Why were So Many Social Scientists Wrong about the Green Revolution? Learning from Bangladesh

Orr, A (2012) Why were So Many Social Scientists Wrong about the Green Revolution? Learning from Bangladesh. Journal of Development Studies, 48 (11). pp. 1565-1586. ISSN 1743-9140

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Abstract

Most social scientists once took a negative view of the socio-economic consequences of the Green Revolution. Events have since proved them wrong. Using Bangladesh as an example, we offer three reasons why social scientists were mistaken. One is the focus on village studies at the expense of nationally representative surveys. Another is insufficient appreciation of the technical limits of the new rice technology. The third is a misleading model of agrarian change. The inability of village studies to validate generalisations, the reluctance to abandon the historical model of de-peasantisation, and opposing beliefs about how to evaluate socio-economic consequences created a Rashomon Effect that made the controversy hard to resolve.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Others > Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
Depositing User:	Mr Sanat Kumar Behera
Date Deposited:	18 Feb 2013 04:50
Last Modified:	18 Feb 2013 04:50
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/6594
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2012.663905
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	The author wishes to thank seminar participants at the University of Wageningen and three reviewers for helpful comments. The author is responsible for remaining errors of fact and interpretation
Links:	Google Scholar

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