This edited collection explores how different dictators and authoritarian parties and factions have frequently succeeded in rising to power in modern Latin America, often retaining political and/or military control for long periods of time. The volume examines whether there are common factors within the Latin American sociopolitical, cultural, and historical context that have allowed authoritarianism to play such a fundamental and recurrent role in the continent's development. Including chapters on Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, and Honduras, the work will be of interest to scholars and students alike in comparative politics, Latin American history, and Latin American studies.

This book reviews the latest methods of sustainable investing and financial profit making and describes how ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) analysis can identify future business opportunities and manage risk to achieve abnormal returns. Megatrends such as climate change, sustainable development and digitalisation increase uncertainty and information asymmetry and have an impact on the future returns on investments. From a profit perspective, it is largely about how ESG factors affect the long-term value added by companies and the valuation of companies in the financial markets. Although sustainability provides an opportunity for abnormal returns, this phenomenon must be considered in a critical light. The book describes the risks and limitations associated with the accountability and availability of ESG data and tools. This book provides both academic findings and practical models for assessing the sustainability of investees and introduces practical tools and methods to make ESG analysis practice. It focuses on the ESG analysis of equity investments and fund investments in institutional investment organizations and provides a handbook for all investment analysts who are involved with investment decisions. Readers will benefit from understanding the methods, opportunities and challenges that professionals use in their ESG analysis with cases, interviews and practical tools for both institutional and private investors.

The economic performance of African countries south of the Sahara generally has been poor during the past two decades. External factors such as high oil prices, deteriorating terms of trade, and wars, and formidable internal factors such as corruption, chauvinism, authoritarianism, and violence have continued to plague the region. Whereas in the 1980s the Subsahara was overwhelmed by drought, devaluation, and debt, the 1990s have brought the paradox of civil strife and a complex transition to democracy. This volume surveys the major political, economic, social, ecological, and gender related aspects of Subsaharan Africa's struggle toward democracy. Its essays pose two fundamental sets of ideas: that the internal equilibrium can be restored only through institutional changes with these countries; and that the political and economic dilemmas in the region are closely related to issues of gender and the environment. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students of comparative politics, developmental economics, and African studies.

How can unjust societies be overcome with a better distribution of opportunities to flourish? How can human development be revitalised in countries where social welfare is being questioned? In short, how can human development be fostered in practice? These are some of the important questions asked in this volume through analysis of existing policies and conceptualisations of coherent and systematic strategies for human development policies at the local, national and international level. International contributors innovatively combine the hitherto unpaired perspectives of the capability approach and the tradition of critical social policy with empirical examples using case studies from South-Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. The result is a call for a new, feasible approach towards more socially balanced, democratic and innovative capability-promoting policy activities, models and programmes that reduce social and human suffering to promote an enhanced social quality of current societies around the world.

"Williams's past experience as a community organizer for havenots' is clearly apparent in this carefully researched book, as his conviction that neighborhood organizations can play a key role in revitalizing urban life. After examining the setting for neighborhood organizations and discussing how neighborhoods change, he delves into the internal dynamics of those organizations. Chapters are devoted to various problems that neighborhood organizations have defined, such as crime and education; a final section analyzes neighborhood groups as conflict managers and mediators. The book offers a good survey of literature on neighborhood organizations, both theoretical and applied, and provides readers a unique bibliography of selected materials, with brief comments about each major topic; each chapter also has extensive notes and bibliography. Both grass-roots organizers and professionals in social work and city management will find this book useful." Choice

Free market policies have been in operation across Africa for the past twenty-five years, yet they have failed to reverse deepening poverty on the continent. This book explores why such policies continue to be implemented, despite their failure, and the ways in which they have been reinvented by socialization, depoliticization, regionalization and securitization. The impacts of these policies on security are traced through case studies of Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and ways to transcend neoliberalism on the continent are also explored.

During the last 15 years Latin American governments reformed their constitutions to recognize indigenous rights. The contributors to this book argue that these changes pose fundamental challenges to accepted notions of democracy, citizenship, and development in the region. Using case studies from Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Peru, they analyze the ways in which new legal frameworks have been implemented, appropriated and contested within a wider context of accelerating economic and legal globalization, highlighting the key implications for social policy, human rights, and social justice.

"Popular struggles in the global south suggest the need for the development of new and politically enabling categories of analysis, and new ways of understanding contemporary social movements. This book shows how social movements in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East politicize development in an age of neoliberal hegemony"--

This book addresses the current state of economic and political development within Central Asia and the importance of European countries and organizations as international actors and supranational organizations for the Central Asian Region (CAR). It aims to provide a better understanding of Central Asia’s multi-faceted relations in rapidly evolving geostrategic dynamics and serves as a timely insight into the contours of Central Asian states’ policies, emerging trends, and significant features of these interactions. The aim is to analyze the main challenges for future between the Europe and Central Asia relations, to make recommendations for improvement, and to identify lines for future research on this matter. It highlights key aspects of current discourses in CAR vis-à-vis the role of European countries and China and other key players. It explores post-Soviet scenarios, considering recent drastic changes in the equation of international relations in general and, more particularly the role of Russia and China vis-à-vis Europe in the CARs. This book covers the different perspectives on the EU’s new strategy (2019), which will contribute to strengthening relations between the two growing regions. It will be beneficial for academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

This study examines fundamental theoretical and conceptual issues of social change in Latin America in the context of detailed empirical analysis. It challenges the major assumptions and propositions that underlie globalization theory, reworking and fine tuning the concepts of imperialism and social class as relevant to understanding the "new world order." The study centers on the structural features of Latin America and the state policies reconcentrating power in the capitalist class at the expense of labor. It also critically surveys the contradictory tendencies of concentrated wealth and power and the emergence of new socio-political movements and alternative development strategies to the dominant paradigm.

Investigating the capacity of sport to act both as a conduit for traditional development assistance activities and as an agent for change in its own right, this book argues that sport can contribute to the development process, particularly where traditional development approaches have difficulty in engaging with communities.

The eruption of Mount Pinatuba represented more than the smothering of America's Clark Air Force Base and many of President Corazon Aquino's development plans. It also served as a metaphor both for the collapse of Philippine-American base negotiations, presaging an end to nearly a century of strategic relations, and for Aquino's unsuccessful attempt to undo the colossal damage of the Marcos era and construct coherent development programmes. The story of the Aquino era is one of failing efforts to use the vast economic aid which poured into the country, and more successful efforts to put the lid on the communist insurgency in four-fifths of the nation's provinces. The reason for the success was that the unity of the security struggle went unmatched in the economic one, where it was every person for himself or herself. Even the presidential family had its fingers in the economic pie. This book explores the connections between two central functions of Third World governments - development and security - in an analysis of Corazon Aquino's six crisis-filled years as President of the Philippines. Information in the book is updated to reflect recent events, including the change of leaders

Who should provide food, and through what relationships? Whose livelihoods should be protected? For over 20 years the peasant farmers of La Via Campesina have been engaged in the fight against injustice, hunger and poverty under the banner of food sovereignty, 'the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems'. They campaign for healthy, sustainable alternatives to an industrial food system controlled by agribusiness companies and the architects of unfair trade agreements. This book draws on grounded case studies of agrarian movements in the Americas and Europe as exemplars of a 'power shift,' as local opposition scales up to global action in an effort to wrest control of our food away from transnational corporations and back to communities.

This volume studies the outcomes of the two-way flow of investments and people between China and India, and Southeast Asia. These cross-border flows have led to new settlements in Southeast Asia from which new outlooks have emerged among locally born generations that have given rise to new forms of solidarity and identification.The advent of new generations of ethnic Chinese and Indians in Southeast Asia, with no ties to China or India, has spawned important debates about identity shifts which have not been registered by government leaders in Southeast Asia, China and India, as reflected in policy statements and investment patterns. Identity changes are assessed in forms where they best manifest themselves: in social life and in business ventures forged, or unsuccessfully nurtured, through tie-ups involving foreign and domestic capital. A state-society distinction is employed to determine how the governments of these rapidly developing countries envision development, through state intervention as well as with the employment of highly entrepreneurial ethnic groups, and the outcomes of this on their societies and on their economies. The chapters were originally published as a special issue in The Round Table.

Disasters, Gender and Access to Healthcare: Women in Coastal Bangladesh emphasizes women's experiences in cyclone disasters being confined with gendered identity and responsibilities in developing socio-economic conditions with minimum healthcare facilities. The study is situated in the coastal region of Bangladesh, considered as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Bangladesh has been working on disaster management for a long time; however, considering gender perspective, the book reveals gaps in plans and raises serious questions about the successful implementation of healthcare strategies after disasters. The book also describes the pre-during-after disaster periods showing the full picture of a disaster attack in victims' own words. Case studies of seriously affected victims give the reader an opportunity to understand the situations created for women during a disaster attack in a remote area with poor transport and healthcare facilities. These unique research findings will contribute to the broader context of gender, disaster and health studies. This book will be helpful for university staff and students of different disciplines including Anthropology, Disaster Management, Gender Studies and Geography and South Asian Regional Studies and be invaluable reading for disaster managers, policy makers, aid workers, development partners, NGOs and government, especially in disaster-prone countries.

This book analyses the international development of the census by comparing the history of census taking on all continents and in many countries. The timeframe is wide, from male censuses in the Bible to current censuses covering the whole population. There is a focus on the efforts and destinies of census takers and the development of methods used to collect information into the census questionnaires. The book highlights international cooperation in census taking, as well as how computerized access to census data facilitates genealogical studies and statistical research on both historical and contemporary societies. It deals with such questions as "Why did the French and British gentry block efforts at census taking in the 18th century?"; "What role did German censuses play during Holocaust?"; Why were the Soviet census directors executed as part of the Moscow processes?"; "Why did US states sue the Census Bureau in the 1970s?"; "How do wars and revolutions affect census taking?". The text ends by discussing whether the days of the population census as we know it are numbered, since countries exceedingly construct censuses by combining information from population registers rather than with questionnaires.

Standards are replacing tariffs as the main trade barriers facing African agro-food exports. This book examines the challenges and opportunities that new public and private standards present to African countries - focusing on food safety, environmental and climate change, and social and labour standards.

Security and development matter: they often involve issues of life and death and they determine the allocation of truly staggering amounts of the world's resources. Particularly since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been momentum in policy circles to merge the issues of security and development to attempt to end conflicts, create durable peace, strengthen failing states, and promote the conditions necessary for people to lead healthier and more prosperous lives. In many ways this blending of security and development agendas seems admirable and designed to produce positive outcomes all around. However, it is often the case that the two concepts in combination do not receive equal weight, with security issues getting priority over development concerns. This is not desirable and actually undermines security in the longer term. Moreover, there are major challenges in practice when security practitioners and development practitioners are asked to agree on priorities and work together. "Security and Development in Global Politics" illuminates the common points of interest but also the significant differences between security and development agendas and approaches to problem solving. With insightful chapter pairings - each written by a development expert and a security analyst - the book explores seven core international issues: aid, humanitarian assistance, governance, health, poverty, trade and resources, and demography. Using this comparative structure, the book effectively assesses the extent to which there really is a nexus between security and development and, most importantly, whether the link should be encouraged or resisted.

Transdisciplinarity is a new way of scientifically meeting the challenges of sustainability. Indeed, interdisciplinary collaboration and co-operation with non-academic 'practice partners' is at the core of this; creating contextualised, socially relevant knowledge about complex real-world problems. Transdisciplinary Research and Sustainability breaks new ground by presenting transdisciplinary research in practice, drawing on recent advances by the vibrant transdisciplinary research communities in the German-speaking world. It describes methodological innovations developed to address wide-ranging contemporary issues including climate change adaptation, energy policy, sustainable agriculture and soil conservation. Furthermore, the authors reflect on the challenges involved in integrating non-academic actors in scientific research, on the tensions that arise in the encounter of theory and praxis, and on the inherently normative, political nature of sustainability research. Highlighting the need for academic institutions to be transformed to reflect transdisciplinarity, this timely volume will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Sustainability Science, Transdisciplinary Studies and Philosophy of Science.

The Kalahandi district in the state of Odisha in Eastern India is regarded as an iconic region of underdevelopment, and is often perceived to be the 'Somalia' of the country. It is also the site of a large number of governmental interventions. This book focuses on processes of governance in Odisha, and provides an ethnographic account of the changing forms of governmental actions in Kalahandi by analysing the implementation of WORLP (Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project), a new generation watershed development project. The book also shows the morphings of the forms of the state on the ground, and the ways in which it is perceived by the agents and objects of statist actions. Arguing that changes in the institutions and practices of the state in India over the last three decades are better understood through the conceptualisation of state-fabrication, rather than of state-formation, the author describes the governmental tactics related to emergent modes of governmental action. The book identifies an increasing convergence in the everyday practices of governmental and non-governmental organisations, and the growth of 'the social' as a terrain and object of governmental actions, as two important effects of the process of deployment of these tactics. It argues that the vernacular sphere of toutary is a key domain of sociality that frames the perceptions and actions of people related to the state in Odisha. As a domain, toutary is populated by social agents, called touters; toutary can be understood as the interstitial zone between state and society shaped by the increasing penetration by the state into society through social technologies. By providing an alternative analysis of state and politics in India, this book adds to the literature surrounding the everyday state by illuminating recent changes in state-society relations. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Political Science, Public Policy, Development Studies, Social Anthropology/Sociology, Social Work, and South Asian studies.

It is a wide-spread belief that the cultural background inhered in a society affects the requirements of economic development. This relationship requires theoretical and empirical justification. The present book provides this together with an analysis of the development of cultural background itself. Cultural background is embodied in political institutions, in transactions, knowledge, incentives, in social capital, even in the tangibles of the economy. Thus, economic development is shaped and the rate of growth is affected. Conversely, economic development affects cultural background. When this interaction takes place at a non-developmental cultural background level, which is associated with low growth rates, then a growth trap is formed. Within such agrowth trap, economic policy (public and monetary) is relatively deactivated and the conditions influencing the change in cultural background and its timing are of primary importance."

In Dissimilar Coffee Frontiers Sven Van Melkebeke compares the divergent development of coffee production in eastern Congo and western Rwanda during the colonial period. The Lake Kivu region offers a remarkable case-study to investigate diversity in economic development. In Rwanda, on the eastern side of the lake, coffee was mainly cultivated by smallholder families, while in the Congo, on the western side of the lake, European plantations were the dominant mode of production. Making use of a wide array of largely untapped archival sources, Sven Van Melkebeke convincingly succeeds in moving the manuscript beyond a case-study of colonizers to a more nuanced history of interaction and in presenting an innovative new social history of labor and land processes.