With the current global crisis, high levels of volatility in trade, capital flows, commodity prices, aid, and the looming threat of climate change, this book brings together high-quality research and presents conceptual issues and empirical results to analyze the determinants of the vulnerability to poverty in developing countries.

Politicians, business leaders and citizens look with hope to the Latin American middle class for political stability and purchasing power, but the economic position of the middle class remains vulnerable. The contributors document the remarkable emergence of this middle group in Latin America, whose measurement turns out not to be an easy task.

This book analyses the World Bank's provision of technical assistance from 1946 to the present day. It argues that the relational dynamics between technical assistance provider and recipient affects the legitimacy of policy norms travelling from the 'international' to the 'domestic'. Beginning from the constructivist position that 'development' is a social construct, the author contends that successful policy movement via technical assistance depends on the recipient's perception of the validity of policy reforms, with perception being influenced by the way those ideas and practices are presented, packaged, and transferred. In advancing this argument, Bazbauers analyses four pillars of World Bank technical assistance: technical assistance components (advisory services incorporated within lending operations), stand-alone technical assistance projects (projects designed to solely deliver technical assistance), survey missions (activities involved in measuring the development status of developing countries), and training institutes (the courses of the Economic Development Institute and World Bank Institute).

Global city-thinking has, in the past years, had a very real pull on society. Global cities seem an unavoidable fact of everyday world affairs. This volume gathers a forum that integrates the extensive set of disciplinary dimensions to which the interdisciplinary concept of the global city can help to tackle the policy challenges of today's metropolises. Its chapters are drawn from viewpoints including the cultural, economic, historical, postcolonial, virtual, architectural, literary, security and political dimensions of global cities. Tasked with providing a rejoinder to the global city scholarship from each of these perspectives, the authors illustrate what twin analytical and practical challenges emerge from juxtaposing these stances to the concept of the 'global city'. They rely not solely on theory but also on sample case studies either drawn from long-lived global cities such as New York, Shanghai and London, or emerging metropolises like Dubai, Cape Town and Sydney.

This book analyses the role of emerging powers as a development assistance providers and the nature of their development cooperation, their behaviour, motives and markedly their changing identities in international relations. With their growing economic and political clout, emerging powers are using economic instruments like foreign aid to ensure their position in the international system that is going through power shifts. By comparing three major emerging economies of the Global South- Brazil, India and China- this book would explore how emerging powers are changing the international aid architecture that is created and dominated by the traditional donors.

Focusing on the development agenda of selected developed and developing countries, the contributors in this volume show that the varying degrees of success or failure in the programs of different countries are due to the way they deal with human factor development. Each essay clearly shows that a nation cannot achieve development if it continuously fails to develop its own national human factor. The contributors maintain that what different parts of the world, particularly Southeast Asia, call a development miracle is not a miracle at all.

Countries such as Japan and Singapore have experienced significant development in recent decades because their programs have focused intently on building the human factor. Countries such as Mexico, Nigeria, Bolivia, and India, on the other hand, are struggling to develop because their ongoing development programs do not address the human factor. Nations that aspire to achieve sustained human-centered development in the 21st century should focus on human factor development now.

This book focuses on the ethical demands of extreme poverty and develops a political theory of practical change. Welding together political realism and moral aspirations, it argues that a re-imagined form of development NGO can help the global North break free from the dominant and persistent charity paradigm and drift towards a justice-based understanding of extreme poverty. It offers an original explanation of why the charity paradigm persists and why the "justice not charity" messages from development NGOs have changed few minds. The author argues that anyone concerned with a paradigm shift from charity to justice need to radically rethink the problem of political communication: who should communicate what messages about extreme poverty in what ways? Based on a rational choice critique of the competitive development NGO sector, the author calls for sector-wide reform and the emergence of a new political agent - the Avant-garde NGO - which transcends the charity frame that NGOs currently find themselves locked in. Further, inspired by literary theory and social psychology, he offers a fresh account of how the Avant-garde NGO could, through reflective public engagement, induce attitude change and lead genuine social and political reform.

This book provides an ethnographic account of the ways in which biomedicine, as a part of the modernization of healthcare, has been localized and established as the culturally dominant medical system in rural Bangladesh. Dr Faruk Shah offers an anthropological critique of biomedicine in rural Bangladesh that explains how the existing social inequalities and disparities in healthcare are intensified by the practices undertaken in biomedical health centres through the healthcare bureaucracy and local gendered politics. This work of villagers' healthcare practices leads to a fascinating analysis of the local healthcare bureaucracy, corruption, structural violence, commodification of health, pharmaceutical promotional strategies and gender discrimination in population control. Shah argues that biomedicine has already achieved cultural authority and acceptability at almost all levels of the health sector in Bangladesh. However, in this system healthcare bureaucracy is shaped by social capital, power relations and kin networks, and corruption is a central element of daily care practices.

This book aims to bring together a series of analyses on international development assistance in the BRICS, the group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS states comprise approximately 3 billion people (~40% of the World's population) and in terms of GDP account for 16.8 trillion dollars (~22% of the World's economy). Over the last decade the loose coalition has evolved to become a formal partnership on both economic and political fronts. The first formal meeting of the then-four BRIC countries took place in 2006 during the United Nations General Assembly. This was followed in 2009 by the first summit of BRICS' heads of state, an event which has been convened annually ever since. On 3-5 September 2017, the ninth BRICS Summit was hosted in Xiamen, China. This book, an anthology of scholars based in BRICS countries, provides invaluable insights into the emerging global south coalition, and will be of interest to scholars, employees of NGOs, and China watchers.

This book explores how the labour and leisure lives of people in contemporary rural China have been structured and transformed, discussing the changing dynamics of power relations both between and within genders, and in local (village and family/household) and remote (the state and market) contexts. It combines perspectives from sociology, gender studies, social history and demography to investigate the changes and continuities in the lives of women and men in Lianhe, a rural village in central China, examining the period from 1926 to 2013 through the lens of labour and leisure. Employing methods from the field of ethnography, the research focuses on the life stories of three generations, including 57 women in Lianhe. The book develops a 'double comparison' analytical framework to compare the organisation of labour and leisure in the three respective generations, proceeding, on the one hand, diachronically along the historical time, that is, the pre-collective era, collective era and reform era, and synchronically along the women's life stages on the other. In so doing, the book links women's shifting role in changing family/household forms with broader socio-economic, political, demographic and cultural changes. Moreover, it employs a holistic perspective to reflect changing patterns in women's labour and leisure by disrupting the remunerated/unremunerated, home/labour, within/outside household and labour/leisure dichotomies, and exploring the interrelations between them. Based on this, the book then identifies the determinants of rural women's labour and leisure and reveals the women's experiences of their changing identities, particularly concerning their relationships with their parents (-in-law), sisters (-in-law), husbands and children. Particularly highlighting the interdependence and inequality among women, it also reveals their own perception of their identities and relationships, and their understanding of husband-wife fairness and gender equality. Lastly, it demonstrates that the prevalent androcentrism in the remote world does not match the increasing husband-wife fairness in the local world and argues that this mismatch has caused the complex and paradoxical experiences and subjectivities of these women. Given its scope, the book is of interest to scholars, students and researchers in the fields of sociology, anthropology, gender and development, as well as a general audience looking to explore contemporary rural China.

This book explores the transforming political climate of several emerging powers-Turkey, China, and India-and the key role think tanks play in that transformation. With case studies from three think tanks, the authors uncover the unique challenges that emerging power think tanks face in gaining recognition as global tanks and how networks will influence this process. To do so, they first establish what it means to be a global think tank in the context of emerging powers. Next, they provide the three case studies beginning with an examination of the Observer Research Foundation, a prominent Indian think tank, followed by a study of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, and concluding with a discussion on the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey. Following these case studies, the authors further explore the dynamic of a think tank network with remarks from presidents of think tanks in the T20 think tank network.

Against the backdrop of the environmental impact of household electricity consumption and the history of cooling practices, Marlyne Sahakian considers how people keep cool, from Metro Manila to other mega-cities in Southeast Asia.

This book brings together a unique collection of theoretical and empirical analyses of women's access to land, labour and livelihoods in contemporary India. The authors recognize that gender relations must be viewed intersectionally, along with other social relationships such as caste, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and age, in order to inform an integrated analysis of women's persistent disadvantage in India. The chapters examine a diverse range of rural and urban livelihoods within sectors such as tea plantations, nursing, hair salons, sex work and waste collection. Documenting the shifts in these sectors in the context of economic liberalization, the authors offer insights on the challenges of development interventions as women negotiate shifts in their livelihood options. Written to engage, the contributions to this book will be of interest both to the general reader and to academics and practitioners in development and gender/women's studies.

"This is the first book to offer a systematic analysis of human rights in the 21st century. The chapters, written from diverse methodological perspectives, provide rich and varied insights on vital questions concerning the resiliency, weaknesses, and prospects of human rights today"--Provided by publisher.

This book documents how Israel emerged as one of the world's leading centers of high technology over the last three decades and the impact that it has had, or failed to have, on the wider economy and politics. Based on the study of start-up companies, the project attributes the rise of Israel's tech economy to its unique history, political system, and culture, and shows how those same factors have failed it in the quest to diversify its economy to make it more inclusive and equitable. This work will interest economists, political scientists, Israeli studies academics, investors, policy makers, journalists, and business readers.

This book identifies the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches to research in communication and social change. It examines the methodological opportunities and challenges occasioned by rapid technological affordances and society-wide transformations. This study provides grounded insights on these issues from a broad range of proficient academics and experienced practitioners. Overall, the different contributions address four key themes: a critical evaluation of different ethnographic approaches in researching communication for/and social change; a critical appraisal of visual methodologies and theatre for development research; a methodological appraisal of different participatory approaches to researching social change; and a critical examination of underlying assumptions of knowledge production within the dominant strands of methodological approaches to researching social change. In addressing these issues through a critical reflection of the methodological decisions and implications of their research projects, the contributors in this book offer perspectives that are highly relevant for students, researchers and practitioners within the broad field of communication for/and social change.

This volume explores Western attitudes towards the phenomenon of Easternization, drawing upon Eastern perspectives and examining the impact upon contemporary culture to argue that Easternization is another type of globalization.

Regional innovation systems and sustainable development: emerging technologies promotes scientific discussion on standards and practices of regional development, while also covering emerging research topics in regional innovation systems and sustained development. A leading source of information from experts in the field, this text demonstrates the capacity of regional innovation systems, information technology, management and sustainable development for the mutual understanding, prosperity and well being of all the citizens in the world.

This contributed volume examines development efforts in sub-Saharan Africa and the role privatization and foreign investment can play. The focus is on African and international capital mobility and recent experience in private investment in contemporary African states. While government in Africa continues to have a hand in economic and political matters, private enterprise, private investment, and market forces are becoming increasingly active. The volume reveals these new directions in development practice in Africa and analyzes the difficulties which government, while well-intended, has created in the past.

Contributors from the United States and Africa pose questions and examine scenarios for investment in sub-Saharan Africa. And while no single strategy is agreed upon, they provide overwhelming evidence that it has been the failure of prior central policies which has held these nations back, and that hope for the 1990's lies in the unleashing of the private sector. This work will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers in development economics, international trade and finance, and African studies.

The end of the Cold War, the cessation of superpower rivalry, and the demise of apartheid in South Africa have offered Africans another opportunity to engage in effective institutional reform and state reconstruction. This book emphasizes the importance of institutions to economic growth and development and, using public choice theory, provides guidelines that can be used to initiate and implement an effective people-driven institutional reform program on the continent.

Security challenges pose significant hardship for citizens of Caribbean nations. Public safety is threatened by high rates of crime - especially violent crime - in much of the region, the plague of the illicit drug trade, transnational organized crime, gangs, the current global proliferation of crimes of terrorism and related violent extremism and radicalization. The situation diminishes morale among the youth, their education and their future, and operates as a major push factor. Yet, surprisingly, there has been a scarcity of scholarly work that addresses these conditions. This interdisciplinary volume succinctly responds to the gap in criminological and security studies on the Caribbean by drawing attention to the understudied nexus of crime, violence, and security that is so pervasive in the region, and the ways in which underdevelopment re/creates environments for insecurity. The book is organized in three parts: Part one encompasses conceptualizations of crime, violence and punishment. Part two takes up country cases on crime and security. Part three addresses issues of regional security, both public and private. This timely volume will be valuable reading for scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers who share a critical interest in the scope, impact, and inter-relationality of crime, violence, and in/security in the region.

Sumner and Mallett review the literature on aid in light of shifts in the aid system and the increasing concentration of the world's poor in middle-income countries. As a consequence, they propose a series of practical, policy relevant options for future development cooperation, with the aim of provoking discussion and informing policy.

Public Administration in the Global Village offers a global and comparative approach to the study of public administration. It examines the ongoing international changes in the field of public administration; it defines the emerging new world order and the promises and challenges that it holds for public administration; and it stipulates the effects and side effects of these changes on developing countries. The volume seeks to promote a global and comparative perspective on public administration to counter the continuing parochialism and ethnocentrism in the field.

Drawing on empirical, interdisciplinary research, this book presents a critical review of some of the major issues that are of interest to researchers, policymakers and planners in developing as well as advanced countries, including specifically in India. It provides an in-depth review of some of the major development policy issues in education in general, and in India in particular, over the past 2-3 decades. Besides presenting an overview of the educational developments in India that reflects issues such as growth, equity, efficiency, foreign aid, decentralization, center-state relations, financing, and cost recovery, the book puts forward in-depth analyses of education poverty, interrelations between education and poverty, low level of outcomes in elementary education, effects of structural adjustment policies and approaches on education, south-south cooperation, etc. It also critically discusses changes in policies relating to financing higher education, external assistance for education, and how the growth of private higher education is affecting society at large. The dichotomy between public policy and action is also highlighted in many chapters. On the whole, while the importance of education is being increasingly recognized, the state does not seem to be as willing to foot the bill for education as the households and even the private sector. Occasionally contrasting with international evidence on, for example, financing higher education, private higher education, or the effects of neo-liberal policies, the book offers an interesting read for a wider audience.

As a country, Taiwan is one of the most vibrant, exciting, colourful and entrepreneurial on earth. The contributors reveal what underpins the vitality of Taiwan, examining the relevance of its democratic politics, civil society and the presence of an existential threat from China, as well as the importance of its international business nexus.