‘Provides excellent analytical material at the cutting edge, in language that is jargon-free and accessible to a wide audience.’
Shahra Razavi, Research Coordinator on Gender and Social Development, UNRISD, Geneva
This page offers brief details about a selection of books received each year. Titles are organised alphabetically by author, and by the year in which the book was received. The Book Buys page lists the websites of all the publishers whose titles are featured below, as well as many others. For full-length critical reviews of other recent publications, go to our Book Reviews page.
The listing was last updated on 2 February 2007.
BOOKS RECEIVED IN 2007
Assadourian, E.
Vital Signs 2006-2007: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future
New York and London: Worldwatch Institute, W.W. Norton and Company, 2006, ISBN: 0-393-32872-4, 160pp. (available at: www.worldwatch.org/vsonline)
This report claims that between 12 and 24 languages are lost each year as people’s survival and economic advancement depend on their adopting another language and eventually abandoning their mother tongue. Other global trends are: growing military and peacekeeping expenditure, and rising bicycle production and formal car-sharing adoption. Despite some impressive developments, positive change is too slow to bring about broader changes in the global economy that could stave off imminent ecological and economic crises.
Beder, Sharon
Suiting Themselves: How Corporations Drive the Global Agenda
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1-84407-331-9, 258pp.
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), argued that the ‘sovereign state has become obsolete’: large corporations want national governments that are subservient to corporate and financial interests. Individually, corporations have always had political and economic power, and now form coalitions to increase their power further. In turn, there is widespread public concern about the legitimacy of big business. But coalitions such as the WEF, the European Business Roundtable, and a range of US groups have ensured that through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), ‘the corporate goal of free trade will always have precedence over citizens’ goals such as environmental protection, improved working conditions and health and safety considerations.’ This book seeks to demonstrate how corporations have brought this about.
Beyond Darfur: War’s Impact on Sudanese Women and Their Hopes for a Peaceful Future
Washington DC: Women for Women International, 2006, 34pp. (available at: http://www.womenforwomen.org/documents/Sudanreport.FINAL_001.pdf)
Since independence in 1956, Sudan has suffered internal conflict that has destroyed its basic infrastructure. This book analyses the current state of the country, with particular focus on Sudanese women. A concerted effort has been made to impress gender consciousness into a peace agreement: women have their own concerns and suggestions for how improvement might be achieved. The importance for women’s perspectives and knowledge to be recognised emerges as critical for effecting lasting peace.
Bond, Patrick
Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation
London and New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN: 1-84277-811-0, 172pp.
The plunder of Africa is rooted in its history and remains a barrier to development. A recurring theme of this book is that Africa’s gains have been mainly limited to public relations, without tangible benefit from aid or reform policies. Bond blames Africa’s constant underdevelopment on phantom aid, exploitative debt, unfair trade, and distorted investment. He criticises top-down approaches, supporting instead social movements and grassroots activism.
Conflict and Security in the Developing World
Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, ISBN: 0-415-39893-2, 204pp.
This volume brings together Adelphi Papers numbers 166 and 167, originally presented at the annual conference of the International Institute for Strategic Studies at Stresa in 1980; and Adelphi Paper number 251, by Yezid Sayigh, first published in 1990. The first two include contributions on the international implications of Third World conflict and military requirements to protect oil supplies. Sayigh’s paper considers security in developing countries.
Diaz-Bonilla, E., S.E. Frandsen and S. Robinson (eds.)
WTO Negotiations and Agricultural Trade Liberalization: The Effect of Developed Countries’ Policies on Developing Countries
Wallingford: CABI International, 2006, ISBN: 1-84593-050-9, 341pp.
The editors analyse potential WTO negotiations and coalitions between countries in relation to agricultural policies; the non-trade concerns of developing countries; and the possible erosion of trade preferences under liberalised world agricultural markets. It is argued that decoupled domestic-support programmes are less important for developing countries than market access, and that all countries could gain from supporting a programme of global reform. The link between further liberalisation of world agriculture and food security is analysed, claiming that the negative outcomes are outweighed by the positive.
Dow, K. and T. Downing
The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1844073769, 112pp.
Heatwaves, droughts, and flooding are causing deaths among vulnerable populations, destroying livelihoods and driving people from their homes. This atlas examines the drivers of climate change and possible impacts on vulnerable livelihoods, water resources, ecosystems and biodiversity, health, coastal megacities, and cultural treasures. It reviews historical contributions to greenhouse-gas levels, progress in meeting international commitments, and local efforts to meet the challenge of climate change. It covers a range of topics including warning signs, future scenarios, vulnerable populations, health impacts, renewable energy, emissions reduction, and personal and public action.
Franks, Jason
Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN: 1-4039-8718-1, 248pp.
The author maintains that orthodox discourse on terrorism fails to address the roots of the problem. Using a multi-level and multi-dimensional framework, Franks offers a ‘broader, more comprehensive and holistic’ explanation of terrorism and its causes, using the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a case study.
Galbraith, James K.
Unbearable Cost: Bush, Greenspan and the Economics of Empire
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN: 0-230-01901-3, 227pp.
In this collection of columns from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, the son of the noted economist J.K. Galbraith examines the progress of George W. Bush’s presidency. He records the controversial 2000 presidential election, the rise of the ‘corporate republic’, the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the decline of internal democracy, and the strain imposed on the USA by the conflict in Iraq.
Hailey, John
NGO Leadership and Development: A Review of the Literature (Praxis Paper 10)
Oxford: INTRAC, 2006, ISBN: 1905240031, 39pp.
This paper examines the role of leaders and leadership in NGOs. It draws on the analysis of recent research into the characteristics of NGO leaders, and explores the challenges of designing leadership-development programmes appropriate to the needs of NGOs. The paper identifies the elements of successful leadership development, and assesses the skills or competencies required.
Islam, Rizwanul (ed.)
Fighting poverty: the development-employment link
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006, ISBN: 1588263967, 521pp.
Contributors argue that a high rate of economic growth is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for poverty reduction. Much development literature focuses on overall economic growth and targeted micro-level interventions to reduce poverty, but this book seeks to offer a systematic analysis of the link between employment and pro-poor economic growth, drawing on case studies from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Uganda, and Vietnam.
Jackson, Tim (ed.)
The Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1-84407-164-2, 402pp.
Northern consumption is unsustainable, depending on finite resources and damaging the environment. Poor people in the South suffer as a result. This heavily referenced and annotated book includes discussion on a shift from a ‘North first’ to an international agenda, and whether ‘simplicity’/de-modernisation and reduced consumption can actually improve the quality of life.
Jones, Andrew
Dictionary of Globalization
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006, ISBN: 0-7456-3441-9, 258pp.
Jones analyses globalisation and the vocabulary associated with it, situating concepts and processes, ‘thinkers’, and organisations and institutions in relation to the globalisation debate. The author considers the origins of and ways of understanding globalisation, and whether this holistic concept is more than theory or even viable.
Kettell, Steven
Dirty Politics? New Labour, British Democracy and the Invasion of Iraq
London and New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN: 1-84277-741-6, 213pp.
Kettel believes that Britain’s alliance with the USA over the Iraq war was rooted in a political decision to gain global influence as the two governments developed a policy of regime change in Iraq, then tried to build legal and political cover for this policy, including ways in which political discourse is being re-shaped. Kettell calls for more power to be invested in parliament and greater freedom of information.
Landon, Megan
Environment, Health and Sustainable Development
New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2006, ISBN: 0070636176, 221pp.
The environment is linked to health, which prompts the need for sustainable development. A challenge for public health practitioners is to adapt this environment–health relationship amidst bigger changes. Landon examines the underlying concepts, the history of environmental health, and key factors that affect public health.
Leach, Melissa and Ian Scoones
The Slow Race: Making technology work for the poor
London: Demos, 2006, ISBN: 1-84180-162-3, 81pp.
Science and technology are increasingly important factors in expanding economic prosperity and thus in international development. But the benefits of scientific and technological advancement tend not to reach poor people or rural communities. This is mainly due to private-sector ownership. The ‘slow race’ emphasises science and technology specific to local contexts, supported always by appropriate pro-poor governance.
Lister, Marjorie and Maurizio Carbone (eds.)
New Pathways in International Development: Gender and Civil Society in EU Policy
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, ISBN: 0-7546-4718-8, 215pp.
The EU’s pursuit of global trends such as neo-liberalism raises the danger that resources may decrease or become subordinated to foreign policy. The first half of this book analyses gender integration in EU development policy in the ACP countries, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. The second half takes a similar look at civil society, and shows that European NGOs are now less important to Southern civil society organisations.
McPeak, John G. and Peter. D. Little (eds.)
Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Eastern Africa: Research and Policy Changes
Rugby: IT Publications, 2006, ISBN: 1-95339-631-1, 288pp.
This book looks at livestock marketing in eastern Africa from perspectives including anthropology, geography, economics, and rangeland economy. It presents current findings on how livestock markets operate in this area; describes policy options that help markets to function more effectively; and identifies topics meriting further research. The issues are examined at household, market, national, and international levels, and many of the contributors also highlight the importance of cross-border trade.
Mkandawire, Thandika
Disempowering new democracies and the persistence of poverty: Democracy, governance and human rights (paper no. 21)
Geneva: UNRISD, 2006, ISSN: 1020-8186, 34pp.
This paper considers two current processes in developing countries: the adoption of orthodox economic policies; and democratisation leading to increased political empowerment. Democracies have emerged under diverse economic and social conditions (examples in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are studied), but democracies are sometimes consolidated in unfavourable structural contexts. Mkandawire argues that in such cases, economic policies often take precedence over attempts to tackle inequity and poverty.
Mohanty, Ranjita and Rajesh Tandon
Participatory Citizenship: Identity, Exclusion, Inclusion
New Delhi and London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN: 81-7829-618-7, 250pp. .
In a democratic system, the state grants its citizens rights and freedoms and provides a legal framework to protect these. In India, however, the lower castes, poor people, women, and tribal peoples lack these safeguards. The contributors to this volume investigate how these excluded groups can be brought ‘into the fold’.
Mulder, Karel (ed.)
Sustainable Development for Engineers: A Handbook and Resource Guide
Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd, 2006, ISBN: 1-874719-19-5, 288pp.
Technology is a political issue but the non-neutrality of technological decisions is often hidden from the public. Contributors ask whether technology the ‘culprit’ or the ‘saviour’ of sustainable development, highlighting the importance of addressing this issue at the design stage of new technologies. Among their conclusions is that advanced technology may run counter to sustainable technology.
Newell, Peter and Joanna Wheeler (eds.)
Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability
London and New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN: 1-84277-555-3, 270pp.
There is increasing onus on governing bodies and powerful corporations to be more accountable to those affected by their actions. Contributors examine various social actors and their strategies to gain increased rights and resources through accountability, which range from formal measures (court cases, legislation) to informal (public hearings, boycotts); from collaboration methods to confrontation. The context of each circumstance is essential for the formation of effective accountability strategies, especially the political ramifications of demands for rights and resources. A recurrent theme is that accountability is not an end in itself but also a means to provoke further social and political change.
Ouzgane, Lahoucine (ed.)
Islamic Masculinities (series: Global Masculinities)
London and New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN: 1-84277-275-9, 248pp.
The rise of Islamic feminist and Western masculinity literature has prompted further study of Islamic masculinity. This edited volume is divided into three sections. The first relates masculinity to religion, the second to the Palestine–Israeli conflict, and the third to social practice. Numerous aspects of Islamic masculinity are compared with Islamic femininity and Western thought; set within Islamic religious, social, and military contexts; and located within the discourse between the Islamic and non-Islamic world.
Payne, Geoff (ed.)
Social Divisions (2nd Edition)
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN: 1-4039-4439-3, 408pp.
This new edition includes updated statistics and entirely new chapters on religion, elites, and poverty. Many examples are taken from the UK, but much is relevant to other industrial societies. Within a global society ‘we like to believe that we have a new freedom, that we can be what we consume’, but in fact there has been increasing homogenisation of cultures and lifestyles. This text is written for a wide student readership in higher education and beyond.
Raby, Diana
Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today
London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2006, ISBN: 0-7453-2435-5, 304pp.
Shying away from dogmatism and the ‘Old Left’, epitomised by the Soviet system, Raby argues that Latin American revolutionary models, such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, can provide examples of feasible socialist democratic governments. Economic regulation and control are seen as political processes, not the ‘inevitable’ result of technical specialisation. Raby concludes by outlining some of the lessons to be learnt from revolutionary processes, maintaining that the incorporation of the qualities and values they embody could usher in a new anti-capitalist era.
The Reality of Aid 2006: Focus on Conflict, Security and Development Corporation
London and New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN: 9710325733, 386pp.
This year’s edition analyses the impact of international policies and actions, of aid donors in particular, on the rights, needs, and interests of populations affected by conflict. It explores strategic issues in the convergence of peace, security, and development agendas and asks questions about the relevance of a rights-based approach to the nexus between human development and security; whose security is being protected; and the extent to which aid is implemented as ‘risk management’ for national security.
Reed, David (ed.)
Escaping Poverty’s Grasp: The Environmental Foundations of Poverty Reduction
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1844073718, 206pp.
This book takes issue with the idea that poverty reduction and improved national resource management should originate with international organisations and in national capitals, arguing that change must begin at local level and push upwards to affect policies and institutions at higher levels. This would remove political, economic, and institutional impediments that stifle environmental management and opportunities for the rural poor. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has devised a ‘3xM Approach’, promoting policy and institutional changes necessary for improved local environment, better community livelihoods, and sustainable development. Tools and case studies show practitioners how to adopt the 3xM Approach in diverse settings.
Rees, Andy (ed.)
Genetically Modified Food: A Short Guide for the Confused
London and Ann Abor, MI: Pluto Press, 2006, ISBN: 0-7453-2439-8, 248pp.
Large biotech companies proffer GM food as a salvation for developing nations and a solution to world hunger. Much GM food is consumed without public knowledge, especially in the USA. Rees reveals evidence against the health claims of GM food, and illuminates its benefits to seed patenting and agribusiness. Rees expounds the risks and dangers to farmers and the environment, and the efforts of big business to conceal these hazards. The book documents successful campaigns against GM foods, calling for vigilant opposition to ‘Genetic Tinkering’.
Ruth, Matthias, Kieran Donaghy and Paul Kirshen (eds.)
Regional Climate Change and Variability: Impacts and Responses
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, ISBN: 1-84542-599-5, 260pp.
Public debates on climate change have focused upon the emission of greenhouse gasses by humans, and the implementation of mitigation strategies. Recent study has concentrated upon local strategies to improve economies, societies and ecosystems.
Scudder, Thayer
The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with Social, Environmental, Institutional and Political Costs
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1-84407-338-6, 389pp.
Scudder was a commissioner on the World Commission on Dams, which was wound down in 2000. The focus of this book is on large dams; theories of resettlement and river-basin communities; downstream and upper catchments; institutional arrangements; and environmental and social impacts. Large dams may be extolled by politicians and project authorities, and fought over by international contractors and consultants, but they have the worst effect on ecosystems and displace the largest number of people.
Smith, Dan
The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution
London: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN: 1-84407-377-7, 144pp.
Defining the Middle East as spanning from Iran to Yemen, and Morocco, Smith argues that statistics are no more than a way of ‘representing facts’, and that statistical comparison involves a large degree of estimation. Data about the same issue from different sources are therefore often incompatible, for technical reasons or because of political agendas or the particular views of those presenting them. Smith’s book covers history, arenas of conflict, and current states of nations.
Steans, Jill
Gender and International Relations: Issues, Debates and Future Directions (2nd Edition)
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006, ISBN: 0-7456-3582-2, 183pp.
This book gives an overview of evolving trends on gender and international relations, highlighting many now outdated precepts, and redefining the criteria against which various issues are judged. Themes include feminist perspectives on the international political economy, war, peace, and security. A recurring idea is the strategic and political necessity of speaking ‘as women’ in the predominantly male space of global and local politics.
Thomas, Mark
As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade
London: Ebury Press, 2006, ISBN: 00919021-X, 339pp.
The British comedian and political activist Mark Thomas offers a layperson’s guide to the arms trade system at different levels, in which transnational companies, governments, and individuals are all implicated. Thomas documents attempts to reform arms-trade regulations. Much illegality and abuse of the arms trade has already been revealed, but many aspects remain. This prompts the final conclusion that countering ‘the widgets of barbarity will be the battle of coming decades’.
Tyler, Stephen (ed.)
Communities, Livelihoods, and Natural Resources: Action Research and Policy Change in Asia
Rugby: Intermediate Technology Publications, and Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), 2006, ISBN: 1-85339-638-9, 420pp. This book shares lessons from the IDRC’s community-based natural-resource management (NRM) research projects across Asia. These projects uphold decisions made locally, arguing that the MDGs and Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans neglect the concerns of villagers. The book’s foreword advocates for change in the way national governments and NGOs do business. Its conclusion includes a call to decentralise NRM.
UNCTAD
The Least Developed Countries Report 2006: Developing Productive Capacities
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development secretariat (Team Leader C. Gore) New York and Geneva: UNCTAD, 2006, ISBN: 9 789211 127010, 352pp. Overview of Report, and whole document available (in English and French) at http://www.unctad.org Timor-Leste is the fiftieth nation to be designated a least-developed country (LDC), on the basis of low income, human assets, and economic vulnerability. Such a designation yields certain concessions, including a grace period of three years to agree a ‘smooth transition strategy’ so that the loss of LDC-specific concessions does not disturb the country’s socio-economic progress. The underlying approach is founded on the ‘Hirschmann insight’ that development depends not so much on trying to optimise a country’s given resources, as making best use of ‘hidden, scattered, or badly utilised’ ones.
UNFPA
Moving Young: State of World Population 2006: Youth Supplement
New York, NY: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2006, ISBN: 0-89714-777-4, 64pp.
This report seeks to call attention to young people as part of the discussion on international migration. Ten young people in different countries tell their personal stories, which are replete with abuse and violence, and driven by insecurity, conflict and poverty. The preface urges governments to use the resourcefulness and vitality of young immigrants, rather than considering them a burden or a risk. Information on young migrants is scarce. Better data and analysis are needed to guide responses and policies, and to help those children and young people who migrate alone.
Venn, Couze
The Postcolonial Challenge: Towards Alternative Worlds (series: Theory, Culture and Society)
New Delhi and London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN: 0-7619-7162-9, 219pp.
The ‘war on terror’ has unleashed regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere; and homicidal fundamentalism. Venn describes this as ‘transmodern’ and post-colonial, more than a simple choice between existing parties. She looks at the theoretical and the methodological and conceptual problems ranging from modernisation and identity to establishing a postmodern political economy that could open up new grounds for imagining alternative worlds. Venn examines feminism, race studies, cultural and development studies, and positions in science, technology, and critical phenomenology. Her closing premise highlights a growing conviction that alternatives to ‘disordered empires’ are both possible and necessary, particularly concerning the natural environment.
Williams, Robert G.
The Money Changers: A Guided Tour Through Global and Currency Markets
London and New York: Zed Books and Hong Kong University Press, 2006, ISBN: 1-84277-695-9, 286pp.
Williams offers a layperson’s guide to worldwide currency markets, currency trade, and foreign exchange. Other thematic concerns, depicted within a volatile world market include the interrelation between banks in their financial dealings, the progression of the Euro, and the domination of the US dollar in global trade.
Zetter, Roger and Georgia Butina Watson (eds.)
Designing Sustainable Cities in the Developing World
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, ISBN: 0-7546-4355-7, 210pp.
The globalisation of architectural styles, building technologies, and urban space has had a dramatic impact on city design in developing countries. The accelerating destruction of indigenously designed and developed urban places and spaces, means, for example, that unique environments are being removed from their context and replaced by global forms that are seldom adapted to local needs. Historic urban features are commercialised as artefacts for global cultural consumption. Such outcomes raise the question of whether new patterns and processes of urban design and production are sustainable.
Zweifel, Thomas D., Raymond J. Struyk, Kristin Morse, Margarita Pinegina, Clare Romanik and Marina Shapiro
Policy Analysis for Effective Development: Strengthening Transition Economies
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006, ISBN: 1588263665, 441pp.
The roles of government in the so-called transition countries of the former Soviet bloc have been transformed over the past decade as market-oriented approaches have taken hold. This book aims to provide professionals, practitioners, and students with tools to assist in identifying policy problems and developing sensible and politically viable solutions. Topics include monitoring and evaluation, as well as key concepts such as who pays for and who benefits from policies, and introducing competition into the public sector. Exercises, and European and US case studies, allow readers to apply lessons learned to real situations.
BOOKS RECEIVED IN 2006
Amann, Edmund (ed.)
Regulating Development: Evidence from Africa and Latin America
Cheltenham, UK / Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2006, ISBN: 1-84542-499-9, 309pp.
This book examines the positive and negative effects of regulation on social development in Brazil, South Africa, and Ghana. It asks how far regulation is becoming the main shaper of development in Latin America and Africa. Contributors look in detail at: capital markets; corporate governance regulation; telecommunications; and reforms to boost small and medium enterprises.
Barbier, Edward
Natural resources and economic development
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-521-82313-7, 410pp.
The book explores why natural resource exploitation is not yielding greater benefits for the poor economies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Part I is a historical review of resource use and development, and of current theories that explain the under-performance of resource-abundant economies. It proposes a ‘frontier expansion hypothesis’ as an alternative explanation. Part II develops models to analyse the key economic factors underlying land expansion and water use in developing countries. Part III explores further the ‘dualism within dualism’ structure of resource dependency, rural poverty, and resource degradation within developing countries. It proposes, through country case studies, policy and institutional reforms necessary for successful resource-based development.
Bass, Stephen et al. (eds.)
Reducing poverty and sustaining the environment: the politics of local engagement
London: Earthscan, London, 2005, ISBN: 1-84407-116-2, 318pp.
Addressing the role of politics in environmental issues that are relevant to the poor, this book describes experiences at regional, national, and local levels in countries including China, Colombia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, St Lucia, South Africa, and Tanzania. The book demonstrates the importance of political context in addressing poverty/environment issues such as environmental health, access to natural resources for livelihoods and security, and coping with environmental disasters.
Behera, M.C. (ed.)
Globalising Rural Development: Competing Paradigms and Emerging Realities
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN 0-7619-3479-0, 462pp.
In the 1950s, ‘rural development’ was first seen as an area of study in its own right. As ideologies around rural development evolved in later decades, different policies and programmes emerged. Part I of this book claims that the most recent, top-down approach cannot meet the goals of rural development in either North or South: equity, gender rights, food security, employment, and sustainability. Part II considers the roles played by the state and NGOs amidst advancing globalisation. The third part examines attempts at rural development in Europe and Asia, and the fourth analyses particular solutions to poverty, such as the empowerment of women.
Boase, Roger (ed.)
Islam, and global dialogue – religious pluralism and the pursuit of peace
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0-7546-5307-2, 310pp.
The 20 contributors to this volume include Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars and leading religious thinkers. They consider the threats to religious pluralism as a result of hatred, prejudice, and misunderstanding from both religious exclusivists and dogmatic secularists. The first part sets out to define the issues while the second looks at relations between Islam and the West, and the last concerns the responses of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to religious diversity.
Bradnee Chambers, W. (ed.)
Reforming international environmental governance – from institutional limits to innovative reforms
Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005, ISBN 92-808-1111-8, 234pp.
This book seeks to contribute to discussion on the worsening global environment, and the complex policy and institutional responses required, including the idea of a World Environment Court.
Brown, Ashley et al.
Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems
Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2006, ISBN: 0-8213-6579-7, 397pp.
Excessive business regulation has been detrimental to economic growth in many developing countries. Investors and consumers were meant to benefit from new infrastructure regulatory systems – but neither has done so. This book presents the case for an independent, objective analysis of regulatory systems. A reformed system is needed, that will be both economically and politically viable, and adaptable as well as predictable.
Browne, Stephen
Aid & Influence: Do Donors Help or Hinder?
London / Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2006, ISBN-10: 1-84407-202-9, ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-202-6, 172pp.
Aid wields influence over its recipients, sometimes good, often bad. Donors themselves often feel that aid has no positive effect on development, as well as failing to foster international relations. Browne believes that donors should support not paternalistic central planning, but peace initiatives, economic governance, debt cancellation, fair trade, and vaccination schemes. Aid-recipient countries in return should play an active role when dealing with the North. They need to accept ‘free’ aid, choose their own development partners, and pay their way – as some are already doing successfully.
Burra, Neera, Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive, and Ranjani K Murphy (eds.)
Micro-Credit, Poverty and Empowerment: Linking the Triad
New Delhi: Sage and UNDP, 2005, ISBN: 0 7619 3366 2, 369pp.
Microcredit has been seen as having the dual role of addressing female poverty and violations of women’s human rights. This edited volume brings together six case studies from India, many of them supported by UNDP, to assess how far and under what conditions microcredit programmes have been or could be effective in reaching either or both of these goals.
Bussolo, Maurizio (ed.)
Globalisation and poverty: channels and policy responses
Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, ISBN: 0-415-34360-7, 232pp.
Since the 1980s, donor policy advice to developing countries has been centred on greater market openness and better integration into the global economy, namely globalisation. The authors analyse the impact of globalisation on poverty, using simulation methods and empirical evidence to try to establish directions and magnitudes of effect, in order to inform policy. They draw on case studies of Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Nepal, and Vietnam to argue against the uniform application of development policies.
Carin, Barry (ed.)
Accountability of the International Monetary Fund
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0-7546-4523-1, 124pp.
This volume brings together experts from North America, Europe, Africa, and SE Asia to discuss the IMF’s accountability to its diverse shareholders and stakeholders, and makes recommendations for more effective and accountable future practice.
Cernea, Michael M. and Amir H. Kassam (eds.)
Researching the Culture in Agri-Culture: Social Research for International Development
Wallingford and Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishing, 2006, ISBN:0 85199 026 6, 512pp.
Contributors to this volume examine the ways in which the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) conducts social and cultural research in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and livestock. Following an introductory overview, the first section looks at the purpose, methods, findings, and impacts of such research from the perspectives of those working within the CGIAR system. The second section looks at these issues from the various perspectives of donor agencies, academics, and potential ‘users’ or ‘clients’ of the research.
Chambers, Robert
Ideas for Development
London and Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2005, ISBN: 1 84407 088 3, 259pp.
In this book, Chambers reviews his earlier writings on a range of ideas in the light of subsequent experience, and considers their continued potential and future application. The topics covered include commitment and continuity; administrative capacity; procedures, principles, and power; participation and PRA; behaviour and attitudes; and personal reflection and responsibility.
Chandra Rath, Govinda (ed.)
Tribal Development in India: The Contemporary Debate
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN 0-7619-3423-5, 340pp.
Throughout the last half-century, attempts to lessen the inequality between Indian tribes and the rest of Indian society have served only to strengthen that divide. Yet development economists seldom address the exploitation and mass displacement of tribal peoples by, among others, government officials, landlords, and traders. In this edited volume, 13 contributors reveal that tribal peoples in, for example, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh have a keen awareness of their rights. As welfare development has failed, tribal peoples themselves have pursued not only health services and education, but also political autonomy and access to natural resources. This book is valuable reading for grassroots planners, political scientists, educationalists, economists, and social anthropologists.
Cheru, Fantu and Colin Bradford Jr (eds.)
The Millennium Development Goals: Raising the Resources to Tackle World Poverty
London: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN: 1 84277 735 1, 238pp.
This edited volume brings together contributions from leading economists in institutions such as UNU-WIDER, UNDP, and major think tanks on creative ways to mobilises resources for development, and specifically the MDGs. Resource flows examined include ODA, various forms of debt relief, FDI, and remittances, all of these in relation to the eradication of poverty and the provision of essential services.
Craig, David and Doug Porter
Development Beyond Neoliberalism? Governance, Poverty Reduction and Political Economy
Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge, 2006, ISBN: 0 415 31960 9, 340pp.
The focus of the neo-liberal development paradigm has shifted from the macroeconomic policies associated with structural adjustment to poverty reduction and governance. The authors plot this trajectory, with extensive case studies from New Zealand, Pakistan, Uganda, and Vietnam, to argue that an apparent consensus among mainstream development agencies in fact masks the increasingly peripheral status of many poor countries and the overreaching of their economic and political objectives.
De Paula, Silvana and Gary Dymski (eds.)
Re-imagining growth: towards a renewal of development theory
London: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN: 1-84277-585-5, 308pp.
Theories of development have been dominated by development economics, and development policy has been coloured by neo-liberal economics. Drawing from heterodox economic and other social science traditions, the contributors to this volume argue that the current intellectual inadequacies and policy mistakes make it necessary to rethink both economics as a discipline and development as a process.
Dinello, Natalia and Lyn Squire (eds.)
Globalization and equity: perspectives from the developing world
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 1-84376-864-4, 253pp.
This book analyses the links between globalisation and equity from the perspectives of researchers from seven regions: the Commonwealth of Independent States, East and South Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions reflect disparate experiences and diverse positions on globalisation and equity, but suggest a fledgling consensus on the potential benefits and risks of greater engagement with the global economy.
Dodhia, Dinesh and Tina Johnson
Mainstreaming gender in debt and development resource management
London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2005, ISBN: 0-85092-776-5, 166pp.
This publication draws out the linkages between gender and international debt and reviews the policies and actions taken by international development agencies and bilateral donors to promote and mainstream gender in development assistance. It also suggests ways in which governments can mainstream gender equality considerations into their debt and development resource management.
Doornbos, Martin
Global Forces and State Restructuring: Dynamics of State Formation and Collapse
Oxford: Macmillan, 2006, ISBN: 1-4039-9682-2, 225pp.
This book addresses how developing-country states collapse and are restructured in response to globalisation. Doonbos looks at successes and failures in countries in Africa and Europe as well as India in an attempt to discern common patterns across differing contexts and historical periods.
Dore, Elizabeth
Myths of Modernity: Peonage and Patriarchy in Nicaragua
Duke University Press: Durham, NC and London, 2006, ISBN: 0 8223 3674 X, 252 pp.
Based on oral history, scholarly research, and the author's experience in the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, this study charts the historical expropriation of communal lands, and the corresponding rise of debt-peonage and forced labour and changes in gender roles. She argues that patriarchy from above (peonage) and from below (senior male domination over the household) impeded capitalist development. However, the Sandinistas assumed that a (male) agrarian proletariat wanted better wages on state-owned farms rather than land redistribution. This served to disaffect small farmers from the Sandinista project and to bolster their support for the US-backed contra. The end of the civil war thus ushered in years of violent conflicts between small farmers and returning landowners, who claimed that the sanctity of private property had been violated. Yet historically, as Dore points out, it was the bourgeoisie and the state that had, from the 1870s, destroyed common lands in order to create the conditions for large-scale coffee production.
Edelman, Marc and Angélique Haugerud (eds.)
The Anthropology of Development and Globalization: From Classical Political Economy to Contemporary Neoliberalism
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0 631 22880 2, 406pp.
A reference book on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives on development and globalisation, this anthology is organised under the following main headings: classical foundations and debates; twentieth-century debates; development to globalisation; consumption, markets, and culture; gender, work, and networks; nature, environment, and biotechnology; development institutions; and development alternatives or alternatives to development. Authors featured (in order of appearance) include Karl Marx, Max Weber, Karl Polyani, James Ferguson, Saskia Sassen, Sylvia Chant, Jonathan Fox, and Arturo Escobar.
Ellerman, David
Helping People Help Themselves: From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005,ISBN: O 472 11465 4, 334pp.
The author argues that most conventional development assistance, provided by the would-be ‘helpers’ undermines the capacity of people (the ‘doers’) capacity to help themselves. This entails abandoning pretences at social engineering, and grounding all forms of assistance on respect for and enhancement of autonomy. Ellerman presents leading thinkers across a range of disciplines (Albert Hirschman, Paolo Freire, John Dewey, Sǿren Kierkegaard, and EF Schumacher) to demonstrate that all, from their own professional perspective, have underlined the critical importance of such an ‘autonomy-respecting’ approach to achieving sustainable change.
Eversole, Robyn, John-Andrew McNeish, and Alberto D Cimadamore (eds.)
Indigenous Peoples and Poverty: An International Perspective
London: Zed Books and CROP, 2006, ISBN: 1 84277 679 7, 311pp.
Indigenous peoples worldwide experience disproportionate levels of poverty and exclusion, illustrating what may be defined as the failure of development. This collection addresses the causes and wider implications in relation to rights, citizenship, and self-determination within the nation-state; and indigenous peoples’ perspectives on development. These issues are examined through a series of detailed case studies of the situation of indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, Chiapas, Colombia, Mexico and Central America, New Zealand, Russia, SE Asia, Taiwan, and the USA.
Exchange Findings 5, April 2006, 6pp.
Communicating health research: how should evidence affect policy and practice?
This paper presents ways of ensuring that evidence from research is used in a way that benefits its intended beneficiaries. The proposed steps towards this are: researchers, policy makers, and practitioners talk to each other more; networks are built that counteract the present dominance by powerful, policy-making elites; research capacity in the South is increased; research reaches a wide range of audiences in easily understandable forms; and sharper critique of research impact and informal research methodologies.
Flyn, Karen
Food, culture and survival in an African city
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN: 1-4039-6639-7, 254pp.
The book draws on the personal accounts of over 350 market vendors, consumers, urban farmers, and street-dwellers in a Tanzanian town. Addressed at students and professionals interested in anthropology, African studies, urban studies, gender studies, or development economics, it gives insights into food-provisioning processes in a contemporary African city, and into the roles of gender, migration, exchange, sex, and charity in food acquisition.
Gallagher, Kevin (ed.)
Putting development first – the importance of policy space in the WTO and international financial institutions
London: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1 84277 635 5, 301pp.
Developing countries gained little from the Uruguay Round of global trade negotiations, and agreed to enter a new round only if this focused on development, and on the issues of unfair international trade relations. Contributors to this edited volume include development economists, North and South, who focus on the importance of state intervention in spearheading economic development. They address how far WTO rules and other international financial measures restrict the ability of developing nations to establish effective development policy, and the scope they have to preserve and expand upon the existing policy space.
Ghosh, Avik
Communication Technology and Human Development: Recent Experiences in the Indian Social Sector
New Delhi: Sage, 2006, ISBN: 81 7829 585 7 (pb, India), 289pp.
The author addresses the practical issues that arise in planning and undertaking communication programmes aimed at bringing about behaviour change. With a specific focus on rural communities in India, Ghosh argues that communication technology can help to overcome diverse social divisions.
Global Corruption Report 2006: Special focus Corruption and Health
Pluto Press: London / Transparency International, 2006, ISBN: 0-7453-2508-4, 362pp.
Three of the eight MDGs are concerned with health, but corruption within heath systems is severely undermining realisation of these goals in many countries. Corruption is a critical issue for the millions of people who can’t afford bribes or private payments – and particularly for women, denied access to services and information. In the long term, corruption makes it impossible to implement good governance and pro-poor policies. Rich nations urgently need to establish transparent systems of accountability for governments and donors. These themes cut across the three sections of this comprehensive report, namely: the causes and extent of corruption in health systems, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies – and its connection to HIV and AIDS; country reports and lessons learned; and research into corruption including budget transparency surveys, oil and gas revenues, and officials’ asset declaration laws. As the Foreword states, ‘This book should be on the table of every policy-maker who cares about development.’
Goldin, Ian and Kenneth Reinert
Globalization for Development: Trade, Finance, Aid, Migration, and Policy
Basingstoke and New York, NY: World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN: 0 8213 6274 7, 328pp.
The authors seek to illustrate how globalisation can generate or exacerbate poverty, or conversely be a means of overcoming it. Starting from the assumption that it must be judged on its capacity to address the issues of poverty, the authors present a set of empirical studies and accessible chapters on some of the main trends in trade, financial flows, aid, migration, and how these interact with development thinking, policy, and practice.
Handy, Femida, Meenaz Kassam, Suzanne Feeney and Bhagyashree Ranade
Grass-roots NGOs by Women for Women: The Driving Force of Development in India
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN-10: 0-7619-3500-2, ISBN-13: 978-0-7619-3500-1, 236pp.
This book explains the success of grassroots Indian NGOs – established by women, for women – in tackling rural poverty. It contains interviews held with 20 founders of NGOs over a five-year period. More broadly, it explores female entrepreneurship in the development sector, and how feminist ideology has led to organisational structures that provide microfinance and self-help, among other services. Also examined is the effectiveness of these NGOs in promoting development and women’s empowerment in local communities. Such issues will interest NGOs, funding agencies, students, and researchers.
Hodges, Ron (ed.)
Governance and the Public Sector (in the series Corporate Governance in the New Global Economy)
Cheltenham, UK / Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2005, ISBN 1-84542-302-X, 599pp.
This anthology of research papers looks at the principles and practice of governance in the public sector. The first part suggests six different meanings of public-sector governance. The second and third show how government structures relate to public-sector management and accountability. The final section looks at governance in national and global contexts, such as the IMF, the World Bank, OECD countries, and the impact of globalisation on governance in the South. The volume is the seventh in the series Corporate Governance in the New Global Economy.
Inglis, D.
Culture and everyday life
Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, ISBN: 0-415-31925-0, 159pp.
This volume sets out to illustrate how ‘key concepts and ideas . . . play out in everyday life’. Culture is variously interpreted: in the early 1950s, two US anthropologists came up with 164 different meanings. Inglis looks first at everyday bodily practices that are profoundly influenced by cultural phenomena, and then examines how modern cultural forces have an impact on everyday activities. He explores the differences between high, popular, and low culture, and considers how globalisation may be altering the cultural fabric of everyday life.
International Jesuit Network for Development
Debt and trade: time to make the connections
Dublin: Veritas Publications, 2005, ISBN: 1-85390-844-4, 188pp.
Developing countries owe more than three times the amount of debt that they owed 25 years ago, but have nevertheless been forced to remove trade subsidies and tariffs, while rich countries have maintained protectionist trade policies. Based on papers delivered at a conference organised by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, contributors from a range of countries in the South give first-hand accounts of the impact of debt and unfair trade on their countries. Representatives from the European Commission, Dail Eireann, and Development Cooperation Ireland discuss how Ireland and the EU could help to reform of policies on debt and trade.
Isard, Peter
Globalization and the international financial system: what's wrong and what can be done
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-521-60507-5, 370pp.
This book examines various aspects of the international financial system that contribute to financial crises and growth failures, and discusses the remedies that economists and international financial institutions have proposed for addressing the underlying problems. The author offers policy perspectives on what countries can do to reduce their economic vulnerability, as well as a number of general directions for a systemic reform.
Kandiyoti, Deniz
The politics of gender and reconstruction in Afghanistan (Occasional Paper 4)
Geneva: UNRISD 2005, ISBN: 92-9085-056-6, 37pp.
Putting the discussion of women’s rights in Afghanistan in the context of the multiple transitions entailed in the process of post-conflict reconstruction, political transition, and socio-economic transition, the author highlights the crippling disjunctions among them.
Kaplinsky, Raphael
Globalization, poverty and inequality: between a rock and a hard place
Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-3554-7, 280pp.
The author draws on development economics, economic geography, international political economy, sociology, management studies, production engineering, and the management of innovation to examine globalisation, the empirical material on global poverty and inequality, the ambiguity of data, ‘global value chains’ and industrial districts and clusters, terms of trade, and the theory of comparative advantage. Kaplinsky sketches both an optimistic and a pessimistic view of globalisation, suggesting that the nature of global production and trading systems ‘may act to enhance poverty and make income distribution more unequal...’.
Kopits, George (ed.)
Rules-Based Fiscal Policy in Emerging Markets: Background, Analysis and Prospects
Oxford: Macmillan, 2004, ISBN: 1-4039-2085-0, 286pp.
Policy analysts and academics look at the rules adopted by emerging market economies to limit government deficits, expenditures, and indebtedness. They examine: political economy in a macroeconomic context; national design issues including South America and central Europe; and subnational design issues in Argentina and India.
Kozlowski, Jerzy
Integrated buffer planning – towards sustainable development
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, ISBN: 1 85972 215 6, 323pp.
The buffer zone planning (BZP) concept was developed in the late 1970s to conserve the values of protected areas and ecosystems. The Fifth IUCN World Parks Congress (2003) recommended that core protected areas, and associated buffers, be part of landscapes designed to enhance overall conservation values. In practice there may be conflicts between recreational use and biological diversity in national parklands. The BZP model enabled a logical and structured approach to better conserve the wildlife habitat, and associated policies to help management to achieve more sustainable outcomes.
Kumar, Krishna
Promoting Independent Media: Strategies for Democracy Assistance
London: Lynne Rienner, 2006, ISBN: 1-58826-429-7, 187pp.
The central premise of this book is that the media development sector (radio, TV, and print) is today’s most important, but least recognised, movement for social change. Governments’ attitudes towards the media are of paramount importance, both in the power of the media to overthrow repressive regimes or to fuel the rise of terrorist activities.
Kumar, Ravi (ed.)
The Crisis of Elementary Education in India
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London: Sage, 2006, ISBN: 0-7619-3499-5, 357pp.
Education is seen as the ‘make or break’ of India’s development. The crisis at elementary level is examined in terms of policy, economics, legal issues, gender, and inclusive education. Contributors include scholars, academics, and administrators, each bringing a different perspective.
Lee, Eddy and M. Vivarelli (eds.)
Globalization, Employment and Income Distribution in Developing Countries
Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN-10: 0-230-00783-X, ISBN-13: 978-0-230-00783-3, 253pp.
The impact of globalisation on employment, income distribution, and poverty reduction is compared between five countries: Ghana, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Vietnam. These case studies were chosen to portray different institutional and policy environments, regions, and per capita incomes. The empirical approach complements the theoretical outlook taken by the same editors in Understanding Globalization, Employment and Poverty Reduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Both books show how the social and economic benefits of globalisation can be fairly distributed within and between countries.
Lovenduski, Joni (ed.)
State feminism and political representation
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-521-61764-2, 315pp.
This book uses a model of political influence to construct answers to questions including: how women can maximise their political influence; whether state feminism enhances the political representation of women; and whether feminism should be established in state institutions concerned with women’s issues. The book assesses how states respond to women’s demands for political representation in terms both of their inclusion as actors, and of the consideration of their interests in decision-making processes. The authors analyse 11 democracies in Europe and North America, and present research from the 1960s to the present.
Magnaghi, Aberto
The urban village: a charter for democracy and local self-sustainable development
London: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN: 1 84277 581 2, 220pp.
This updated, translated edition introduces the concept of self-sustainable local development, based on local specificities and traditions. In addition to conventional indices of wealth and income, the author presents other criteria of social progress – including quality of life, social solidarity, and the development of non-commercial caring relationships. Only when local communities value their local heritage, he argues, and build themselves on a basis of local economic self-government will they be able to resist the colonisation and marginalisation associated with globalisation.
Manent, Pierre (translated by Marc LePain)
A World beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, ISBN-10: 0-691-12512-0, ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12512-1, 216pp.
Drawing on modern political philosophy from Rousseau to Weber, Pierre Manent argues that political order is key to human order. Refuting the present vogue that true freedom comes without politics, this book shows how nation states are the best route to democracy.
Mazurana, Dyan, Angela Raven-Roberts, and Jane Parpart (eds.)
Gender, conflict and peacekeeping
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, ISBN: 0-7425-3633-5, 304pp.
Peacekeeping is a major international undertaking worldwide, and gender has become central in shaping current thinking about the causes and consequences of armed conflict, complex emergencies, and reconstruction. Presenting examples from Angola, Bosnia, East Timor, El Salvador, the former Yugoslavia, Guatemala, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, and Serbia, the authors offer insights for future peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
Mosse, David and David Lewis (eds.)
The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in International Development
London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2005, ISBN: 0 7453 2386 3, 223pp.
This edited volume comprises nine case studies in which anthropologists examine the impact of the ‘global aid architecture’ on national and municipal governance in the aid-receiving countries. Specific attention is paid to ‘good governance’, ‘country ownership’, and poverty reduction, with particular reference to the World Bank, the IMF, and bilateral aid agencies.
Mullerat, Ramon (ed.)
Corporate social responsibility: the corporate governance of the 21st century
The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2005, ISBN: 90-4112324-5, 565pp.
This collection of essays by jurists, business people, and academics proposes a more cohesive and durable set of principles that can contribute to a cleaner environment and a better society, while protecting stakeholders’ interests. Contributors examine the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in corporate governance; the legal enforceability of CSR rules; the impact of international human rights standards; CSR as a part of ‘corporate DNA’; choice of CSR strategy; the need for fair competition among developing-country exporters; the prospects for international social protection for workers; enforcement of minimal standards in remote locations; the active search for eco-efficient solutions; corporate assumption of human rights responsibilities; the legal weight of codes of conduct; and the role of the lawyer in CSR.
Nicholls, Alex and Charlotte Opal
Fair Trade: Market-driven Ethical Consumption
London: Sage, 2005, ISBN: 1 4129 0105 7, 277pp.
The fair-trade movement is evolving from its original ‘alternative’ status to becoming part of the economic mainstream. The authors examine the history and current challenges as well as the overall impact of fair trade. Specific consideration is given to the economics of fair trade, supply-chain ethics, certification, business and financing models, impact, and market development.
Nnaemeka, Obioma and Joy Ezeilo (eds.)
Engendering human rights: cultural and socio-economic realities in Africa
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN: 1-4039-6707-5, 314pp.
Contributors include a varied group of scholars, activists, and practitioners whose essays incorporate gendered perspectives on the formulating, monitoring, reporting and implementation of human rights in Africa and the African Diaspora. They tackle issues ranging from reproductive rights, immigration, religion, and spousal abuse, to cultural imperatives, legal reform, and the arts.
Official Agency Funding of NGOs in Seven Countries: Mechanisms, Trends and Implications Occasional Papers Series No: 46
Oxford: INTRAC, 2006, ISBN: 1-905240-04-X, 60pp.
This report lays out how official agencies in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK distribute funds between their NGOs. The agencies’ constantly evolving mechanisms influence whether NGOs adopt a project or programme approach and also affect their reporting mechanisms, as well as how much money they receive and when. The paper shows too how NGOs and civil society are affected by broader policy concerns of the official agencies. INTRAC acknowledge that their findings will go out of date very quickly, and aim primarily to capture best practice from the funding mechanisms analysed.
Petryna, Adriana, Andrew Lakoff, and Arthur Kleinman (eds.)
Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, Markets, Practices
Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2006, ISBN: 0 8223 3729 0, 312pp.
This edited volume examines the links between globalisation and health, with particular reference to expenditure on and access to essential drugs, and the ways in which these both reflect and reinforce social and economic inequality. Contributors present case studies on how US pharmaceutical industries create global markets, for example for anti-depressants in Japan, at the increasing pressure on companies to allow countries such as Brazil and India to produce generic drugs, and at ethical issues surrounding clinical research and testing.
Pretty, Jules (ed.)
The Earthscan Reader in sustainable agriculture
London: Earthscan, 2005, ISBN: 1-84407-236-3, 405pp.
This volume describes a form of agriculture that is founded on ecological principles and seeks to be harmonious with societies and cultures. It maps out sustainable agriculture and introduces and explains the key literature, theoretical developments, and critical appraisals of the evidence, addressing what is not sustainable about current or past agricultural and food systems.
Rhode, Deborah and Carol Sanger (eds.)
Gender and rights
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0-7546-2357-2, 647pp.
The 28 essays in this book are presented in six substantive categories: Gender and Rights; Sources of Well-being and Harm; Family; Violence; Work; and Political Process and Participation. The categories also encompass themes such as autonomy, subordination, equality, and essentialism that often underpin analyses of gender and law. Although several of the essays consider the social and familial conditions that prompt rights claims or create rights impediments, the volume focuses primarily on rights through the lens of law and legal theory.
Sampson, Gary
The WTO and sustainable development
Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005, ISBN 92-808-1115-0, 315pp.
This book concentrates on the relationship between trade and sustainable development, and reviews intergovernmental efforts to address environmental management as well as issues including trade liberalisation, multilateral environment agreements, biotechnology, services, special and differential treatment, and the changing role of the WTO, world trade, and environment organisations.
Sayer, Jeffrey (ed.)
The Earthscan Reader in forestry and development
London: Earthscan, 2005, ISBN: 1-844-07-154-5, 434pp.
Since the 1992 UNCED conference there has been a re-examination of the world’s forest resources, whom they should belong to, who should benefit from their conservation and management, and how such issues should be organised. This collection brings together recent thinking on issues that have been controversial or which the media and influential decision makers have misunderstood or misrepresented.
Scholte, Jan
Globalization: a critical introduction (2nd edn)
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN: 0-333-97702-5, 492pp.
The author examines what globalisation is, when and why it has occurred and spread, whether it has generated social change, what benefits and harms have flowed from it, how its positive outcomes can be maximised, and how the ill effects might be avoided. The revised and updated edition takes a broader perspective, giving increased coverage of other dimensions of globalisation alongside its focus on the rise of ‘supraterritorality’, which the author argues is the most salient feature of contemporary globalisation.
Singh, Kavaljit
Questioning Globalization
London: Zed Books, London, 2005, ISBN: 1 84277 279, 192pp.
Proponents of neo-liberal globalisation claim that it produces accelerated, efficient development together with a deepening of democracy and human rights. The author asserts that current economic disasters are not the transitional costs of reaching the ‘promised paradise’, but are the unavoidable outcome of current neo-liberal economic policies. With case studies, statistical data, and analysis, Singh sets out to debunk several myths about globalisation processes.
Social Watch
Social watch report 2005 - roars and whispers - gender and poverty: promises vs. action (a citizens’ global progress report on poverty eradication and gender equity)
Montevideo: Social Watch, 2005, ISSN 0797-9231, 257pp.
The report is divided into two sections: ‘thematic reports’ comprising accounts on, for instance, the need for international protection of water; and ‘measuring progress – the statistics’. Social development indicators are grouped under extreme poverty, hunger, education, ‘health security’, safe drinking water and sanitary services (all of these examined in relation to gender), participation of women in economic activities, reproductive health, scientific and technological innovation, human rights, chances of improvement, servicing of the foreign debt, and Official Development Assistance (ODA). The ‘scorecard’, the size of a wall-planner, is a colourful and effective way of presenting the main findings.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. and Andrew Charlton
Fair trade for all: how trade can promote development
Oxford: OUP, 2005, ISBN: 0-19-929090-3, 296pp.
This book explores how fair trade can benefit developing countries and deliver welfare gains, counselling that trade liberalisation needs to be managed correctly in order to be effective. It examines the failure to make good the promises made at the WTO Doha conference in 2001 and explores the principles and reforms that would make a Development Round effective, leading to an open-market trading regime.
Stokes, Wendy
Women in contemporary politics
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-7456-2499-5, 266pp.
The author addresses both theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding women’s participation in politics as candidates, party members, elected representatives, cabinet ministers, and leaders. It focuses on the presence of women in formal political institutions across a range of countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, the UK and the USA, Canada, to demonstrate that women are beginning to exert pressure on political affairs by behaving differently from men.
Teunissen, Jan Joost and Age Akkerman (eds.)
Protecting the poor: global financial institutions and the vulnerability of low-income countries
The Hague: FONDAD, 2005, ISBN: 90-74208-26-6, 155pp.
Low-income countries are highly vulnerable to exogenous shocks such as sudden drops in the prices of their exports, natural catastrophes, shortfalls in aid flows, and volatile private capital flows. Contributors examine how poor countries, rich countries, and the international financial institutions can address these issues, and discuss how to improve the governance of the international financial system. Contributors argue that improvements should go beyond the short-term agenda of policy and recommend a range of reforms of the IMF, including exit strategies and the need for the Fund to be a partner in development rather issuing macroeconomic prescriptions and conditionalities.
UNRISD
Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World
Geneva: UNRISD, 2005, ISBN: 92 9085 052 3, 303pp.
Written to mark ten years since the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, this report summarises a number of commissioned papers showing the continuing disconnection between feminist and gender research and mainstream policy debate on the most pressing issues of our time – economic liberalisation, democratisation and governance reforms, and identity and conflict. The report is divided into sections on: macroeconomics, well-being, and gender equality; women, work, and social policy; women in politics and public life; and gender, armed conflict, and the search for peace.
de Wet, Chris
Development-induced Displacement: Problems, Policies and People, Studies in Forced Migration, Volume 18
Oxford and New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2006, ISBN: 1 84545 095 7, 218pp.
The outcome of a project undertaken between 1998 and 2002 by the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, this edited volume brings together a collection of papers that examine the causes and impacts of development-induced displacement, and the social and economic factors that will determine the sustainability or failure of (forced) resettlement programmes.
Whitehead, Jack and Jean McNif
Action Research Living Theory
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London: Sage Publications, 2006, ISBN-10:1-4129-0855-8, ISBN-13: 978-1-4129-0855-9, 182pp.
This advanced-level text is intended to teach action researchers, lecturers, and students about the practice and theory of action research. The authors’ priority is to show how to assess the often neglected issue of the quality of action research. Establishing quality controls and standards of judgement is necessary not only to receive government funding, but in order for action research to be taken seriously as quality theory, as well as quality practice. Whitehead and McNif aim to stimulate public debate and want to see action research positioned as a discipline within the education research community.
Williams, Lucy
International Poverty Law: An Emerging Discourse
London: Zed Books with CROP and ISSC, 2006, ISBN: 1 84277 685 1, 250pp.
Arguing that poverty-reduction efforts usually operate at the level of the nation-state, contributors maintain that international human rights law opens up scope to address the issues of poverty and development – for instance, how the right to food is undermined by legal definitions of intellectual property - and from a global but nonetheless specific perspective.
BOOKS RECEIVED IN 2005
de Aghion, Beatriz Armendáriz and Jonathan Morduch
The Economics of Microfinance
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Cambridge, ISBN: 0-26201216-2, 346 pp.
This survey of microfinance draws on developments in theories of contracts and incentives. The authors challenge conventional assumptions about how poor households save and build assets and how institutions can overcome market failures. The book provides an overview of microfinance, including lessons from informal markets, savings and insurance, the role of women, the place of subsidies, impact measurement, and management incentives. It integrates theory with empirical data, citing studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and introducing ideas about asymmetric information, principal-agent theory, and household decision making in the context of microfinance.
Aikman, Sheila and Elaine Unterhalter (eds.)
Beyond Access: Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender Equality in Education
Oxford: Oxfam GB, 2005, ISBN 0-85598-529-1, 263 pp.
This book is about ‘transforming policy and practice to promote equitable processes in education, in response to the need for equality, quality, and justice for all’, and examines the ways in which gender inequality relates to other sources of social division and conflict. Two thirds of those without access to education are girls or women. The first part of the book examines the extent of inequality, and challenges to overcoming it. The second concerns government policies and their consequences for women’s empowerment, and the third examines successful local practices and their policy implications. The concluding chapter highlights some of the ‘intersections and disjunctures’ of policy and practice, making clear that there are no ‘quick fixes’ and underlining the need for political will to change, but shows that dramatic actions, training, or ‘structured reflection’ can nevertheless yield significant results.
Bais, Karolein and Mijnd Huijser
The Profit of Peace: Corporate Responsibility in Conflict Regions
Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 1 874 719 90 X, 144 pp.
Some 60,000 multinational companies work in over 70 conflict regions worldwide. Many of these profit from conflicts, whether by trading arms, taking advantage of the absence of the rule of law, or exploiting the availability of cheap labour. Extensive and candid interviews with senior managers working in countries such as Afghanistan, Burma, and Rwanda show that most corporate managers recognise that the mere fact of investing in a conflict region inevitably influences the outcome of the conflict in some way. The authors set out a range of business practices that can help contribute to peace and stability.
Baksh-Sodeen Rawwida and Linda Etchart (eds.)
Gender Mainstreaming in Conflict Transformation: building sustainable peace
London: The Commonwealth Secretariat, 2005, ISBN: 0-85092-754-4 , 232 pp.
This book argues that in order to build peace, gender equality needs to be placed on the policy and programme agenda of the entire spectrum of peace and conflict-related initiatives and activities. These include conflict prevention and early warning mechanisms; peace negotiations and agreements; peacekeeping, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration; truth and reconciliation commissions; post-conflict reconstruction; and peace building and peace education.
Bicker, Alan, Paul Sillitoe and Johan Pottier (eds.)
Development and Local Knowledge: New Approaches to Issues in Natural Resources Management, Conservation and Agriculture
London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-31828-2, 222 pp.
A new field of ‘indigenous knowledge’ is emerging in the practice of applied anthropology. This book focuses on two related issues: the proper definition of indigenous knowledge – what it is, who should define it, and what are the implications of this, particularly in the political arena; and how to develop methodologies that are appropriate to indigenous knowledge, in particular how the development industry can be sympathetic in the way it gains access to such knowledge, and who should control its use, and how.
Bray, Mark and Seng Bunly
Balancing the Books: Household Financing of Basic Education in Cambodia
Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre in collaboration with the World Bank, 2005, ISBN: 962-8093-39-8, 113 pp.
Cambodia is among the countries in which government capacity has been particularly constrained in financing education systems, and in which the costs of schooling are especially high. This book presents empirical data on the household costs of primary and lower secondary schooling, building on previous research, and showing changes over time.
Bryant, Coralie and Christina Kappaz
Reducing Poverty, Building Peace
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005, ISBN: 1-56549-205-6, 216 pp.
The authors argue that it is possible to reduce poverty in rich as well as poor countries, and that doing so will build opportunities for peace. They therefore examine some of the policies, programmes, and projects that have 'worked' or at least enjoyed some success and consider how best to draw out and apply the lessons from these in order to build the necessary political commitment to apply these lessons more widely.
Caplan, Richard
International Governance of War-Torn Territories, Rule and reconstruction
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0 19 926345 0, 291 pp.
This book is a study of contemporary experiences in the international administration of war-torn territories, and the challenges – operational, political and normative - that arise. It is based principally upon Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slavonia, Kosovo, and East Timor. It discusses the power of international organisations in peace building tasks, the administration of countries and political engagement. Differences are distinguished between administration of countries and peace building, state building and military occupations, some of the differences being that administration is more comprehensive in scope and answers to an international body. Questions arise as to the legitimacy of such administrations and under whose authority they operate. Implementation of such administration by the UN or other multilateral organisations has moved from intervening in country to country armed conflicts to internal conflicts, raising the question of when should such bodies intervene when peoples human rights are being broken. The author argues that the success of International Administration is dependent on the context in which the administration occurs. International administration, it is argued, although having many problems in its design and implementation has made a positive contribution to the mitigation of conflict in the territories where they have been established.
Carr, Marilyn (ed.)
Chains of Fortune: linking women producers and workers with global markets
London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2004, ISBN 0-85092-798-6, 220pp.
This edited volume comprises six case studies. Three link local producers with global markets: a Ghanaian cocoa cooperative of 45,000 producers who co-own a chocolate company in the UK; family-based cooperatives in Samoa which produce organic virgin coconut oil for export; and small enterprises in Mozambique which are helping to regenerate the cashew-processing and export industry. Three focus on improving the working conditions of wage workers in global value chains in the fruit-exporting industry in South Africa, the garment export industry in Bangladesh, and in the newly-created call centres in India.
Chambers, W. Bradnee and Jessica F. Green (eds.)
Reforming International Environmental Governance: From Institutional Limits to Innovative Reforms
Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005, ISBN: 92-808-1111-8, 234 pp.
The 2002 World Summit of Sustainable Development identified the need to overhaul the institutional framework for environmental governance, but failed to make firm recommendations as to how to reform the 500 agreements and institutions currently in existence. Contributors to this edited volume formulate proposed changes and examine the costs, benefits, and potential contributions of three possible models for ensuring these: enforcement, centralisation, and cooperation through increased coordination and collaboration.
Chen, Martha Alter, Joann Vanek and Marilyn Chen
Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: a handbook for policymakers and other stakeholders
London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2004, ISBN 0-85092-797-8, 248pp.
Contributors highlight the lack of attention to employment, especially informal employment, in poverty-reduction strategies, and point to the links between informal employment, being a woman or a man, and being poor. The book draws on recent data and evidence produced by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), a global research policy network, as well as the knowledge and experience of its grassroots membership. Including practical examples, it calls for greater emphasis on informal employment and gender, and sets out a strategic framework that offers guidelines for policy makers and other stakeholders.
Chenoweth, Jonathan and Juliet Bird (eds.)
The Business of Water and Sustainable Development
Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 1-874719-30-6, 277 pp.
The 2002 Johannesburg Declaration stated that the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water and sanitation should be halved by 2015. This book illustrates the range of approaches that will be necessary to achieve this aim. Some will be large-scale Western-style improvements involving the creation of new business models, while many smaller communities would be better served by small-scale solutions. NGOs have been active in this area and many are now adopting a more business-like model in order to increase their outreach.
Coles, Anne and Tina Wallace (eds.)
Gender, Water and Development
Oxford: Berg, 2005, ISBN: 1-84520-125-6, 256 pp.
Organisations providing improved water supplies to poor communities often neglect the gendered nature of access to and control over water resources. This book shows how, in different environmental, historical and cultural contexts, gender has been an important element in water provision. Case studies include analysis of the role of water in inhibiting the fight against HIV/AIDS in southern Africa, and the challenges of taking gender into account in large water projects in India and Nepal.
Commonwealth Secretariat
Gender and Human Rights in the Commonwealth: Some Critical Issues for Action in the Decade 2005-2015
London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2004, ISBN: 0-85092-808-7, 307 pp.
This book brings together the papers commissioned for a Pan-Commonwealth Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Human Rights held in February 2004. The papers address a range of gender issues, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), gender-based violence, culture and law, indigenous peoples, trafficking and migration, land and property rights, diversity and a lifecycle approach to gender, and human rights.
Commonwealth Secretariat
Gender Sensitive Approaches to HIV/AIDS: a training kit for peer educators
London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2004, 50pp. + CD ROM.
Inequality between men and women – in personal relationships, in the household and in the community and wider society – drives and perpetuates HIV/AIDS. This manual is an initiative to mainstream gender into all government policies and programmes, as mandated by Commonwealth Heads of Government. It applies a gender perspective to HIV/AIDS in the context of broad-based multi-sectoral approaches. It is intended to assist managers and planners at different levels to identify the gender aspects of HIV/AIDS and to mainstream these into all policies, programmes, projects, and activities.
Court, Julius, Ingie Hovland and John Young (eds.)
Bridging Research and Policy in Development: Evidence and the Change Process
Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby: ITDG Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1 85339 603 6 pp. 208.
This book seeks to address three key questions: 'When and why does development research make a difference?', 'Why do some research findings influence policy and practice while others do not?' and '..how can we promote more informed international development policy?' Part I of the book gives both a background to the role of research and policy in international development and a framework for understanding research/policy processes. Part II looks at four case studies which illustrate research-policy processes in action and Part III draws conclusions from the information provided by the case studies and gives practical recommendations for researchers who want their research findings to influence policy outcomes.
Dinello, Natalia and Lyn Squire, (eds.)
Globalisation and Equity: Perspectives from the Developing World
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2005, ISBN 1 84376 884 4, 253 pp.
Globalisation has been a hot topic of debate in the development world for the past decade. This book attempts to act as a platform from which development practitioners and academics from the ‘economically developing world’ can speak, and from which a global perspective can be gained. All the chapters were delivered as papers at the 4th Annual Global Development Conference held in Cairo, Egypt, January 2003, and represent perspectives from around the world. The authors outline methodological approaches, the results of empirical research and their implications for policies and strategies.
Djurfeldt, G, H. Holén, M Jirström and R. Larsson
The African Food Crisis, Lessons from the Asian Green Revolution
Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0 85199 998 0, 266pp.
This book is the outcome of a three-year project co-ordinated by a group of Swedish researchers with collaborating scholars from Asia and Africa. It provides a comparitive study between Asian agricultural development during the Green Revolution in food production and the current problematic agricultural situation in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on case studies of eight African and eight Asian countries (focusing on the early part of the Green revolution), this book presents a causal and explanatory model of Asian green revolutions. It discusses why such progress has been made in Asia but has not yet occurred in Africa. It also examines the implications of the case studies for future development in Africa.
Dowber, Ladislau
The Broken Mosaic: For an Economics Beyond Equations
London and New York: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1 84277 633 9, pp. 162.
In this partly autobiographical work, the Brazilian economist gives his views on the failings of conventional economics to effect postive change in the lives of the poor.
Evans, Anne, Yasin Osmani and Anne Tully
A Guide to Government in Afghanistan
Washington, DC and Kabul: The World Bank and The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation, 2004, ISBN: 0-8213-5835-9, 160 pp.
The three objectives of the guide are: to provide a basic guide to the structures and processes of Afghani government; to provide reformers with some understanding of how to work ‘with the grain’ of the existing institutional arrangements; and to pay tribute to the people who have maintained and are now reforming the system. It sets out the evolution of the Afghan state, the political context, and the administrative and organisational components of the government. The main conclusion is to ‘handle the existing arrangements with care’.
Evian, Clive
Primary HIV/AIDS Care
Oxford: Macmillan Education, 2005 (revised edition), ISBN: 1-4050-6386-6, 342 pp.
This is an updated edition of a practical guide for frontline primary health care workers in the clinical and supportive care of people with HIV/AIDS. The illustrated handbook includes information on testing, counselling, anti-retroviral therapy, the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and children, HIV-associated conditions, care of the terminally ill, and ethical considerations in dealing with HIV/AIDS.
Giffen, Janice and Lucy Earle, with Charles Buxton
The Development of Civil Society in Central Asia
Oxford: INTRAC, 2005, ISBN: 1-897748-75-2, 197 pp.
Based on research undertaken in Central Asia between 1999 and 2003, this book examines civil society in the various countries in the region, and illustrates the impact of internal and external forces, both historical and contemporary, in shaping the evolution of civil society organisations in the post-Soviet context, including political parties, religious groups, NGOs, and labour unions.
Gret, Marion and Yves Sintomer, translated by Stephen Wright
The Porto Alegre Experiment: Learning Lessons for Better Democracy
London: Zed Books Ltd, 2005, ISBN 1 84277405 0, 141pp.
In 1988 a left wing coalition known as the ‘Popular Front’ was swept to power as the municipal government in Porto Alegre, Brazil. They started an innovative endeavour: the participation of the city’s residents in the setting of the municipal budget. This book is about how and whether this democratic innovation works and if it is possible, not to copy the model, but to use such an example to stimulate a renewal of democratic institutions elsewhere in the world. It brings up questions about how inhabitants can actively participate in democracy going past the public vote, to give more control of political processes to the population. This book will be relevant to scholars, politicians and those campaigning for a deepening of democratic institutions worldwide.
Hippler, Jochen (ed.)
Nation-Building: A Key Concept for Peaceful Conflict Transformation
London: Pluto Press, 2005 (first published in German, 2004), ISBN: 0 7453 2336 7, 202 pp.
In a time characterised by globalisation, humanitarian interventions, and ‘liberal protectorates’, the question of nation building has occupied an important place in development policy since the failed intervention in Somalia. The author hopes to contribute towards broadening and systematising our understanding of the processes. Part I deals with the general and conceptual problems; Part II is an analysis of important cases from Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, and Part III focuses on the political aspects that range from viewing nation building as an variant of ‘interest politics’ for controlling other societies, to a development approach to achieve stabilisation. Hippler concludes that it is worth forming manageable, unified political concepts provided that it is possible to resist the instrumentalisation of nation building as new form of imperialism.
Klein, Axel, Marcus Day and Anthony Harriot (eds.)
Caribbean Drugs: From Criminalization to Harm Reduction
London: Zed Books, 2004, ISBN 1-84277-499-9, 272 pp.
The book underlines the dimensions of the illicit drugs market in the Caribbean, and examines the region’s experiences since a coordinated approach to criminalising the problem was adopted in part under US pressure. It argues that the origins of the problem lie in the neo-liberal economic policies that have opened up the region’s borders and undermined its traditional sources of employment and exports, namely bananas and sugar. Serious human and social consequences have resulted from the criminalisation of traditional cultural practices in relation to the consumption of ‘ganja’.
Lele, Uma
The CGIAR at 31: An Independent Meta-Evaluation of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
Washington, DC: The World Bank Operations Evaluation Department (OED), 2004, ISBN: 9 780821 356456, 220 pp.
This report is part of an independent review by the OED of the World Bank’s involvement in global programmes through the CGIAR. This consists of 16 autonomous research centres and is the largest global programme supported by the Bank, having received US$390 million since it was founded in 1971. One of the conclusions is that the CGIAR’s founding principles are ‘unsuited to ensuring poverty impacts in a changed environment’, and that while its ‘productivity-enhancing research has had sizeable impacts on reducing poverty’, further improvements in agricultural productivity are critical to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015.
Levy, Sarah (ed.)
Starter Packs: A Strategy to Fight Hunger in Developing Countries?
Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0-85199-008-8, 320 pp. + CD-ROM.
Despite repeated interventions by governments, donors, and NGOs, food insecurity continues and many countries continue to rely on food aid. To address this problem, the original idea of the Starter Pack was to give a bag of fertiliser and seed to every smallholder farmer in Malawi. Although the programme did not work as originally intended, it helped to achieve national food security. The scaling down of the programme contributed to the food crisis that hit Malawi and other countries in 2002. This book (with accompanying CD) assesses the project and its replicability.
Lipschutz, Ronnie D. with James K.Rowe
Globalization, Governmentality and Global Politics, Regulation for the rest of us?
London and New York: Routledge, 2005, ISBN0 415 70160 0, 253 pp.
A growing number of NGOs, social movements, lobbying groups, and even business associations and corporations are crossing political, cultural, institutional and territorial borders in an effort to globalise social activism, campaign for a ‘just’ world order and human rights and social and environmental regulation, in a largely unregulated capitalist system and asks who should regulate international trade and how? The book provides case studies on the clothing industry, forestry and corporate responsibility and discusses the issues and problems that have given rise to social movements. This book will be interesting reading for those interested in globalisation, civil society, citizenship and human rights.
Little, Jo and Carol Morris (eds.)
Critical Studies in Rural Gender Issues
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0-7546-3517-1, 164 pp.
Gender studies are increasingly recognised as central to rural research and to the understanding of rural, social, and economic relationships. This edited volume brings together a range of social scientists to examine new perspectives on gender and ‘rurality’. Combining theoretical debates with a range of original empirical research, the book introduces new material on gender identity and on masculinity and femininity in rural areas
Mancuso Brehm, Vicky, with Emma Harris-Curtis, Luciano Padrão, and Martin Tanner
Autonomy or Dependence? Case Studies of North-South NGO Partnerships
Oxford: INTRAC, 2004, ISBN: 1-897748-72-4, 207 pp.
This book examines the concept of partnership from the perspectives of a range of European NGOs and their ‘partner’ organisations in the South, and illustrates the central importance of financial control in shaping these relationships and in maintaining a hierarchy of power. The key role played by individuals within these partnerships is also stressed in a series of case studies from Brazil, Cambodia, and Tanzania. The authors contend that future international partnerships will revolve more around joint advocacy and networking than around the simple transfer of funds.
Mayo, Marjorie
Global Citizens: Social Movements and the Challenge of Globalization London: Zed Books, 2005, ISBN: 1-84277-139-6, 240 pp.
The book sets out to explore the lessons from social movements that challenge the New World Economic Order. Using case studies, it explores how NGOs, community organisations, and the labour movement can develop effective campaigning alliances without becoming institutionalised; how they can maintain an effective balance between immediate gains and longer-term strategies for transformation; how they can work with celebrities to gain media attention; and how social movements can develop organisational forms that are genuinely representative and democratically accountable. The book concludes by identifying lessons for challenging neo-liberal agendas and developing more transformatory approaches.
Mazurana, Dyan, Angela Raven-Roberts, and Jane Parpart (eds.)
Gender, Conflict, and Peacekeeping
Lanham, MD and Oxford, 2005, ISBN: 0-7425-3633-5, 304 pp.
This edited volume draws on a wide range of contributors – international policy makers, aid workers, peacekeepers, and academics – whose experiences span major recent conflict and post-conflict contexts in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America. Contributors underline the role of gender in the intersection of armed conflict and political violence, peacekeeping, and humanitarian operations, insisting on the critical importance of applying an analysis of gender relations to these issues, differentiating the way in which these affect women and men, and stressing the need to incorporate women’s perspectives in these and in the subsequent peace-building activities.
Midlarsky, Manus I.
The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-521-89469-7, 412 pp.
The book offers a comparative analysis of the genocides, politicides, and ethnic cleansing of the twentieth century, which are estimated to have cost 40 million lives, and seeks to understand the occurrence and magnitude of genocide as a means of contributing towards future prevention. The author compares socio-economic circumstances and international contexts, and includes in this analysis European Jews, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Tutsi in Rwanda, black Africans in Darfur, and Cambodians, Bosnians, and the victims of conflict in Ireland. The occurrence of genocide is explained by means of a framework that gives equal emphasis to the non-occurrence of genocide; and victims are given a prominence equal to that of perpetrators in understanding the magnitude.
Pearce, Nick and Will Paxton (eds.)
Social justice: building a fairer Britain
London: Politico’s Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-84275-133-6, 406 pp.
In this book, contributors attached to the Institute for Public Policy Research analyse what the government can do to build a fairer society in the UK. The book articulates the principles of social justice, and sets out the radical reforms needed to create equality of opportunity in Britain in relation to issues such as education, social mobility, the welfare state, migration, environmental sustainability, and taxation.
Prahalad, C. K.
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits
Philadelphia, PA: Wharton School Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0 1314 6750 6, 496 pp, plus CD-ROM.
Prahalad argues that private business can help to reduce poverty while also making a profit by creating new markets for products and services aimed at the poor – those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. He challenges misconceptions about the purchasing power, delivery infrastructure, and consumption habits of the poor that have discouraged companies from entering these markets. The book includes12 case studies of businesses that have become involved in this market ranging from the Aravind Eye Care System, the Indian prosthesis maker JaipurFoot, and the computer software conglomerate ITC in India, to the Mexican cement manufacturer CEMEX.
Prunier, Gérard
Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide
London: C. Hurst & Co., 2005, ISBN: 1-85065-770-X, 212 pp.
Following the 1984-1985 Sahelian famine an insurgency was countered by means including the massacre of peasants and burning of their villages. While some referred to this as genocide, the government of Sudan claimed that it was ethnic conflict out of control. More recent events in Darfur have raised the question of how genocide is defined, with some using a crude mortality rate (possibly 300,000 by the end of 2004) with others, including the UN, determining this mainly on intent. The author traces the history of Darfur and explains recent events in this light, in order to ask whether Sudan will remain the centralised ‘Arab’ country it has been since independence, or whether it will embark on the ‘probably painful’ process of reflecting an ‘African’ majority. The fact that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement excludes Darfur does not give cause for optimism.
Quisumbing, Agnes R., Jonna P. Estudillo and Keijiro Otsuka
Land and Schooling: Transferring Wealth Across Generations
Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, 0-8018-7842-X, 304 pp.
The authors identify the factors affecting land inheritance and schooling across generations in the Philippines, Indonesia and Ghana. Based on household surveys, they examine how these factors affect the distribution of income and spending in the household overall and among its individual members. They look at how these differences in land holdings and education affect what sons and daughters will earn over their lifetimes. To help correct gender inequalities, the authors consider policies to encourage adoption of labour-intensive agricultural technologies, to extend school systems in rural areas, to promote competition in off-farm labour markets, and to eliminate discrimination against women.
Rolnik, Raquel and Renato Cymbalista
Communities and Local Government: Three Case Studies in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Geneva: UNRISD, 2004, ISSN: 1020-8186, 17 pp.
This paper describes three forms of collaboration between the São Paulo local government, civil society organisations (CSOs), and community groups, begun during the 1989-1993 Workers’ Party administration. The first case is the ‘participatory budget’: a citywide process that involved hundreds of CSOs, tens of thousands of residents, and many civil servants and party activists. The second is the ‘Recyclable Materials Collectors’ Cooperative’ creating decent employment for homeless men in collecting and recycling discarded materials. The third is a model for self-governed mutual assistance housing cooperatives. This paper considers the complex history, backgrounds, and tensions within the projects, their waxing and waning, and the consequences at local and national level. The overall impact on the ‘social reality’ of Brazil was ‘disappointing’ in view of the immense barriers to the redistribution of wealth and power. Now, with the Workers’ Party holding local and federal government, will be a telling period in terms of the capacity to reverse Brazil’s historical inequality.
Sachs, Jeffrey
Investing in Development: a practical plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
London: Earthscan, 2005, ISBN: 1-84407-217-7, 329 pp.
The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by Kofi Annan to develop a plan of action for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and reported in January 2005. This book brings together the core recommendations for investment strategies and approaches to financing them that will allow even the poorest countries to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
Save the Children (UK)
Children’s Feedback Committees in Zimbabwe: An Experiment in Humanitarian Accountability
Harare: SCF (UK), 2005, ISBN: 0-7974-2933-6, 60 pp.
This publication represents an exploration of children’s feedback committees that were established during the height of the food aid intervention in Zimbabwe during 2003-2004. The project was designed to show how children are affected both positively and negatively by food distributions. The process of working with the communities, establishing children’s committees, and responding to inefficient or inequitable processes in the delivery of emergency assistance, are all examined in light of this initiative.
Starik, Mark and Sanjay Sharma, with Carolyn Egri and Rich Bunch
New Horizons in Research on Sustainable Organisations: Emerging Ideas, Approaches and Tools for Practitioners and Researchers
Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 1-874719-77-2, 228 pp.
Contributors in this ‘academic-practitioner’ collaboration argue that the environment and the economy are not in conflict, but could reinforce each other. The sustainable corporation is not in contradiction with society because it encompasses ethical awareness, social responsibility, and environmental consideration; profitability being assumed. This will not happen overnight, however. For instance, Exxon and Mobil are two of several companies that organised against the Kyoto Protocol, through the Global Climate Coalition.
Stern, Nicholas, Jean Jacques Dethier and F. Halsey Rogers (eds.)
Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-262-19517-8, 488 pp.
This book is based on Stern’s lectures from 2002, though he argues that his ideas have since evolved, based on his time as chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank (after which he worked at the British Treasury). The lectures are entitled ‘Experience’, Strategy’, ‘Research’, and ‘Action’. Much of the world remains plagued by poverty and its attendant problems. Stern’s strategy rests on ‘building an investment climate that facilitates investment and growth’ and ‘empowering and investing in poor people so that they participate in that growth’. These approaches differ from the command economy models of the 1950s and 1960s, and from the dogmatic market fundamentalism of the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors seek to ‘offer a strategy that both guides action and provides a program for learning’ as well as ‘an analytical framework for action’ for the international development community.
Sweetman, Caroline (ed.)
Gender and the Millennium Development Goals
Oxford: Oxfam GB, 2005, ISBN: 0-85598-550-X, 117 pp.
This collection (a reprint of an issue of Gender and Development) focuses on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from a gender perspective. Contributors examine the strengths and weaknesses of this way of understanding and addressing poverty, and suggest ways of strengthening the approach by using key insights and approaches associated with the decades-long fight to establish and uphold the rights of women.
Taylor, Rupert (ed.)
Creating a Better World: Interpreting Global Civil Society
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2004, ISBN: 1-56549-189-0, 210 pp.
This edited volume includes both theoretical and case-study accounts of contemporary global movements ranging from the well-publicised demonstrations at Seattle, Genoa, and so on through to environmental and labour movements, to NGOs, to grassroots organisations such as Slum/Shack Dwellers International. Their overall belief is that global civil society networks are able to create a just global order.
Teunissen, Jan Joost and Age Akkerman (eds.)
Helping the poor? The IMF and Low-Income Countries
The Hague: FONDAD, 2005, ISBN 90-7-4208-25-8: 235 pp.
Contributors to this edited volume include policy makers from the IMF and the World Bank and the topics covered include the dynamics of donors, recipients, and the IMF; institutional changes to prevent the recurrence of debt problems; and stepping up ambitions of the 1999 poverty reduction strategy (PRS). Discussing the successes and shortcomings of IMF and Bank support for poor countries, one contributor claims that the assistance ‘has remained insufficient, often mal-directed and still too much inspired by beliefs held in Washington’.
UNDP
Human Development Report 2005: international development at a crossroads - aid, trade and security in an unequal world
New York, NY: OUP, 2005, ISBN: 0-19-530511-6, 372 pp.
Available at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/
Most countries are off track for most of the MDG targets. This year’s HDR highlights the human cost of missed targets and broken promises. Extreme inequality between and within countries is one of the main barriers to human development and to the achievement of the MDGs. Practical action and new approaches to international cooperation are vital if the promise of the Millennium Declaration is to be realised. Focusing on aid, trade, and security, all central pillars of international cooperation, this Report analyses the problems, and identifies solutions, emphasising that rich countries need to align their policies with the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration.
UNFPA
State of World Population 2005: The Promise of Equality - Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals
New York, NY: United Nations Population Fund), 2005, 120 pp.
Available at http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/english/ch1/index.htm
In 2002, the UN Millennium Project brought together more than 250 experts to advise on how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Their conclusions are reflected in this annual report, which focuses on gender equity, reproductive health and the MDGs. It also contains worldwide statistics on infant mortality, life expectancy, education, births, contraception, HIV prevalence, and demographic, social, and economic indicators.
UNRISD
Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World
Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), 2005, ISBN: 92-9085-052-3, 303 pp.
This report focuses on areas of policy and institutional reform that are critical for the realisation of women’s rights and for efforts to achieve gender equality in an unequal world. It covers the key areas of macroeconomics, liberalisation, labour markets, work and social policy, politics and public life, gender and armed conflict, and peace building. Within these key issues, the report addresses eight of the twelve areas of concern articulated in the Beijing Platform for Action.
Waddell, Steve
Societal Learning and Change: How Governments, Business and Civil Society are Creating Solutions to Complex Multi-Stakeholder Problems
Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd., 2005, ISBN 1-874719-93-4, 164 pp.
The author presents eight diverse cases of remarkable change - of individuals, organisations, and society – and calls on readers to achieve their own aspirations for change. In response to globalisation and environmental crises, there is a complicated ‘paradigm shift’, particularly concerning the environment and society. Adapting to new challenges means that people in diverse social positions and with very different viewpoints need to be engaged, in ways that create new relationships between people, organisations, and sectors that share common interests but traditionally would not interact.
Wisner, Ben, Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon, and Ian Davis
At Risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters (2nd edn.)
London and New York, NY: Routledge, 2004, ISBN: 0-415-25216-4, 471 pp.
The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to major events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, with the implication that such catastrophes are in some sense unavoidable, unpredictable, and uniform in their effects. In this revised edition of their 1994 work, the authors examine the effects of disasters on different social groups (notably women, children, refugees and migrants, people with disabilities), focusing on natural disasters not as an aberration but as a failure of mainstream development. For instance, the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in Central America was intensified by the deforestation and occupation of marginal land that has been caused by the growth in agro-export such as beef cattle ranching and extensive plantations of cotton, banana, and African palm. The authors look both at the root causes of vulnerability in relation to, for instance, the global economy, and at the reasons why some households and individuals are more vulnerable than others.
World Bank
Global Monitoring Report 2005: Millennium Development Goals – from Consensus to Momentum
Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2005, ISBN: 0-82-13-6077-9, 256 pp.
This report is the second in an annual series assessing progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and related development outcomes, and focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. It presents in-depth analysis of the agenda and priorities for action, discusses the necessary improvements in policies and governance in developing countries, and examines actions that developed countries must take to provide more and better development aid and to reform their trade policies. It also evaluates how international financial institutions can strengthen their support for this agenda. The report concludes that without rapid action to accelerate progress, the MDGs will be seriously jeopardised – especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
World Bank
World Development Indicators
Washington DC: The World Bank, 2005, ISBN: 0-8213-6071-X, 403 pp.
Providing statistics that illustrate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report also includes comprehensive development-related statistics for 152 countries.
BOOKS RECEIVED IN 2004
Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP)
Humanitarian Action: Improving monitoring to enhance accountability and learning
ALNAP Annual Review
London: ODI, 2003, ISBN: 0 85003 632 1, 216 pp.
This book provides an overview of how evaluations performed in 2003, drawing out some common findings. These findings suggest that the humanitarian sector is becoming more effective at delivering basic services. However, the sector has been less successful in putting into practice its rhetorical commitment to a rights-based approach to humanitarian relief. This review aims to provide a common basis for developing shared agendas and approaches so that current shortcomings in humanitarian action can be better addressed in the future.
Afshar, Haleh and Deborah Eade (eds.)
Development, Women, and War: Feminist Perspectives
Oxford: Oxfam GB, 2004, ISBN: 0 85598 487 2, 385 pp.
This volume offers an overview of different feminist approaches to peace building and conflict resolution, and puts forward concrete policy measures to achieve these ends. With discussions of long-running conflicts in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, contributors argue for the need to understand the underlying gendered power relations and the dynamics of social change in conflict and post-conflict situations.
Antrobus, Peggy
The Global Women’s Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies
London: Zed Books, ISBN: 1 84277 017 9, 210 pp.
Part of Zed’s ‘Global Issues in a Changing World’ series, this book analyses the spread and consolidation of the women’s movement in the North and the South over the past 30 years. Drawing on her long experience of feminist activism, the author sets women's movements in their changing national and global contexts. Some of the questions she explores include how far women have gone in the struggle against gender inequality, the challenges confronting women’s movements, and how these can be addressed.
Baumgarten, Ruedi and Ruedi Högger, (eds.)
In Search of Sustainable Livelihood Systems: Managing Resources and Change
London: Sage Publications, 2004, ISBN: 0 7619 9808 X, 396 pp.
Adopting a holistic approach to rural livelihood systems, this volume maintains that a livelihood system embraces not only the economic conditions for physical subsistence, but also the elements that provide material continuity and cultural meaning to communal life. The book highlights the survival strategies of rural families and explores a wide range of rural livelihood systems, mostly in India.
Berg-Schlosser, Dirk and Norbert Kersting, (eds.)
Poverty and Democracy: Self-Help and Political Participation in Third World Cities
London: Zed Books, 2003, ISBN: 1 8427 7205 8, 237 pp.
This book examines the intersection between poverty and democracy from the perspective of shantytown dwellers in Brazil, Chile, Ivory Coast, and Kenya. Through the use of surveys, the contributors attempt to capture the view of the urban poor on matters regarding membership in interest groups and political parties, attitudes towards democracy, and questions of trust and representation. An interesting finding is that the poor engage in politics as a way of escaping their poverty.
Bourdieu, Pierre
Firing Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market 2
London: Verso, 2004, ISBN: 1 85984 658 0, 96 pp.
In this collection of essays, Bourdieu dissects the claims of neo-liberalism, and calls for an international social movement capable of forming a counterforce to capitalist globalisation.
Burnell, Peter and Oliver Morrissey, (eds.)
Foreign Aid in the New Global Economy
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2004, ISBN: 1 84376 280 3, 656 pp.
The understanding of the role of aid as an instrument of economic, social, and political change has undergone significant transformation over the past 50 years. This volume brings together major contributions to the analysis of aid written from the 1970s to the present. The collection, structured around key issues and debates, is intended as a reference work for policy makers and practitioners.
Carothers, Thomas
Critical Mission: Essays on Democracy Promotion
Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004, ISBN: 0 87003 209 7, 300 pp.
The wars in Afghansitan and Iraq have placed the question of external involvement in establishing democracy to the forefront of the international agenda. Written by a leading authority on the promotion of democracy, this collection brings together some of Carothers’s best known and most widely cited essays, organised around four themes: the role of democracy promotion in US foreign policy; the key elements of democracy aid; the state of democracy in the world; and the push by the current US administration to promote democracy in the Middle East.
Center for Development and Human Rights
The Right to Develop: A Primer
With an Introduction by Stephen Marks, Harvard University
Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, 2004, ISBN: 0 7619 3212 7, 294 pp.
This book introduces the concept of the Right to Development (RTD), a rights-based approach that seeks to integrate the norms and principles of human rights with policies to promote development. The first part of the volume traces the origins and evolution of RTD, focusing in particular on rights related to food, education, health, and women’s rights. The second part of the book addresses RTD in the Indian context.
Chakraborti, Rajagopal Dhar
The Greying of India: Population Ageing in the Context of Asia
New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004, ISBN: 81 7829 279 3, 470 pp.
A rapid transition from high to relatively low mortality and fertility rates has altered the age composition of India’s population. The country’s elderly population has grown considerably, and this book argues that there is an urgent need for policies that protect older people against various risks and allow them to maintain as much economic independence as possible without disturbing intergenerational balances.
Dale, Reidar
Evaluating Development Programmes and Projects
New Delhi: sage Publications, 2004 (2nd ed.), ISBN: 0 7619 3310 7, 212 pp.
Now in its second edition, this book looks at the focus, scope, and methodology of the evaluation of development programmes and projects. Written from a practice-oriented perspective, the book offers a general conceptual and analytical framework of evaluation, emphasises organisational questions and issues of capacity building, and assesses the proper application of various evaluation tools.
Devas, Nick, with Philip Amis, Jo Beall, Ursula Grant, Diana Mitlin, Fiona Nunan, and Carole Rakodi
Urban Governance, Voice and Poverty in the Developing World
London: Earthscan, ISBN: 1 85383 993 0, 224 pp.
This book focuses on relationship between urban governance and urban poverty. Looking at ten cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the authors find that the trends towards decentralisation and democratisation can offer new opportunities for the poor to influence the decisions that affect them. The book provides insights and examples that may be of relevance to other cities, and outlines policy implications for national and local governments, NGOs, and donor agencies.
Donini, Antonio, Norah Niland, and Karin Wermester (eds.)
Nation-Building Unravelled? Aid, Peace and Justice in Afghanistan
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2003, ISBN: 1 56549 180 7, 256 pp.
With contributions from practitioners directly involved in the Afghan crisis, this book examines the challenges and opportunities involved in responding to conflict, injustice, and insecurity. The Afghanistan experience is used as illustration of the way in which emerging international ‘ordering’ practices are affecting the role and policy of international organisations, their interaction with national authorities and local communities, and their ability to generate just and sustainable social outcomes.
Dunkley, Graham
Free Trade: Myth, Reality and Alternatives
London: Zed Books, 2004, ISBN: 1 85649 863 8, 265 pp.
Part of Zed’s ‘Global Issues’ series, this book argues that the uncritical embrace of free trade is problematic because it assumes that this has universal and unequivocal benefits for all people and countries, when in reality these benefits are more limited and contingent. The author calls for more interventionist, self-reliant trade policies that view development in more holistic terms.
Englund, Harri and Francis B. Nyamnjoh, (eds.)
Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa
London: Zed Books, ISBN: 1 84277 283 X, 290 pp.
This book asks what the study of Africa can contribute to understanding the ‘politics of recognition’, understood in terms of identity politics and the self-image of those seeking recognition. Contributors examine the consequences of introducing liberal institutions to African realities, and how Africans’ ways of claiming rights may challenge what they consider to be dominant Western ideas and institutions.
Farazmand, Ali (ed.)
Administrative Reform in Developing Nations
Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002, ISBN: 0 275 97212 7, 270 pp.
In the context of globalisation and under pressure from international financial institutions (IFIs), developing and transition countries have undertaken significant reforms to streamline their public sector and promote a private, corporate-driven marketplace. However, as the fallacies embedded in marketplace ideology become more apparent, some countries are now adopting an approach to administrative reform that takes more account issues of equity, fairness, and market failure. This book is illustrated by examples from several countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Fung, Archon and Erik Olin Wright, (eds.)
Deepening democracy: Institutional innovations in empowered participatory governance
London: Verso Books, 2003, ISBN: 1 85984 466 9, 224 pp.
Available at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Deepening.pdf
Part of the Real Utopias Project, this volume explores four contemporary cases in which the principles of a deliberative democracy have been at least partially instituted, namely participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre; school-decentralisation councils and community-policing councils in Chicago; stakeholder councils in environmental protection and habitat management; and decentralised governance structures in Kerala.
Gardner, Judith and Judy El Bushra, (eds.)
Somalia – The Untold Story: The War Through the Eyes of Somali Women
London: Pluto Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 7453 2208 5, 257 pp.
In this edited volume, women from Somalia write and talk about the war that devastated their country in the 1990s. They explain the changes and opportunities that the war brought to their lives, and how they coped with them. Key themes include sexual violence as a weapon of war; changing roles in the family; and women’s efforts to promote peace and post-war reconstruction.
Gibson, Edward, (ed.)
Federalism: Latin America in Comparative Perspective
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 8018 7424 6, 392 pp.
Seeking to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of federal systems, this volume addresses the question of how and when federal institutions matter in terms of policy making and democratic practice. Contributions include case studies on four such systems in Latin America - Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela - and analyse their experiences in dealing with issues including the formation and evolution of federal structures, democratisation, electoral representation, and economic reform.
Gresh, Alain and Dominique Vidal
The New A-Z of the Middle East
London: I.B. Tauris, 2004, ISBN: 1 86064 326 4, 464 pp.
This guide offers an overview of the various social, religious, and economic trends, political events, and leading personalities that have shaped the Middle East. The book covers the political issues that have affected the region since the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the current crisis in Iraq, and the status of political Islam throughout the region.
Hamdi, Nabeel
Small Change: About the art and practice and the limits of planning in cities
London: Earthscan, ISBN: 1 84407 005 0, 184 pp.
This book celebrates the creativity, spontaneity, and ingenuity of the ‘informal city’, and the long-term, large-scale effectiveness of immediate, small-scale actions. As slum dwellers organise to address common problems, the author examines the potential of small innovations in bringing about lasting change. The book provides successful ‘scale-up’ examples from both the North and the South.
Hutt, Michael (ed.)
Himalayan ‘People’s War’: Nepal’s Maoist Rebellion
London: C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 2004, ISBN: 1 85065 722 X, 322 pp.
In 1996, a Maoist insurgency erupted in Nepal, calling for the overthrow of the political establishment and the abolition of the monarchy. This book provides the historical and socio-political context to this civil war, and examines recent peace-making efforts.
Ibrahim, Jibin
Democratic Transition in Anglophone West Africa
Dakar: CODESRIA, 2003, ISBN: 2 86978 122 9, 88 pp.
This study analyses democratic transition in the five countries of Anglophone West Africa, identifying some of the main regional trends and specificities. The author highlights issues such as the rise of a militarised security state; the increase in public corruption; the battle for deepening democracy between civil society and the state; and the growing disengagement between elections and political choice. He then discusses the case of Ghana as an acceptable regional model, and Liberia as a failed one.
Ismael, Tareq Y. and Jacqueline S. Ismael
The Iraqi predicament: people in the quagmire of power politics
London: Pluto Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 7453 2149 6, 271 pp.
This book on the role of Iraq in world politics provides an analysis of Saddam Hussein’s regime and of his influence in the Middle East. The authors also explore the impact that the UN, economic sanctions, and war have had on the Iraqi population and on related humanitarian issues, arguing that the country’s internal welfare system essentially collapsed after the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Jawara, Fotoumata and Aileen Kwa
Behind the scenes at the WTO: The Real World of International Trade Negotiations: Lessons from Cancun
London: Zed Books, 2004 (updated edition), ISBN: 1 84277 311 9, 330 pp.
Based on in-depth interviews with Geneva-based missions to the WTO and WTO Secretariat staff members, the authors argue that not all WTO member countries are equal, that decisions remain shrouded in secrecy and are often made without the full approval of developing countries, and that US and EU delegations frequently resort to illegitimate pressures and inducements to bring delegations from poorer countries into their fold.
Juma, Monica Kathina and Astri Suhrke, (eds.)
Eroding Local Capacity: International Humanitarian Action in Africa
Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2003, ISBN: 91 7106 502 4, 205 pp.
This book offers a critical examination of the interplay among international and local actors involved in humanitarian action in Africa. Despite the consensus that local capacity for humanitarian action needs to be strengthened, the results so far have been poor, and in some cases local capacity is overwhelmed by the presence of international aid. Drawing on cases from East Africa and the Horn, the book looks at institutional capacity in the public and private sector, as well as at the legal and social norms of humanitarian action.
Karagiannis, Nathalie
Avoiding Responsibility: The Politics and Discourse of European Development Policy
London: Pluto Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 7453 2189 5, 195 pp.
This book analyses three key terms of European development discourse: ‘responsibility’, ‘efficiency’, and ‘giving’. Situating these in the context of European post-colonial politics, the author argues that European policy has shifted from accepting responsibility for colonialism to the widespread view that the former colonies are responsible for their own fate.
Kaufman, Robert and Joan Nelson, (eds.)
Crucial Needs, Weak Incentives: Social Sector Reform, Democratization and Globalization in Latin America
Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 8018 8082 3, 550 pp.
This book looks at the politics of health and education reform in Latin America in the 1990s. Contributors analyse the political processes through which reforms in these two sectors were brought about, diluted, or blocked. Through case studies and comparative essays, they examine the principal actors in the ‘reform story’, their preferences and power resources, and the ways in which their choices and interactions were shaped by national and international structures and institutions.
Kessides, Ioannis N.
Reforming Infrastructure: Privatization, Regulation, and Competition
A World Bank Policy Research Report
Washington, DC and New York, NY: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 8213 5070 6, 306 pp.
Since the 1980s, many governments have attempted to implement far-reaching reforms—including restructuring, privatisation, and the establishment of new approaches to regulation—to improve the quality of their infrastructure. Exploring the challenges involved in such massive policy changes for developing and transition economies, this volume also addresses some of the distributional consequences of such reforms for poor households and marginalised groups. The book draws on a range of international experiences and empirical studies to make recommendations on the direction of future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance.
Krumm, Kathie and Homie Kharas (eds.)
East Asia Integrates: A Trade Policy Agenda for Shared Growth
Washington, DC and New York, NY: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 8213 5514 7, 202 pp.
Strategic rethinking of development in East Asia following the 1997-1998 crisis and China’s accession to the WTO have led policy makers to seek to establish a coherent set of economic policies that deliver stability, growth, and regional integration. This volume provides strategies to promote trade, both globally and regionally, and discusses domestic policies that could maximise the impact of trade flows on development and distribute the gains from trade more widely.
Mathur, Kanchan
Countering Gender Violence: Initiatives Towards Collective Action in Rajasthan
New Delhi: Sage Publications, ISBN: 0 7619 3245 3, 380 pp.
Based on the experiences of rural women in Rajasthan, this book analyses gender violence as the product of the social, cultural, and economic norms within which gender power relations are embedded, and calls for ways in which such dynamics can be altered to better protect women. The book examines the role played by NGOs in breaking the silence surrounding this issue and offers a critical assessment of the Women’s Development Programme of the Government of Rajasthan.
McCarthy, Julie
Enacting Participatory Development: Theater-Based Techniques
London: Earthscan, 2004, ISBN: 1 84407 111 1, 151 pp.
This comprehensive sourcebook advocates the use of theatre in participatory development as a way for groups to discover their goals and aspirations, and to develop strategies to improve their lives. The book presents exercises that can be used at all stages of participatory workshops, with explanations and commentaries from experienced practitioners. The author also contextualises theatre for development practice within current debates on empowerment and participation, and offers case studies as illustrations.
Mebrahtu, Esther
Putting Policy into Practice: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in Ethiopia
Oxford: INTRAC, 2004, ISBN: 1 897748 82 5, 236 pp.
This study explores attempts by eight international NGOs to use participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) systems to strengthen local participation in rural interventions in Ethiopia. The author uses an approach based on agency and structure to assess the extent to which both actors and their choices and structural constraints determine organisational behaviour. While the study concludes that organisational change is largely determined by structural considerations, staff discretion and ‘agency’ can be critical levers for innovation.
Millet, Damien and Eric Toussaint
Who Owes Who?
London: Zed Books, 2004, ISBN: 1 84277 427 1, 200 pp.
This comprehensive guide to the debt crisis explains how poor countries have become so heavily indebted, and how they may escape the web in which they are trapped. The authors lay out the moral, political, economic, legal, and environmental arguments for the wholesale cancellation of debt, and reply to some of the most commonly raised objections.
Montero, Alfred P. and David J. Samuels, (eds.)
Decentralization and Democracy in Latin America
Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 268 02559 2, 309 pp.
While decentralisation has been a key element in the transformation of Latin American states since the 1980s, the process has been uneven even within countries. With specific reference to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela, contributors focus on the political determinants of decentralisation, arguing that political choices and political institutions have played a major role in explaining the variation in the form, degree, and success of decentralisation in Latin America.
Montgomery, John D. and Dennis A. Rondinelli, (eds.)
Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Lessons from Development Experience
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, ISBN: 1 4039 6511 0, 240 pp.
This book provides an analysis of the attempts at nation building in a country that has been devastated by more than a century of conflict. Placing the current crisis in Afghansitan in its historical context, the contributors call attention to the limitations of ambitious state-building projects, focusing on the interaction of the goals of external and domestic actors, and highlighting the paramount need to understand the internal environment and the needs of the society receiving assistance.
Oxhorn, Philip, Andrew Selee, and Joseph Tulchin, (eds.)
Decentralization, Democratic Governance, and Civil Society in Comparative Perspective: Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, ISBN: 0 8018 7919 1, 351 pp.
This volume analyses the relationship between decentralisation and democratisation at both the intermediate and the local level of government, in particular how decentralisation is transforming the nature of state-society relations. The book presents case studies on Chile, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Africa.
Polet, François and CETRI (eds.)
Globalizing Resistance: The State of the Struggle
London: Pluto Press in association with the Tricontinental Centre (CENTRI), 2004, ISBN: 07453 2355 3, 328 pp.
With contributions from writers and activists from around the world, this book analyses the movement against neo-liberal globalisation from an international perspective. Contributors look at contemporary struggles against capitalism, privatisation, and social exclusion, examine what such resistance has achieved so far, and discuss the challenges ahead. The World Social Forums of Porto Alegre and Mumbai are highlighted as important sites for exchanging ideas and forging a common agenda.
Rai, Shirin M., (ed.)
Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State? Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003, ISBN: 0 7190 5978 X, 320 pp.
Contributors explore the relevance of national systems for the advancement of women, appropriate mechanisms for facilitating gender mainstreaming, and the ways in which ‘interests of women’ are represented in state policy-making structures. Case studies from Central and Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries, and Uganda are used to assess the extent to which global strategies for the advancement of women have been absorbed at the national level, with examples also drawn from Australia, Lebanon, and South Korea. See also Shirin M. Rai (2000) International Perspectives on Gender and Democratization, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rieff, David
A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2002, ISBN: 0 684 80977 X, 384 pp.
Rieff argues that humanitarian organisations work in an ever more violent and dangerous world in which they are often betrayed and manipulated, and have themselves increasingly lost sight of their purpose. Civil wars and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the 1990s showed that humanitarian aid can only do so much to alleviate suffering, and sometimes can cause more harm than good. The author draws on first-hand accounts to maintain that humanitarian organisations have moved away from their founding principle of political neutrality and have slowly lost their independence. For a full review, see Development in Practice 15(1):122-3.
Rutter, Jill
Supporting Refugee Children in 21st Century Britain: A Compendium of Essential Information
Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books, 2003 (2nd ed.), ISBN: 1 85856 292 9, 312 pp.
In this updated edition, Rutter incorporates the most recent changes in legislation affecting refugee children and discusses developments in educational practice for refugee communities that have proved effective in promoting their learning. The book also provides background information on over 30 major refugee groups in the UK.
Scheyvens, Regina and Donovan Storey (eds.)
Development Fieldwork: A Practical Guide
London: Sage Publications, 2003, ISBN: 0 7619 4890 2, 265 pp.
This book introduces the basics of research design and methodology; provides suggestions on selecting the most appropriate research methods; offers ‘hands on’ advice; and addresses some of the key challenges facing development researchers in the field. The book draws on a diverse set of fieldwork experiences and uses case studies to illustrate key issues.
Schirch, Lisa
Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2004, ISBN: 1 56549 194 7, 224 pp.
While examples of peace building often centre on negotiations and formal problem-solving efforts, this book highlights the importance of symbolic tools and non-verbal ritual acts – such as shaking hands or sharing a meal – in bringing adversaries together. Drawing on examples from around the world, the author argues that ritual assists in solving complex, deep-rooted conflicts and helps transform worldviews, identities, and relationships.
Terry, Fiona
Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002, ISBN: 0 8014 8796 X, 304 pp.
The author, the former head of the French section of Médecins sans Frontières, argues that humanitarian organisations often fail to alleviate suffering, and may even exacerbate it, because of their short-sightedness. Terry maintains that agencies deploy aid often without taking the wider political context into account and without investigating or considering the ramifications of their aid. Drawing from case studies of refugee camps in the DRC, Honduras, Pakistan, and Thailand, she shows how aid for refugees may end up in the hands of the combatants.
World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization
A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All
Geneva: ILO, 2004, ISBN: 92 2 115426 2, 190 pp.
This report calls for an ‘urgent rethink’ of current policies and institutions of global governance to better harness the potential benefits of globalisation, and to make it more fair and inclusive. The report calls for fairer rules of international trade, investment, finance, and migration; the promotion of core labour rights; and renewed efforts to raise human capabilities to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
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