Accumulation, Socio-Economic Status, and Attitude Change in Tunisia: Implications for Modernisation Theory

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Periodical article

Title:	Accumulation, Socio-Economic Status, and Attitude Change in Tunisia: Implications for Modernisation Theory
Author:	Tessler, Mark A.
Year:	1979
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	17
Issue:	3
Period:	September
Pages:	473-495
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Tunisia
Subjects:	acculturation modernization Development and Technology Economics and Trade
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/160493
Abstract:	This article, surveying data from Tunisia to examine some of the ways that individual attitudes change in a developing society, at the same time is addressed to some inadequacies of modernization theory, attempting both to understand better the impact of social change on attitudes, and to delineate the nature and consequences of different kinds of modernization experiences. The study argues that lifestyles do not always change in an integrated fashion, and in particular that acculturation and socio-economic status often and increasingly vary independently of one another. It demonstrates with data from Tunisia that measures of acculturation and socio-economic status bear independent and dissimilar relationships to many attitudes known to be associated with social change and thereafter discusses the implications of these relationships for modernization and political development. The focus of the analysis is on general theoretical issues. Notes, tab., app.