thought also comes abortion which can be very controversial and dangerous when not provided with the correct technology.
I believe that the lack of technology plays somewhat of a part in developing countries having a hard time to make this transition, such in the case of medical care, including abortions.
I think that a developing nation can undergo this transition without becoming as industrialized through education because the first step is learning the basics. Education is an important step. It's about educating a population not only about the basics but also about things that they can do to better their situations that maybe they didn't know about, like learning more on contraceptives or learning about drip irrigation to better their crop production and lessen soil erosion.
I think the most important thing developing countries can do to modernize is educate; though, ultimately, I think it's unavoidable that some degree of industrialization will come about. Education leads to higher literacy rates, and this leads to more job opportunities, as the people of the countries don't only have to rely on labor. In the case of Kerala, industrialization did not occur because it was not a widespread effort; if it were though, the country could begin to industrialize through the new job opportunities and education of modernization. An outcome of modernization is a decreased fertility rate, because people become educated about family planning. Smaller families would mean a more sustainable environment, but, on the other hand, since a reduced fertility rate is an indicator of modernization, it could also lead to development.
Developing countries in our world face a wall that is slowly moving towards them and is beginning to gain speed. This wall has giant letters on it that say "social modernization" to the right and "demographic transition" which is to the left. For the most part the majority of the developing countries have tried moving towards demographic transition in order to benefit the social structure on their peoples. Others, which have followed the other path have succeeded and failed. These failures were due to the lack of at least one of the five main aspects of social modernization. For a country to succeed all five are necessary that is what makes it such a daunting and formidable task. Improving education, improving healthcare, enhancing income and employment opportunities, improving the access to family-planning materials, and the improving of resource management are some very high goals and it will take lots of luck and a strong will in the country as a whole to attain even one of them. I could go further in depth as to why each of these is important but the ways they have been compared already by people's posts leave no better explanation.
I apologize for this comment if it is late, I understood it as you wanted it by midnight at 12:00 on Saturday evening, so once again, I apologize, as I was gone all of Friday. I hope you will still accept it, but if you don't I can certainly understand.
Social Modernization is a process which underdeveloped nations can improve living conditions through lowering their CBR without falling into the economic pit that the U.S., China, Russia have slipped into. In other words, countries with a low per capita income and a high fertility rate, can leave out the "economic trappings" such as reliance on oil, natural gas, industrial prosperity, etc in order to achieve a lower CBR . Thus, the main focus is reducing birth rates as means of security.
To do this, once again the answer is education but this time, a particular emphasis on women. Girls and women have got to know their impact on more than just themselves, because having children as a means of security, has got to stop right now. Fortunately, the education which this situation calls for, is not a college level, it is basic education such as literacy, writing, arithmetics, etc. Besides the obvious reason, a simple education will give women the power to make decisions and figure out what is best. With this in mind, they will be able to help with improving the health of their communities, another vital step in social modernization. By educating the local's in the community about basic health, they will be able to carry out the needs necessary for preventing diseases and infant mortality, which is why women end up having so many children in the first place. Providing mothers with pre and postnatal care, you are giving them a sense of security that would otherwise be nonexistent. But on a more broad level, teaching the communities about boiling water, oral hygiene, and giving safer abortions. This will ultimately turn women in developing nations from r to k strategists, where they do not feel the need to overproduce.
And lastly, there needs to be a far greater family-planning system. The quality of counseling given through these planning agencies needs to place more of an emphasis on limiting children, because simply trying to help them plan their family, will not help solve anything directly. Yes it might make women feel safer with their children, but that does not necessarily mean they are going to stop reproducing. And finally, the availability of contraceptives needs to be cheaper, and more abundant. Making contraceptives more available will lead to experimentation with them, and hopefully if a small group of people use them, they will alert others. But here is where the ethics and cultural sensitivity comes in. As seen in the Budapest conference in 2004, many developing countries see contraceptives and family planning as a human rights violation and economic imperialism. Volunteers in countries is one direction to go in. By sending volunteers rather than intimidating businessmen and large worldwide conferences, you level with the struggling class, rather than acting taller than them. Volunteers may also be seen as people with a "from the heart" incentive, rather than a wealthy citizen from a developed country, trying to spread beliefs.
From social modernization, we can conclude that there is a theory that is not only feasible, but has proven to work (i.e. Kerala) where the citizens are the change, not the government. However, this theory is not a sure-fire one, it is a people permitting theory that works only if a majority of the people can come to a consensus. Similarly, it is even more difficult to follow through on because many underdeveloped countries want their shot at prosperity and wealth, and seeing as this perpetration usually comes from developed countries, many communities are hesitant and skeptical of it's intentions. Until then, it is an idea at most, like most other proposals.
I believe a key aspect that must be emphasized in order to go down a path of safe sustainability is equality. Establishing equality in a country is a key step that can truly set the ball rolling on their way to social modernization. One effect equality gives is women and children (and all others deprived of decent education)a better education, thus building a solid foundation for which to grow from as a knowledgeable community. Education and equlaity also brings upon a sense of security, in that the people would have the ability to fully understand and comprehend their actions and reactions. A great example of this is the age old saying, give a man a fish, and he has food for a day, but teach a man to fish and he has food for life. This mindset alone could lead to a form of birth control and hence, population control. This could in turn, continue to raise the standards of living (lower population, education, resources, etc) without industrializing/"developing" the country. A country can be rich without having a lot money or trade. It is all in the standards of living. Having said this though, it is hard for many countries to achieve this because such facotrs are hard to overcome; gender equlaity, horribly corrupt governments, lack of money, lack of resources, poor education, etc., and yet ironically, these are all the aspects of the country that needs to be changed in order to improve.
p.s. I am super duper sorry this is late. I have no good excuse like I wasn't at school or my dog ate the internet cable (?), but I hope you still accept it. If not, I completely understand.
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