The essays in this volume focus on the author's concern with the "sociology of development" within both individuals and cultures. He discusses the type of knowledge that is available about a world "which includes ourselves and other people in terms both material and spiritual." Essay topics include: the dangers of "scientism," or overemphasis on technological control; alternative modes of knowledge; the nature of traditional and colonialist societies; the development of underdeveloped areas of the world, particularly with respect to communications; and the theories and attitudes underlying the "Underground," or youth culture. His premise is that communications, as technically developed as they are, have still in one sense broken down; old social structures have disappeared in underdeveloped nations and have been replaced by "chaos," and those who write about these nations produce "fantasies which do not relate to what is happening." Further, in affluent nations, communications breaks occur because of gaps between appearances and reality. (Author/RN)