Book Shelf

Book Shelf offers brief details of a selection of relevant books and other published resources. To purchase any of these titles, please contact the publishers.

While the summaries are in English only, we do aim to highlight works that are either originally published or are also available in French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Please contact the if you have any comments or suggestions.

Authors: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Books published in 2010

  • Arsel, Murat, and Max Spoor (eds.)

    Abingdon, Routledge, 2010, ISBN 9780415461610, 284pp
     

    This book provides a set of empirical studies on Central Eurasia (Iraq, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia). The volume demonstrates that water scarcity cannot be taken for granted either as a conceptual or empirical certainty. Moreover, it reveals the interconnectedness of water politics with social, political and economic processes, arguing against silver-bullet solutions to poverty reduction and transboundary co-operation. The volume stresses the need for understanding the creation of more just and equitable socioeconomic systems as central to achieving sustainable development.

     

  • Jacobs, Susie

    Abingdon, Routledge, 2010, ISBN 9780415376488, 256pp
     

    The redistribution of land has profound implications for women and for gender relations; however, gender issues have been marginalised from both theoretical and policy discussions of agrarian reform. This book presents an overview of gender and agrarian reform experiences globally. It highlights case studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe and also compares agrarian and land reforms organised along collective lines as well as along individual household lines.
     

  • Roberts, David

    London, Zed Books, 2010, ISBN 9781848132177, 195pp
     

    This book delivers a critique of the neoliberal global order. It presents global governance not as impartial institutionalism, but as the calculated mismanagement of life, directing biopolitical, neoliberal ideology through global networks, undermining the human security of millions. The book responds to recent critiques of the human security concept as incoherent by identifying and prioritising transnational human populations facing life-ending contingencies en masse. Furthermore, it proposes a realignment of World Bank practices towards mobilising indigenous provision of water and sanitation in areas with the highest rates of avoidable child mortality.
     

  • Utting, Peter, and Jose Carlos Marques (eds.)

    Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, ISBN 9780230576445, 309pp
     

    Despite all the talk about the importance of stakeholders, transparency, corporate citizenship, and sustainability, the developmental and regulatory impacts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) remain questionable. This book assesses the global rise of private regulation and CSR from the perspective of social and sustainable development. It examines why the experience of CSR fails to meet its promise, what needs to be done to address the intellectual crisis of CSR, and forms of corporate accountability and regulation more conducive to inclusive patterns of development.
     

Books published in 2009

  • Ackerman, Frank
    Can We Afford the Future? The Economics of a Warming World
    London and New York, Zed Books, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-84813-038-8, 151pp

    Frank Ackerman looks at the economics of climate change, explaining how conventional economic theories impede understanding this problem. The benefits of climate protection are vital but priceless, and often devalued in cost-benefit calculations. Modest preparation for the most predictable outcomes of global warming is less important than secure protection against the growing risk of catastrophic change; massive investment in new, low-carbon technologies and industries is life insurance for the planet.

  • Agustin, Laura Maria
    Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
    London and New York, Zed Books, 2008, ISBN:978-1-84277-860-9, 248 pp
    The author critiques the stereotyped view that migrant sex workers are passive and disempowered, arguing that the label ‘trafficked’ does not accurately describe migrants’ lives and that the ‘rescue industry’ disempowers them. Based on extensive research among migrants who sell sex and social helpers, this book suggests that migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry and that although they are treated as a marginalised group, they form part of the dynamic global economy.

  • Morris, Stephen D.

    Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009, ISBN 9781588266804, 306pp
     

    The author addresses the questions of whether the fundamental shift in Mexico’s political system away from single-party, authoritarian rule has had any impact on the pattern of corruption that has plagued the country for years; and whether there is less or more corruption today, and whether different types of corruption have emerged. He also explores how the changes of the past decade – political, structural, institutional, and cultural – have affected the scope, nature and perception of political corruption in Mexico. His analysis sheds light on the impact of democratisation on political corruption, the conditions that make effective reform possible, and the limits of an institutional approach to understanding the corruption equation.

  • Abirafeh, Lina

    Jefferson NC, McFarland & Co.Inc., 2009, ISBN 9780786445196, 224pp
     

    Through the lens of gendered aid intervention, this book seeks to understand how the promise of freedom has largely fallen short – for both men and women in Afghanistan. Topics include the tenuous relationship between social indicators and aid dynamics; the advancing of the gender agenda through Afghanistan’s 2005 parliamentary elections; and the journey from policy formulation to interpretation to implementation through the voices of policy makers and implementers, NGO leaders, Afghanistan specialists, and ordinary Afghan women and men.

     

  • Ackerman, Frank

    Ackerman, Frank
    Can We Afford the Future? The Economics of a Warming World
    London and New York, Zed Books, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-84813-038-8, 151pp

    Frank Ackerman looks at the economics of climate change, explaining how conventional economic theories impede understanding this problem. The benefits of climate protection are vital but priceless, and often devalued in cost-benefit calculations. Modest preparation for the most predictable outcomes of global warming is less important than secure protection against the growing risk of catastrophic change; massive investment in new, low-carbon technologies and industries is life insurance for the planet.

  • Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon (ed.); Kay, Cristobal (ed.)

    Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon, and Cristobal Kay (eds.)
    Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation and the Agrarian Question
    Abingdon, Routledge, 2009, ISBN 9780415446297, 347pp
    This book explores continuity and change on the agrarian question from its early formulation in the late 19th century to its continuing relevance today. The contributors argue that neo-liberal social and economic policies have, in deepening the market imperative governing the contemporary world food system, not only failed to tackle the underlying causes of rural poverty, but deepened the agrarian crisis confronting the livelihoods of peasant farmers and rural workers. Transnational rural social movements are in response attempting to construct a more just future for the world’s farmers and rural workers.

  • Andress, Beate, and Patrick Belser (eds.)

    Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009, ISBN 9781588266897, 227pp
     

    Two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, at least 12.3 million people are subjected to modern forms of forced labour – in rich countries as well as poor ones. The authors in this volume present state-of-the-art research on the manifestations of these slavery-like practices, why they continue to survive, and how they can be eliminated.

     

  • Aoyama, Kaoru

    Aoyama, Kaoru
    Thai Migrant Sexworkers: From Modernization to Globalization
    Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, ISBN:978-0-230-52466-8, 237pp
    This study of sex work and trafficking in the globalised culture and economy offers a critique of increasingly stringent policing worldwide following the UN Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons. Using original data gathered through participatory action-research in Thailand and Japan the author presents a holistic description of a global phenomenon that successfully links personal troubles to larger social issues. The book depicts both temporal and geographical moves of migrant sex workers and demonstrates their personal development.

  • Ascher, William

    Ascher, William
    Bringing in the Future: Strategies for Farsightedness and Sustainability in Developing Countries
    Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2009, ISBN:978-0-226-02917-7, 288pp
    The author draws on recent research from psychology, economics, institutional design, and legal theory to suggest strategies to over come powerful obstacles to long-term planning in developing countries. Combining theory from cases in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Ascher shows how long-term thinking can be encouraged with examples including the creation and scheduling of tangible and intangible rewards, and analytical exercises to increase the understanding of longer-term consequences.

  • Atkinson, Jeffrey, and Martin Scurrah

    Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 9780230221130, 252pp
    This book looks at four campaigns in Asia and South America in which coalitions of international and national NGOs and grassroots community organisations agitated for change and to influence companies and governments, on issues such as labour rights, trade rules, and the impact of extractive industries on indigenous people. The authors use the case studies to draw out fundamental issues of legitimacy and accountability associated with such activities and to examine the role of NGOs in bringing about change. They also cover practical issues of democracy and participation within campaign networks and the relative effectiveness of different forms of advocacy.

  • Baviskar, B.S. (ed.) ; Mathew, George (ed.)

    Baviskar, B S, George Mathew (eds.)
    Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance: Field Studies from Rural India
    New Delhi, Sage, India, 2009, ISBN: 978-81-7829-860-3, 453pp
    This book brings together field studies from 42 panchayats in 12 states, to show how decentralisation is working in Indian villages. It analyses the social, political, and economic forces influencing variations in the degree of empowerment of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women and looks at likely future developments. The research methodology brings insights from a micro approach rather than macro-level generalities.

  • Bethke, Lynne, and Pamela Baxter

    Paris, International Institute for Educational Planning, 2009, ISBN 9789280313321, 194pp
     

    Alternative education programmes are increasingly implemented in emergency and post-conflict situations. This book reviews some of these programmes, including those providing alternative access, such as accelerated learning programmes and home-based or community-based schools. It also examines programmes that are alternative in curriculum provision, offering non-traditional subjects such as HIV/AIDS prevention or landmine awareness, and those that provide an alternative pedagogy, using more learner-centred and participatory techniques. Studies from Kenya, Nepal and Sierra Leone provide recommendations for sustainable planning and co-ordination.
     

  • Bhatnagar, Subhash

    New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2009, ISBN 9788178299280, 351pp
     

    This book serves as a practical guide for conceptualising and implementing e-government at the local, state and national levels and provides an overview of the global experience in implementing the same. It describes the evolution of e-government applications over a period of four years through cases and illustrations and explores its potential impact on cost of access, quality of service, quality of governance for citizens and businesses, and on transparency and corruption.

     

  • Brannelly, Laura, Susy Ndaruhutse, and Carole Rigaud

    Paris, International Institute for Educational Planning, 2009, ISBN 9789280313307, 255pp

    This book gives an overview of the policies, strategies and financial commitments of the 23 Western donors that constitute the OECD in relation to education in fragile and conflict-affected states. Three donors, including the EC, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and two international NGOs – the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children – were interviewed to draw out lessons learned and emerging good practice. A field visit to Liberia obtained a country perspective. Recommendations for deeper engagement by external stakeholders, and suggestions to advise recipient governments how to create an enabling environment, are also presented.
     

  • Bray, Mark

    Paris, International Institute for Educational Planning, 2009, ISBN 9789280313338, 132pp
     

    This book focuses on the so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring. In East Asia, such tutoring has long existed on a large scale, and is now becoming increasingly evident in parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The book begins by surveying the scale, nature and implications of the shadow education system in a range of settings. It then identifies possible government responses to the phenomenon. It encourages a proactive approach through which governments determine which types of tutoring they consider desirable and which types are problematic, and then design appropriate policies.

     

  • Burdick, John (ed.) ; Oxhorn, Philip (ed.); Roberts, Kenneth M. (ed.)

    Burdick, John, Philip Oxhorn, and Kenneth M. Roberts (eds.)
    Beyond Neoliberalism in Latin America? Societies and Politics at the Crossroads
    Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 9780230611795, 277pp
    While the neo-liberal model continues to dominate economic and political life in Latin America, people throughout the region have begun to formulate strategies about how to move beyond it. In this volume, 12 chapters investigate what alternatives are imagined, and how Latin Americans are seeking to articulate a future in which neo-liberalism is reconfigured.