This book covers a wide range of the issues in development studies. Recognizing the existence of manifold challenges in achieving and sustaining economic development, it is divided into four sections-(i) The Macroeconomy: Foreign Trade, Structural Transition and the Environment, (ii) Health and Standard of Living, (iii) Education, Human Capital and Evolution of the Employment Quality in India, and (iv) Banking and Credit: Access, Efficiency and Stability. The book brings together a right mix of senior and young economists who use cutting edge econometric techniques and/ or revisit a perennial question with much sharper focus and tools to unravel insights that are important and will inform tomorrow's theorisation and policy making. The volume looks at important questions like spatial concentration of low infant and child health outcomes, trade liberalisation and export quality, intergenerational occupational mobility, multidimensional poverty incidence in rural India, robustness of the banking sector, to name a few. To do so, the contributions use novel and esoteric methods like machine learning, spatial econometrics, system GMM, quintile regression and counterfactual decomposition (QRCD), and so on. The rich collection holds importance for researchers and policy makers alike, and also for practitioners working in different developmental sectors..

An examination of how small firms in developing countries acquire technological capability, the knowledge and skills required to operate technology effectively, and the ability to adapt it to local conditions. It aims to fill a gap in the established literature on technological capability, which has neglected the small scale sector in spite of the important role it plays in employment generation. The author develops a methodology for a quantitative assessment of the learning process, using case material from the small scale capital goods sector in Pakistan's Punjab Province.

This book makes an important contribution to the conflict literature and to new ways of thinking about agency and social life in fragile contexts. It does this by engaging with often ignored peace infrastructures. In this book, the contributors highlight different ways in which non-violence is deployed by Africa's youth to navigate difficult violent contexts. Drawing on empirically grounded case studies from the Central African Republic to Zimbabwe, this book explores how similar (or indeed the same) social infrastructures can be deployed for both violence and non-violence and the important factors that drive many youth to take the non[1]violence option even when order appears to collapse around them. The authors also explore how, for instance, systems of organizing survive violent disruptions to the so-called rhythms of everyday life, and, when they do, how they are then repurposed by youth to help them survive violence.

At a time when remittances are widely recognised as of growing importance for development in many countries, John Connell and Richard Brown present this comprehensive overview of the role of remittances in economic and social development. They investigate various topics including reflections on methodology, the motives and determinants of remittances, their socio-economic impacts, the particular role of community organisations and social remittances, and the broad social and cultural impacts of remittances. They pay special attention to small island and Central Asian states, where remittances are of particular significance and explore the recent historical evolution of remittances and the policy implications in both sending and receiving countries.

This bibliographical survey of energy and the development of West Africa contains 774 entries and materials on all but one country of the region. This selectively annotated bibliography covers books, journal articles, conference and seminar proceedings, published and unpublished papers, and official documents. The majority of the materials were published after 1970, but earlier literature is included if important for understanding energy development and West Africa today. Most references are in English, but a few entries appear in French, German, and Russian. Roughly 70 percent of the entries have been annotated. This unique bibliography is intended for broad-interdisciplinary academic and professional use. Entries are grouped under four main sections: 1) developing countries, 2) Africa, continent-wide, 3) West Africa, regional, and 4) individual West Africa countries. Entries are also listed under general sub-headings and in relation to energy sources, such as alcohol, oil and gas, uranium, hydropower, solar, wind, and wood. Author and subject indexes refer to entry numbers.

Shallow capital markets are a key bottleneck for private sector development in Latin America. Still, there is not a large literature on capital markets and corporate governance, or on the politics of regulatory reform and business associations, focused on this region. To help address this gap, this new book introduces private equity into the financial development debate through a Latin American lens. The author looks at the cases of Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. And proposes a shift in the financial development discussion from institutional explanations focused only on rules to an actor-based argument centered on the role of institutional investors, in particular pension funds .

This book looks at a substantively new model of educational philosophy and its application within the field of tertiary education, in relation to socio-economic development in Southeast Asian members of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC). Focusing on and drawing from the cross-regional South East Asian Cooperation (SEACO), a network promoting regional economic cooperation, the author presents a thoughtful evocation of a new orientation to educational philosophy and policy within the development context in the time of, and relating to, COVID-19. The generalized worldview of Islamic educational and socio-economic development model is laid down in relation to the philosophy of education and an ethical-scientific structure of development in terms of the theory of knowledge (epistemology, episteme). The foundation of scientific thought and a comparative Islamic worldview in understanding the unified reality of 'everything' is presented. The objectivity of socio-scientific learning at all levels of educational development is further explained within the context of SEACO and its think tank vis-a-vis a reconstructive perspective in which the Islamic episteme of the unity of knowledge and its substantive methodology is addressed and unpacked. The book is relevant to policymakers and scholarly researchers in Islamic philosophy and development and higher education in Southeast Asia and in the Muslim world and more broadly for the world of learning.

The Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal (APSDJ) is published twice a year by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). It is the continuation of UNESCAP's Asia Pacific Development Journal (APDJ) with explicit recognition of sustainable development in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). APSDJ provides a platform for policymakers to share their experiences. It also offers opportunities to academics and researchers in their early careers to develop their capacity for policy-oriented and applied research.

This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers in order to examine how and to what extent the challenge of language revitalisation should be reassessed and reconceptualised to take account of our fast-changing social context. The period of four decades between 1980 and 2020 that straddled the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first is widely regarded as one that witnessed a series of fundamental social, economic and political transformations. Many societies have become increasingly individualistic, mobile and diverse in terms of ethnicity and identity; their economies have become increasingly interconnected; and their governance structures have become increasingly complex, incorporating a growing number of different levels and actors. In addition, rapid advancements with regard to automated, digital and communication technology have had a far-reaching impact on how people interact with each other and participate in society. The chapters in this book aim to advance an agenda of key questions that should concern those working in the field of language revitalisation over the coming years, and the volume will be of interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in related areas including sociolinguistics, education, sociology, geography, political science, law, economics, Celtic studies, and communication technology.

This book examines the defence and security challenges facing the new South Africa in the context of development and nation-building priorities. The transformation of security policy during the transition from apartheid and since the April 1994 elections is examined. Challenges facing the defence force and the police service are examined and the relationships between defence, development and domestic and external security are explored in an integrated way which points to a policy framework for security in the developing world.

Extensively revised, the second edition of Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories related to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material spaces of the colonial and postcolonial power and representation. Exploring postcolonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge and power, the text analyses the history of western representations of the "Other" and engages with the important conceptual contributions of postcolonial theory. Comprehensive, accessible and illustrated with learning features throughout, Geographies of Postcolonialism will be the key resource for students interested in the geographical and spatial dimensions of colonialism and postcolonialism. Jo Sharp is Professor of Geography at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Relying on micro-evidence on the repercussions of civil conflicts, this edited book explores theories and policies of post-conflict peacebuilding. Reconsidering existing knowledge on the civil conflict and peacebuilding processes in particular, it empirically presents the relationships between conflict dynamics and citizens' norms, values, and preferences in the post-conflict context. Once it occurs, civil conflict brings enormous suffering on the local society. As a consequence of wartime coercion and violence that tear it apart, citizens come to harbor fear, distrust, and hatred of others, especially of those who are in different sociopolitical groups. This can significantly alter the pre-conflict norms and values of the citizenry and make reconciliation difficult across groups in the aftermath of the conflict. To tackle these problems, post-conflict peacebuilding should be well designed so that it can widely cover and sufficiently deal with conflict-affected citizens. This approach urges us to pay serious attention to the individual-level impact of the conflict process and dynamics. The importance of micro-level analysis does not disregard that of normative and/or macro-level approaches to the development of peacebuilding policies. However, the micro-level approach is better able to capture wartime civil-military relations that largely vary between individuals. The book is aimed at linking academic knowledge with policy development in peacebuilding. To reflect existing policy frameworks in peacebuilding, the implications of micro-evidence-based studies for conflict-affected societies are discussed here. A bottom-up approach pursued throughout this book allows us to elaborate desirable policy schemes for peacebuilding that conform to local contexts.

Latin America is in the midst of dramatic transformations. Stabilization and structural adjustment programs are dismantling state regulation of the economy. Democratic transitions are pointing toward the emergence of new institutional arrangements. Democratization and market-oriented economic restructuring pose major questions concerning new social configurations combining rising levels of poverty, low intensity citizenship, environmental degradation, and enduring legacies of elite privilege and authoritarianism. Analyzing these and related issues, this volume contributes to a world-system perspective suggesting that the region is experiencing a great transformation characterized by a deepening differentiation between state, enterprises, and households. Emergent patterns of competition and organizational change are discussed along with the social consequences of restructuring and the potential for political transformation.

Under fire from environmental and social critics, the World Bank has made its growing contact with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) a major theme in its self-justification. Nelson surveys the Bank's engagement with NGOs' and shows that NGO involvement in Bank-funded projects usually means accepting project plans and economic strategies conceived by a narrow circle of government and Bank planners. While contact with community groups and private agencies has grown, key organizational traits of the Bank, political interests of its member countries, and limitations in most NGOs commitment and resources, limit the prospect for fundamental change. Internal reforms have opened the Bank's operations somewhat, but the core of its lending operations, its governing myth of apolitical development, and its insular and hierarchical organizational culture, remain firmly in place. The Bank has adapted to past demands and reforms with remarkable stability, and without monumental efforts from its would-be reformers and decisive leadership from its new president, it is on course to do the same through the 1990s.

This edited book offers a collection of highly nuanced accounts of children and childhoods in peace and conflict across political time and space. Organized according to three broad themes (ontologies, pedagogies, and contingencies), each chapter explores the complexities of a particular case study, providing new insights into the ways children's lives figure as terrains of engagement, contestation, ambivalence, resistance, and reproduction of militarisms. The first three chapters challenge dominant ontologies that prefigure childhood in particular ways. These include who counts as a child worthy of protection, questions of voice and participation, and the diminution of agency. The chapters in the second section bring to view everyday pedagogies whereby myriad knowledges, performances, practices, and competencies may function to militarize children's lives, including in but not limited to advanced (post)industrial societies of the global North. The third and final section includes investigations that foreground questions of responsibility to children. Here, contributors assess, among other things, resilience-building, the exigencies of protection, and the ethics of military recruitment practices targeting children.

This book provides the first wide-ranging account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in two contrasting island regions - the Caribbean and the Pacific - and in several islands and island states. It traces the complexity of effects and responses, at different scales, through the first critical year. Written by a range of scholars and practitioners working in the region the book focuses on six key themes: public health; the economies (notably the collapse of tourism, the revival of local agriculture and fishing, and the rebirth of self-reliance, and even barter); the rescue by remittances; social tensions and responses; public policy; and future 'bubbles' and regional connections. Even with marine borders that excluded the virus all island states were affected by COVID-19 because of a considerable dependence on tourism - prompting urgent challenges for governance, economic management and development, as small states sought to balance lives against livelihoods in search of revitalisation or even a 'new normal'.

This open access book features various studies on democratization, transformation, socio-economic development, and security issues in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) geographical region and beyond. Written by experts and scholars working in the field of human dimension, security, transformation and development in Europe and Asia, particularly in post-soviet and communist countries, it examines the connectivity that the OSCE provides between the East and the West. The 2021 edition of this Compilation Series of the OSCE Academy presents studies on peace and conflict as well as political regime development in various member states of the OSCE as well as their economic, security and human rights performance and the challenges countries and society face currently. The OSCE is working in promoting Human Rights and Democratization under the notion of Human Dimension of ODIHR and is enhancing securitization and development policies in Eurasia, Europe, Central Asia and North America since 1991. 2021 marks the 30th anniversary on the tremendous efforts in promoting democracy, security and development. This compilation reviews some of these efforts in light of this anniversary, the achievements and shortcomings.

This book dismantles conventional political and economic thinking to explore the Asian Economic Miracle as an outcome of the traumas of postcolonial economic development. This book argues that these unconscious anxieties underpin the postcolonial and neoliberal political economy, producing a particular libidinal economy that is fixated on the maintenance of dignity and the avoidance of humiliation. Through the cases of Singapore and Malaysia, a psychoanalytic perspective provides new insights into racialized and masculine unconscious anxieties around survival, dignity and humiliation. Sioh traces the development of the postcolonial state, charting the shift from social power being rooted in military to economic success. The complex relationship between the political economy of neoliberal austerity and psychic humiliation is explored, and the ways in which East Asian economic decision-making has served not just as an economic, but a cultural battleground, to define development and underdevelopment.

This book focuses on current trends in development, arguing that the digital revolution will shape today's race for global supremacy. The volume explores how the technological race, driven by AI advances, will decisively contribute to shaping a new world order. Every leap in technological advancement changes the rules of the game and initiate new cycles of economic growth. The main argument of the authors is that these changes are particularly intense in Eurasia, the main geopolitical hotspot at the moment. Starting from recent statistical data, the authors underline this new ascent of the Asian continent - a shift that can be best described as a historical change of relay not between two countries, but between two continents. Lastly, the volume discusses the consequences of these shifts in power and influence, by reflecting on the possible new world order to follow. Effectively providing an overview of the challenges that will decisively shape future geopolitical relations, this volume will be of use to researchers and students interested in globalization studies, international relations, geopolitics, and development.

This book reviews the background and evolving features of Sino-African relations, exploring various stages over the past 50 years. Pursuing an objective and forward-looking approach, it analyzes the development, current issues and future direction of Sino-African relations, as well as their global impact. Despite ideological and policy differences, it also outlines potential avenues of cooperation between China and western countries in promoting development in Africa. Potential means of adapting and improving China's "going into Africa" policy in the post-crisis era are also discussed, highlighting the importance of enhancing soft power in Africa.

This book combines the fundamentals of industrial organization theories based on microeconomic foundations, applied econometrics and environmental and natural resource economics in undertaking a comprehensive review of reforms of the power sector and its impact on industrial and socio-economic performance. The book provides the reader with the intellectual groundwork necessary for understanding the workings and interactions of today's reforming power markets such as in the ASEAN and East Asia that are striving to achieve the energy policy trilemma of affordability, energy sustainability and energy security. The topics addressed in this book include application of welfare theorems such as competition in and for the market in the electricity sector, market failures such as lack of electricity access, analysis of forecasting models under volatility, energy resource allocation such as renewable energy and competitive market designs of energy markets. Country-specific and region-specific case studies are used to analyze the progress and outcomes of market-driven electricity reforms across the reforming and advanced electricity markets. Therefore, the book derives policy lessons and provides policy recommendations in reforming power markets for the ASEAN and East Asia taking stock of more than three decades of global experience with power sector reforms. The electricity markets case studies are carefully chosen and supported by extensive data analyses as appropriate. This book on energy economics and policy is highly recommended to readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview about the evolving literature and status on electricity market reforms with a particular reference to Asia.

Two Gulf wars and the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict have highlighted the salience of military factors in the Middle East. This book argues, however, that many of the most serious 'security' challenges to Arab states and societies are rooted not in external military threats but in the imperatives of socio-economic development. Contributors examine the regional security environment; the social and political impact of regional militarization; and underdevelopment as a source of regional insecurity.

The book is a collection of analyses on country-specific and universal efforts, programmes and projects from Africa and beyond, aimed at realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the chapters focus on the achievements and challenges that can potentially aid countries of the world and the United Nations in achieving the 17 SDGs. The chapters focus more on the challenges, prospects and concrete steps taken in the Global South towards the attainment of these goals.

Domestic violence continues to be a social problem that is rarely understood or discussed in many parts of the world. The same holds true in the Anglophone Caribbean. The Caribbean context is unique as it was birthed out of colonization, which was violent and brutal for those who were forced to migrate from another country as enslaved labor, as well as for those who were conquered out of their lands. Most Caribbean islands' societies were created and developed by slaves, colonizers, and indentured servants. This history has left an indelible scar on all involved, which is exemplified by the antagonistic way people interact, whether it is between races, ethnicities, religions, or gender. Traditionally, domestic relationships and causal factors for domestic violence has been investigated from a myriad of perspectives including the ethnic lineage of the participants. However, in the Caribbean due to its historic origins, domestic violence should also be examined through the lens of its colonial past. This book examines the consequences of allowing domestic violence to perpetuate in the region. It then looks at some of practices used to provide support and find justice for victims and perpetrators in a Caribbean cultural context.