Since the 1991-2002 civil conflict ended in Sierra Leone, the country has failed to translate the accomplishments of women’s involvement in bringing the war to an end into meaningful political empowerment. This is in marked contrast to other post-conflict countries, which have increased the political participation of women in elected and appointed office, increased the representation of women in leadership positions, and enacted constitutional reforms promoting women’s rights. Written by Sierra Leonean and Africanist scholars and experts from a broad range of disciplines, this unique volume analyses the historical and contextual factors influencing women’s political, economic and social development in the country. In drawing on a diverse array of case studies – from health to education, refugees to international donors – the contradictions, successes and challenges of women’s lives in a post-conflict environment are revealed, making this an essential book for anyone involved in women and development.

Far from the vision of popular actors in the popular economy as reactionary and archaic, stubbornly resisting any move towards change, this book's overall aim is to contribute to a broadening and deepening of our understanding of the logic and socio-economic practices of those operating in the informal economy. It focuses on the vulnerabilities of these participants, resulting from high exposure to different risks combined with low social protection, and on the interactions between vulnerability and poverty. It considers security of livelihoods as the guiding principle for multiple practices in the informal economy. Thirteen studies, based on careful analyses of empirical data in different contexts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, contribute to this multidisciplinary discussion. This book describes how people develop their own strategies to solve their problems through the use of interpersonal networks, associations, and other community-based arrangements. Moreover, it shows that informal economy actors systematically reposition themselves vis-a-vis the State, markets, international, and national policies with the aim of enhancing their economic and social security, and they may do this either individually or collectively. The book emphasizes how adaptability of the informal economy can be influenced by such factors as the macroeconomic context, access to financial, technological, and information resources, infrastructure, social protection schemes, and the institutional environment within which adaptations occur. Case studies stress the need to reformulate questions relating to policy intervention based on a more thorough understanding of the perspective of informal economy actors.

This book offers a collection of distinguished contributions that identify current growth accelerators in India, and suggest policies and strategies to make India's growth more sustainable and inclusive. The papers are divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on issues related to industrial growth in India. The discussions include India's industrial development (manufacturing, construction and mining); role of manufacturing; global value chains; and of environment in industrial development. In turn, section II deals with issues related to trade and FDI as accelerators of India's growth. The respective chapters explore the changing patterns of trade, impacts of technology, and spill-over effects of FDI, to name but a few. Lastly, the third section discusses employment-related issues like measurement of labour input, the dichotomy of the Indian labour market, the nature of firms and employment generation, and impacts of technology on employment. Given its scope and focus, the book offers an invaluable resource for researchers and policymakers alike.

This handbook provides critical analyses of the theory and practices of small arms proliferation and its impact on conflicts and organized violence in Africa. It examines the terrains, institutions, factors and actors that drive armed conflict and arms proliferation, and further explores the nature, scope, and dynamics of conflicts across the continent, as well as the extent to which these conflicts are exacerbated by the proliferation of small arms. The volume features rich analyses by contributors who are acquainted with, and widely experienced in, the formal and informal structures of arms proliferation and control, and their repercussions on violence, instability and insecurity across Africa. The chapters dissect the challenges of small arms and light weapons in Africa with a view to understanding roots causes and drivers, and generating a fresh body of analyses that adds value to the existing conversation on conflict management and peacebuilding in Africa. With contributions from scholars, development practitioners, defence and security professionals and civil society activists, the handbook seeks to serve as a reference for students, researchers, and policy makers on small arms proliferation, control and regulation; defence and security practitioners; and those involved in countering violence and managing conflicts in Africa.

This book introduces Ali Mazrui's delightfully stimulating scholarship about intercultural relations, calling it Postcolonial Constructivism, and shares elements of his intellectual vitality in an original way. It begins with a chronicle of Mazrui's eventful, sixty-year journey as a scholar of International Relations. It then proceeds to present some of the most remarkable yet least remarked up on features of his intellectualism, including his paradoxes, his perceptive typologies, his neologisms as well as his interactions with historical figures. The book draws on materials which were either unavailable until now or were found scattered in time and space. Designed as an invitation to a wider audience to the supermarket of Mazrui's ideas, this book also seeks to underscore the timeliness and possible durability of many of his observations about intercultural relations.Thorough, comprehensive and up-to-date, this book is a concise account of the core of Mazrui's vast body of work.

An analysis of endemic deprivation in India and of the role of public action in addressing that problem. The analysis is based on a broad view of economic development, focusing on human well-being and `social opportunity' rather than on the standard indicators of economic growth. India's success in reducing endemic deprivation since Independence has been quite limited. Recent diagnoses of this failure of policy have concentrated on the counterproductive role of government regulation, and on the need for economic incentives to accelerate the growth of the economy. This book argues that an assessment of India's failure to eliminate basic deprivations has to go beyond this limited focus, and to take note of the role played in that failure by inadequate public involvement in the provision of basic education, health care, social security, and related fields, Even the fostering of fast and participatory economic growth requires some basic social change, which is not addressed by liberalization and economic incentives. The authors also discuss the historical antecedents of these political and social neglects, including the distortion of policy priorities arising from inequalities of political power. Following on from this, the book considers the scope for public action to address these earlier biases and achieve a transformation of policy priorities. The introductory chapter presents the motivation, focus, and approach of the book. Chapter 2 discusses the respective roles of the market mechanism and government action in economic development and discusses the particular role of public involvement in the fields of health and education. In chapters 3 and 4, international comparisons of development experiences are brought to bear on the diagnosis of India's successes and failures. These two chapters also discuss the lessons to be learnt from the contrasting development experiences of different states within India, with particular attention to Kerala's outstanding success in social fields. Chapter 5 considers the role of public action and political organization in promoting social opportunities. Attention is drawn, in particular, to the part played by widespread illiteracy in suppressing that process and perpetuating social inequalities. The issue of basic education is further examined in chapter 6, which includes a critical assessment of public policy in this field. Chapter 7 discusses the specific problem on gender inequality, and the role of women's agency in the expansion of social opportunities for both women and men. The concluding chapter consolidates the argument and discusses the policy implication of the analyses presented. A statistical appendix presents a comparative picture of India and other developing countries, and also the comparative performance of different states within India.

This book offers comprehensive insights into the cultural and ecological values that influence sustainable development across Asia, addressing the cultural, religious and philosophical moorings of development through participatory and grassroots communication approaches. It presents a range of contributions and case studies from leading experts in Asia to highlight the debates on environmental communication and sustainable development that are relevant today, and to provide an overview of the positive traditions of ecological sensitivity and cultural communication that may find common ground between communities. This well-researched guide to the dynamic and complex terrain of communication for sustainable development offers uniquely practical perspectives on communication, environment and sustainable development that are of immense value for policy makers, media scholars, development practitioners, researchers and students of communication and media studies.

Although political upheavals and mass killings in the Socialist Republic of Burma (Myanmar) have received a great deal of international attention, scholars and journalists until now have failed to identify the unique underlying factors that produced this situation and helped to maintain military dictatorship under Ne Win's successors. Mya Maung looks into the deeper sources of Burmese behavior, focusing on the ancient tradition of sacred despotic rule, the undermining of social and cultural life during the British colonial period, and the impact of conflicting cultural realities on a Communist military elite whose attempts to reinstate absolute authority compounded their gross mismanagement of economic development.

Maung presents an overview of the contradictions and biases expressed by writers--both foreign and Burmese--who have attempted to understand the Burmese and their country's recent history. He next describes a traditional society in which authoritarian rule existed side by side with a marked degree of social freedom and egalitarianism. Maung discusses the far-reaching impact of colonialism, the transition to independence, the Socialist military takeover, and the progressive repression and economic failures that led ultimately to economic collapse. Maung concludes with an examination of Burma's potential for utilizing its resources effectively and developing a stable economy in the transition to capitalism. Based on field research, hundreds of interviews, and Maung's firsthand knowledge of Burmese culture, this analysis contributes a balanced perspective and new information crucial to our understanding of a society that has been largely closed to outsiders for more than two decades.

This book interrogates the international child protection regime, with a particular focus on its weaknesses and failures. It looks at the lack of accountability, the normativity, and the tendency to recreate patterns of power and exclusion that blight otherwise good intentions. The book assesses why the regime falls short of its ideals and offers ideas for what can be done to improve it. Bringing together influential, established voices, and emerging scholars who work on issues related to childhood, youth, policy, and practice, the book offers a timely intervention that aims to push the world of international child protection in more progressive directions.

The book refutes the dominant understanding about caste panchayats as mere dispute resolution bodies that are vestiges of the past. In tracing the long career and evolution of intra-caste governance from 300 BC to the present, it challenges several orthodoxies in the caste scholarship. Most prominently, it questions the assumptions of modernization theory that became internalized in the very definition of caste-based political organisations as caste became a subject of study in politics in the 1960s and 70s. In doing this, the book reflects in some detail on the uncomfortable question of the persistence of caste-based conservatism despite the current dominance, so to say, of caste-based democratization in the Indian polity. It tries to make visible the limitations of 'caste politics from below', as it is being imagined today, making a plea for a radical re-imagination of caste as an identity that does not require a self-perpetuation of the primordial aspects of caste to purse the opportunities offered by modern democracy, but one that can facilitate the empowerment of caste through the pursuit of the ameliorations on offer as well as the annihilation of caste, as eventually mutual goals.

Drawing on an innovative project exploring current mobility transition policies and practices in 14 countries around the world, including key institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations, this book provides a critique of current transitions, mobility and transport policies. The authors consider how our mobility futures have been imagined, what they will potentially look and feel like, what lives we might live in them and what choices we might have to make to get there.

This book describes the present awful state of India's Public Health Care Delivery, its dismal planning and implementation. It argues that it can be remedied comprehensively and effectively, using its 'own already present' resources. A radical re-evaluation of some sacrosanct ideas and discarding many of these, especially in Primary Care and its structure is required. It can be done without disadvantage to the last man served. This book starts with the sea change India has undergone and emphasizes new ways of managing health. High quality work force creation and its deployment, an unsolved problem is effectively given a solution. The bulk of the book discusses the entire public health care structure and function and how it can be newly laid out with proper work force allocation, hitherto grossly inadequate, including professionals from other training backgrounds. It is total solution that will help India to achieve the goal of Universal Health Care.

Devised to accompany and complement International Organization and Global Governance this title will engage advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking more specialized courses in international relations generally, and those pursuing coursework in international organization, law, and political economy. Offers a comprehensive overview of all the current 'hot topics' - Food, Climate, Covid-19, Cities, Cybersecurity, Human Rights. Pushes beyond the traditional fare of global governance studies and invites readers to adopt both a backward- and forward-looking view of global governance, to think through the future trajectory of world order. Chapters are situated in deep and rich historical contexts. The historicism prevalent throughout is a key strength because it forces readers to consider whether the present era is a historical breaking point between world orders. The editors remind readers of the value of taking the long view, and challenge contributors (and by extension, students) to come up with new theories or ideas for continuity and change in global governance.

Poverty is a pressing and persistent problem. While its extent varies across countries, its presence always represents the diminution of human capacity. Therefore, it seems natural to want to do something about it. Have countries made progress in mitigating poverty? How do we determine who is poor and who is not poor? What intuitions or theories guide the design of anti-poverty policy? Is overall labor market performance the key to keeping the poverty rate low? Or, does it matter how well-connected an individual is to those who know about the availability of jobs? Does being an immigrant increase the odds of being poor? Are there anti-poverty policies that work? For whom do they work? If I'm poor, will I have access to health care and housing? Am I more likely to be obese, polluted upon, incarcerated, un-banked, and without assets if I'm poor? Is poverty too hard a problem for economic analysis? These are some of the questions that a distinguished group of scholars have come together to confront in this Handbook.
The Handbook is written in a highly-accessible style that encourages the reader to think critically about poverty. Theories are presented in a rigorous but not overly-technical way; concise and straightforward empirical analyses enlighten key policy issues. The volume has six parts: Poverty in the 21st Century; Labor Market Factors; Poverty Policy; Poverty Dynamics; Dimensions of Poverty; and Trends and Issues in Anti-Poverty Policy. A goal of the Handbook is to stimulate further research on poverty. To that end, several chapters challenge conventional thinking about poverty and in some cases present specific proposals for the reform of economic and social policy.

Governance and Crisis of the State in Africa explores the problems and challenges of disruptive conflicts and conflict management in West Africa. Based on a robust analysis of a large stock of theoretical and empirical studies on the nature of the state in Africa and the incidents of state failure, fragmentation and collapse, the author argues that a major explanation of state weakness in Africa is the lack of the imperatives of good governance - itself rooted in the trajectory of the emergence of these states. Using the recent internal wars and ongoing conflicts in some West African states such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire as case studies, the author explains how the use of inappropriate methods of conflict management exacerbates these conflicts and the crisis of the nation-state in Africa. ________________ John Emeka Akude holds a PhD in political science from the University of Cologne, Germany where he teaches African Politics, Politics of Development and International Political Economy. His research interests include political economy, the state and economic development, conflict studies, state collapse and war economies as well as the transformation of political order. His publications include "Krisen und Krisenmanagement in Afrika," Zwischen Wunschdenken und Ohnmacht: Der Anspruch der Afrikanischen Union auf Konfliktmanagement in Afrika," "Bad Governance and State Collapse in Africa" as well as "Weak States and Security Threats in West Africa." He is a member of the Working Group on the Transformation of Political Order at the Chair of International Relations, University of Cologne, Germany.

Multiple sclerosis is an incurable neurological disease of unknown cause with a fearful reputation for generating disability, unemployment, poverty and early death. This book critically surveys the current state of multiple sclerosis research, demonstrating the shortfall of current research undertaken on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis.

Throughout the Americas, indigenous people have been arguing that they should be entitled, as "first peoples, " to representation in local, national, and international fora in a capacity different from that of other civil society groups. Latin America's Multicultural Movements is a collection of empirically-based chapters that advance debates concerning multiculturalism and indigenous and minority group rights in Latin America by looking at the struggle between communitarianism, autonomy, and human rights. Rather than advancing a particular argument for or against multiculturalism, the book includes contributions from top Latin American scholars with a range of ideological positions to provide a comparative set of perspectives on the issue. While the book addresses highly polemical debates, it does so in a way that moves beyond the ideological clashes that characterize most of the literature and invites readers to explore how multicultural reforms affect people in their everyday lives, as well as in political parties, elected offices, and interest groups. The chapters, which include case studies from Mexico, Bolivia and Ecuador, look at the controversial role of the state regarding multicultural rights and discuss whether the state enables or hinders the advancement of multicultural rights.

Globalization is defined in economic terms to mean flows of trade, foreign direct investment and finance, and liberalization of trade and investment policies. The impacts of globalization and information technology are examined in this text in terms of growth and productivity, poverty and income distribution, and employment. The experiences of Africa, East and Southeast Africa, South Asia and Latin America in the era of globalization are discussed. It is argued that benefits of freer trade and capital flows need to be managed carefully in order to minimize the costs and maximize gains.

This book explores the ways in which Eastern and Western medical knowledge inform each other in the treatment of people in Asia across a wide range of health issues. To do so, it brings together health communication scholars from diverse disciplines both in Hong Kong and worldwide and combines their observations and expertise with those of clinicians working in healthcare in Asia to provide a topical portrait of the expanding horizons of healthcare in Asia. Social scientists and clinicians discuss their research and clinical practice respectively using a range of analytic approaches that include traditional qualitative and quantitative methodologies, as well as cutting-edge computer diagnostics that digitally visualize health interactions across time. The book presents an innovative and interdisciplinary investigation of Eastern and Western perspectives on healthcare in Asia. It covers topics concerned with a range of mental and physical problems that are currently confronting Asia. Importantly, the views and experiences of front line clinicians delivering patient care in Asia are also included. Accordingly, the book offers varied and innovative perspectives on health communication issues in China, Singapore, Bangladesh and Australia.

This book presents the perspectives of some of the main players, both academics and professionals, in communication for sustainable development and social change so as to provide valuable lessons for future generations of change agents. It places emphasis on both the theoretical foundation and practical applications and ethical concerns in communication for development and social change. Most of the available historical accounts in development communications make a distinction between the modernization paradigm, the dependency paradigm and the multiplicity or participatory paradigm. These historical accounts have been dominated by framing developments within these paradigms, as the logical offspring of the Western drive to develop the world after colonization and the Second World War. The subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union in the late eighties, together with the rise of the U.S. as the only remaining 'superpower,' the emergence of the European Union and China, the gradual coming to the fore of regional powers, such as the BRICS countries, and the recent meltdown of the world financial system has rendered disastrous consequences for people everywhere. This book responds to these changes and challenges in presenting a rethinking of the "power" of development, and consequently the place and role of communication in it. It is aimed at both emerging research students, policymakers and social research practitioners who are interested in the history of communication for development and social change and the role and place of mayor players in it. This is most applicable to the political and educational sector, as well as scholars of history, social work, and human rights. The book will provide valuable insights for beginners in these fields who are not yet familiar with the increasingly important and emerging field of global social change.

This edited volume addresses the accomplishments, prospects and challenges of regional integration processes on the African continent. Since regional integration is a process that ebbs and flows according to a wide range of variables such as changing political and economic conditions, implications and factors derived from the vagaries of migration and climate change, it is crucial to be cognizant with how these variables impact regional integration initiatives. The contributors discuss the debates on Pan-Africanism and linking it with ongoing discourses and policies on regional integration in Africa. Other aspects of the book contain some of the most important topic issues such as migration, border management and the sustainable development goals. This content offers readers fresh and innovative perspectives on various aspects of sustainable development and regional growth in Africa.

This book examines lifelong learning from different angles and follows the trajectory beginning with the expansive notion of lifelong education promoted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its subsequent version intended to better suit the neoliberal framework and make EU countries more competitive in the global economy. The authors critique this version of lifelong learning by contrasting it with the notion of critical literacy. They also devote attention to the UN's advocacy concerning lifelong education and sustainable development, arguing that for lifelong learning to help realize this goal, it needs to become more holistic in scope and engage more globally conceived social and human-earth relations. The book concludes with a discussion on lifelong learning and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This book explores how and why the labor practices of the world's largest employer, supermarket giant Walmart, were contested by unions and government regulators as it expanded to Latin America starting in the 1990s. With an in-depth case study of Brazil, and a comparative chapter examining Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, this book analyzes the problematic encounter between diffusion of home-office anti-labor practices and evolving national institutional contexts that are quite varied and in some cases enable considerable resistance by unions and/or regulators. Walmart's "repressive familial" and "anti-union" model is found to generate costs and conflicts that contributed to its unprofitability and ultimate exit from Brazil in 2018. This experience, contrasted with country situations where Walmart's overall competitive and labor and human resource practices "fit" better with national markets and institutions, underlines the brittle, problematic nature of diffusionist corporate models lacking adaptive capacity to significant cross-national variations across host countries.

This book, the first historical sociology of its kind concerning Bangladesh, examines the country's what-went-wrong-syndrome during the first fifty years of its existence, 1971-2021. The work is an exception to the traditional studies on modern and contemporary Bangladesh. The study is also a post-history of united Pakistan. Busting several myths, it sheds light on many known and unknown facts about the history, politics, society, and culture of the country. Besides being a twice-born country - liberated twice, from the British in 1947 and from West Pakistanis in 1971 - it is also an artificial entity suffering from acute crises of culture, development, governance, and identity. Hashmi attributes the culture and identity crises to the demographic byproducts of bad governance. In addition to being overpopulated, Bangladesh is also resource-poor and has one of the most unskilled populations, largely lumpen elements and peasants. According to Marx, these people represent "the unchanging remnants of the past". The second round of independence empowered these lumpen classes, who suffer from an identity crisis and never learn the art of governance. The proliferation of pseudo-history about liberation has further divided the polity between the two warring tribes who only glorify their respective idols, Mujib and Zia. Pre-political and pre-capitalist peasants' / lumpen elements' lack of mutual trust and respect have further plagued Bangladesh, turning it into one of the least governable, corrupt, and inefficient countries. It is essential to replace the pre-capitalist order of the country run by multiple lumpen classes with capitalist and inclusive institutions.

This book brings together all the major components of the private health care sector in India, with detailed description of its evolution, the foundational ideas, its development, the positives and ill effects on the population. It suggests intelligible and practical remedies for public good. The book presents a comprehensive review of private health care sector's resistance to Indian Government's reforms like the national medical commission, NEET, clinical establishment act and the new boost to the traditional medicine by the Indian government. The author has discussed contentious areas like Corporate Hospitals, Capitation Fee Colleges, Pharmaceutical Industry, Western Models in Health Care, Integration of Medical Systems, Ayushman Bharat Scheme, Health Insurance and Public Private Partnership on a massive scale.