Historical and Philosophical Development of Development Sociology

Growing number of scholars in sociology has come to terms that sociology, like everything else, is a product of particular historical conditions. As there is sociology of everything. You can turn on your sociological eye no matter where you are or what you are doing, taking for example, the latent reasoning usually adopted by sociologist in viewing issues as against some others who ignorantly engage in manifest deductions. Being a sociologist means never having to be bored, considering the whole gamut of issues it concerns itself with on daily basis. Sociologists engage extensively in questions linked to the causes and consequences of development, and their findings often entail surprising policy implications and mitigations. The consensus among leading development studies scholars accepts the era of modern development as commonly deemed to have commenced with the inauguration speech of Harry S. Truman in 1949. In Point Four of his speech, with reference to Latin America and other poor nations, he said that “for the first time in history, humanity possess (ed) the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people”(Rist). Development studies has since taken greater interest in lessons of past development experiences of Western nations, human security, people-oriented approach to understanding and addressing global security threat, implications of inequality to insecurity and effect of insecurity in one region on global security. This paper is of the view that the vision and mission of development sociology arising from the historical and philosophical standpoint is imminent for a proper grasp of the discipline’s orientations by legend and budding scholars in development studies.