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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Development studies
An authoritative assessment of the reform efforts in African economies during the 1980s and early 1990s, with the focus on economic liberalization in those socialist countries which began from a position of pervasive state intervention. A companion theoretical volume (0-312-17751-8) examines the changing role of the state during the period of transition. This volume examines the important debate on agricultural reforms in the period, and provides in-depth country studies of the transition economies, covering Congo, Madagascar, Tanzania and the impact of war on transition in Angola and Mozambique. These books are the first in an important new series in association with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
There has been much written on the impact of international treaties like the Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which laments the failure of patent systems to respond to the interests of a diverse set of non-profit, public interest, and non-corporate entities. This book examines how patent law can accommodate what James Boyle terms a "politics," that is, "a conceptual map of issues, a rough working model of costs and benefits, and a functioning coalition-politics of groups unified by common interests perceived in apparently diverse situations." A Politics of Patent Law provides a substantive account of the ways in which various types of participatory mechanisms currently operate in patent law, and examines how these participatory mechanisms can be further developed, particularly within a regional and international context. In exploring this, Murray highlights the emergence of constitutional law in international intellectual property law as being at the centre of the patent bargain and goes so far as to argue that the constitutional tradition in intellectual property law is as important as TRIPS. Ultimately, the book sets forth a "tool-box" of participatory mechanisms which would allow for, and foster third party participation in the patent process. This book will be of particular interest to academics, students and practitioners in the field of IP Law.
In order to make progress toward the UN Millennium Development Goals - and particularly in terms of poverty alleviation - business has a pivotal role to play: in terms of core business; purchasing products from the poor; employing them; and selling them affordable services and products. Serving the global 4 billion people at the base of the economic ladder - the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) - with suitable products and services is a new but growing field in research and practice. In the initial years, the focus of BoP was very much on selling products and services to a huge untapped market. Practitioners and academics focused on developing new distribution channels to reach the low-income markets and new technological solutions to address their needs. These first-generation "fortune-finding" approaches are now described as "business to four billion". Over the last few years, however, new priorities have gained prominence. This new value proposition can be framed as "business with four billion" and is "fortune-creating". So-called Next Generation, or BoP 2.0, strategies can bring companies and their target groups closer together. The goal is to co-create new business models as well as product and service solutions together with the target group. Integrating BoP into the innovation process - be it in terms of idea generation, product/service development, production or distribution/marketing - is seen as way to increase not only the impact on poverty alleviation, but also the benefits to the company. This paradigm shift - to co-creation or embedded innovation - in fact closely mirrors a shift previously made by development researchers who argued that the poor should no longer be viewed as the target of poverty reduction efforts, but as partners in, and an asset to, the development process. Bottom-up development approaches - such as Participation, Community-Driven Development, Empowerment, Asset-Based Community Development or Local Knowledge - emphasize the role of the poor and see them as central to the design and implementation of the development process. Even though some BoP researchers consider selective parts of this knowledge in their research, a comprehensive study that rigorously examines BoP ventures from a bottom-up development perspective has not yet been completed. This book attempts to fill that gap. Putting the Poor First examines the applicability of different elements in the bottom-up development literature to the innovation process of BoP ventures. It unveils connections between the two approaches and builds a theoretical base for the case study research. With three in-depth case studies and eight companies participating in a survey, the current state and experiences of businesses applying a bottom-up development perspective with BoP ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean is analysed. The elements of a bottom-up development perspective applied in BoP practice can be grouped into three categories: drivers for choosing a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. such that products and services are more readily accepted); circumstances that help or hinder the application of a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. the acceptance of the company by communities or previous experiences with poverty alleviation projects); and success factors when choosing a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. the importance of power structures, pluralism and self-esteem). The many recommendations, such as empowering the poor by encouraging co-creation and outsourcing innovation, fill gaps in theory, support practitioners and lay the foundations for further research. This will be a key book for BoP researchers and practitioners on the ground. The reconnection of development approaches with BoP strategies puts the poor first.
How can developing nations achieve cohesive national innovation systems which provide the foundations for technological progress and economic growth? In answer to this question, Technology, Development and Democracy examines the possibility of studying innovation systems using a unified approach drawing on economic, political, sociological and cultural factors and addresses the problematic concept of progress in the postmodern era. Haider Khan expresses the search for high technology as the search for 'positive feedback loop innovation systems' (POLIS). In the first part of the book the conditions for POLIS are explored both in theory and using empirical evidence. The author examines the theoretical arguments which describe an innovation system as a complex and uncertain evolutionary process. He uses empirical evidence to illustrate these arguments and examines whether South Korea's pursuit of high technology has led to the creation of a 'positive feedback loop innovation system'. The second part of the book extends the analysis of the economics of POLIS and discusses the implications of high technology systems for the polity and society at large. It also pursues some of the normative issues raised by high technology, particularly the relationship between economy and democracy. Technology, Development and Democracy will be invaluable to students and academics with an interest in economic development, technological change and political economy.
'...a book which should be read by all students contemplating enrolment for a university course in modern English or European literary studies.' - Roy Harris, Times Higher Education Supplement Eliot to Derrida is a sardonic portrait of the cult of the specialist interpreter, from I.A. Richards and the Cambridge School to Jacques Derrida and his disciples. This lucid, iconoclastic study shows how, and why, so much of the academic response to a rich variety of literary experiment has been straitjacketed by the vast industries which have grown up around `modernism' and `postmodernism'. For anyone disenchanted with the extravagant claims - and leaden prose - of literary theorists, this will be an exhilarating book.
Chronic diseases-cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes-are not only the principal cause of world-wide mortality but also are now responsible for a striking increase in the percentage of sickness in developing countries still grappling with the acute problems of infectious diseases. The "double disease burden" - the onset of significant mortality from chronic, non-communicable diseases while mortality from communicable diseases remains high - is a problem of developing countries. Developed countries had the historical "luxury" of dealing with chronic diseases after the weight of communicable diseases had largely lifted. However, in both developed and developing countries old and new communicable diseases such as tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS enhance morbidity and mortality, and some infectious diseases may lead to chronic disease; for example, the papilloma virus and cervical cancer. Exposure to environmental pollutants particularly prenatal or in infancy is clearly recognized as a major driver of later chronic ill-health. Double health burdens in Asia and the Pacific and the problems that this poses for health care regimes, resource allocation, strategies for prevention and control and the need for integrated approaches to both non-communicable and infectious diseases will challenge the future viability of the region. The primary aim of this book is to offer a historical picture of the development of a leading global health problem and policy responses to it in the context of a demographically, economically and politically very significant region of the world with a view to better understanding of the double disease burden and the development of more effective health policy to deal with it.
This book argues that the current state of China requires an important paradigm shift in the way the party-state manages the country's development, and goes on to assess the fitness of the party-state for implementing such a paradigm shift and the likelihood of the party-state bringing this about. It brings together an examination of the very latest situation in a range of key areas where current developments have the potential to undermine substantially the status quo, areas such as the recent economic crisis and the resulting economic slowdown, increasing labour unrest, mounting calls for social justice, worsening urban-rural disparity, the urgent need to implement social welfare programmes, the rise of civil society, and the impact of new media. Overall, the book provides a thorough appraisal of the difficulties which China currently faces.
The history of development is one marked by insecurities, violence, and persistent conflict. It is not surprising, therefore, that development is now thought of as one of the central challenges of world politics. However, its complexities are often overlooked in scholarly analysis and among policy practitioners, who tend to adopt a technocratic approach to the crisis of development and violence. This book brings together a wide range of contributions aimed at investigating different aspects of the history of development and violence, and its implications for contemporary efforts to consolidate the development-security nexus. From environmental concerns, through vigilante citizenship, to the legacies of armed conflicts during and after decolonization, the different chapters reconstruct the contradictory history of development and critically engage contemporary responses and their implications for social and political analyses. In examining violence and insecurity in relation to core organising principles of world politics the contributors engage the problems associated with the nation state and the inter-state system and underlying assumptions of the promises of progress. The book offers a range of perspectives on the contradictions of development, and on how domination, violence and resistance have been conceived. At the same time it exemplifies the relevance of alternative methodological and conceptual approaches to contemporary challenges of development. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.
The purpose of this work is to develop a better understanding and thinking about the cumulative impacts of multiple natural resource development projects. Cumulative impacts are now one of the most pressing, but complex challenges facing governments, industry, communities, and conservation and natural resource professionals. There has been technical and policy research exploring how cumulative environmental impacts can be assessed and managed. These studies, however, have failed to consider the necessary integration of community, environment and health. Informed by knowledge and experience in northern British Columbia, this book seeks to expand our understanding of the cumulative impacts of natural resource development through an integrated lens. The book offers a timely response to a growing imperative - proposing integrative response to multiple natural resource developments in a way that addresses converging environment, community and health issues. Informed by the editors' experiences across several complementary areas of expertise, we envision this book as appealing to a wide range of researchers, educators and practitioners, with relevance to a growing audience with appetite for and interest in integrative approaches.
NESsT is an organization that develops sustainable social
enterprises to solve critical social problems in emerging market
economies. NESsT believes that social enterprise is a powerful tool
that provides marginalized communities the skills, accessibility
and technology needed to overcome social barriers and break the
cycle of poverty.
An authoritative assessment of the reform efforts in African economies during the 1980s and early 1990s. The focus is on the reform process in the socialist countries which began from a position of pervasive state intervention. The impact of the subsequent economic liberalization and the changing role of the state during the period of transition is the focus of this theoretical overview, with particular coverage of macroeconomic management and the privatization of state enterprises. A companion volume ( 0-312-17752-6) contains in-depth country studies. These books are the first in an important new series in association with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
This book provides a timely analysis and assessment of the potential of organic agriculture (OA) for rural development and the improvement of livelihoods. It focuses on smallholders in developing countries and in countries of economic transition, but there is also coverage of and comparisons with developed countries. It covers market-oriented approaches and challenges for OA as part of high value chains and as an agro-ecologically based development for improving food security. It demonstrates the often unrecognised roles that organic farming can play in climate change, food security and sovereignty, carbon sequestration, cost internalisations, ecosystems services, human health and the restoration of degraded landscapes. The chapters specifically provide readers with: an overview of the state of research on OA from socio-economic, environmental and agro-ecological perspectives an analysis of the current and potential role of OA in improving livelihoods of farmers, in sustainable value chain development, and in implementation of agro-ecological methods proposed strategies for exploiting and improving the potential of OA and overcoming the constraints for further development a review of the strengths and weaknesses of OA in a sustainable development context
This book is about morphogenesis as the genesis of forms. It is not restricted to plants growing from seed or animals developing from an embryo (although these do supply the most abundant examples) but also addresses kindred processes, from inorganic to social to biomorphic technology. It is about our morphogenetic universe: unplanned, unfair and frustratingly complicated but benevolent in allowing us to emerge, survive, and inquire into its laws.
The most important theme of the discourse on sustainable development and sustainability challenges concerns the relationship between innovation and sustainability. This book represents a realistic critical overview of the state of affairs of sustainable innovations, offering an accessible and comprehensive diagnostic point of reference for both the academic and practitioner worlds. In order for sustainable innovation to truly become mainstream practice in business it is necessary to find out how organizations can strategically and efficiently accommodate sustainability and innovation in such a manner that they accomplish value capturing (for firms, stakeholders, and for society), not merely creating a return on the social responsibility agenda. Addressing this challenge, the book draws together research from a range of perspectives in order to understand the potential shifts and barriers, benefits, and outcomes from all angles: inception, strategic process, and impact for companies and society. The book also delivers insights of (open) innovation in public sector organizations, which is not so much a process of invention as it is one of adoption and diffusion. It examines how the environmental pillar of the triple bottom line in private firms is often a by-product of thinking about the economic pillar, where cost reductions may be achieved through process innovation in terms of eliminating waste and reducing energy consumption. The impact of open innovation on process innovation, and sustainable process innovation in particular, is an underexplored area but is examined in this book. It also considers the role of the individual entrepreneur in bringing about sustainable innovation; entrepreneurs, their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the innovation ecosystems they build play a significant role in generating sustainable innovations where these smaller organizations are much more flexible than large organizations in targeting societal needs and challenges. The readership will incorporate PhD students and postgraduate researchers, as well as practitioners from organizational advisory fields.
Over five decades of economic and technical assistance to the countries of Africa and the Middle East have failed to improve the life prospects for over 1.4 billion people who remain vulnerable. Billions of dollars have been spent on such assistance and yet little progress has been made. Persistent hunger and hopelessness threaten more than individuals and families. These conditions foster political alienation that can easily metastasize into hostility and aggression. Recent uprisings in the Middle East are emblematic of this problem. Vulnerable people give rise to vulnerable states. This book challenges the dominant catechism of development assistance by arguing that the focus on economic growth (and fighting poverty) has failed to bring about the promised "convergence." Poor people and poor countries have clearly not closed the gap on the rich industrialized world. Pursuing convergence has been a failure. Here we argue that development assistance must be reconstituted to focus on creating economic coherence. People are vulnerable because the economies in which they are embedded do not cohere. The absence of economic coherence means that economic processes do not work as they must if individual initiative is to result in improved livelihoods. Weak and vulnerable states must be strengthened so that they can become partners in the process of creating economic coherence. When economies do not cohere, countries become breeding grounds for localized civil conflicts that often spill across national borders.
China and Globalization in the Amazon examines Chinese investment in the Global South, with particular attention to industrial activity in Latin America. Based on ethnographic work conducted in several Chinese factories in the Amazon region of Brazil, whether private, partially private, or state-owned, it explores the impact of these factories on the lives of workers, specifically on wages, laws, and labor benefits, as well as the relationship between management and workers. Drawing on interviews with Brazilian workers, expatriate Chinese workers, union leaders, and factory managers, the author identifies a Chinese production model and sheds light on the implementation of externally defined work regimes that showed little engagement with the workforce in the region, together with practices that resulted in a technical or bureaucratic relationship with the worker, and the emergence of lower wages than the local average, as well as few concessions on labor benefits. A study of Chinese globalization and industrial expansion in the developing world, and the reactions of workers to the Chinese model of management, this volume will be of interest to scholars of the sociology of work and organizations, globalization, development studies, and politics.
This book presents state-of-the-art perspectives on the Blue Economy. It applies important geographical and sustainability transitions perspectives and underscores how Blue Economy dynamics are situated in regional contexts and shaped by the people who live there. The book highlights the Blue Economy concept as a potential driver of regionally sensitive, ecologically embedded, and community-focused sustainability. The scope for Blue Economy to form a core "cog" in our low-carbon future is obvious, from the potential for renewable energy production and coastal resilience building to possibilities for sustainable food production and the delivery of economic opportunities for peripheral communities. However, fundamental questions remain on how to meaningfully deliver these promises, such as how to avoid embedding a model of damaging extractivism, as per the terrestrial economy, and how to deliver on the key social sustainability principles of human well-being, equity, and justice when planning and developing blue economies. As the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development opens, this book provides a timely reminder of the richness, diversity, and potential of coastal and marine spaces. It advances geographical and transdisciplinary understandings of the Blue Economy and sets a baseline for continued scholarly engagement with the Blue Economy from a variety of perspectives. This timely contribution will be of interest to policy makers, academics, industry leaders, decision makers, and stakeholders working in or connected to the Blue Economy Sphere and working in the fields of Economic Geography, Regional Development, Public Policy and Planning, Environmental Studies, and Coastal Zone Management.
This book offers original theoretical and empirical insight into the social, cultural and ecological politics of rapidly changing urban spaces such as old factories, rail yards, verges, dumps and quarries. These environments are often disregarded once their industrial functions wane, a trend that cities are experiencing through the advance of late capitalism. From a sustainability perspective, there are important lessons to learn about the potential prospects and perils of these disused sites. The combination of shelter, standing water and infrequent human visitation renders such spaces ecologically vibrant, despite residual toxicity and other environmentally undesirable conditions. They are also spaces of social refuge. Three case studies in Milwaukee, Paris and Toronto anchor the book, each of which offers unique analytical insight into the forms, functions and experiences of post-industrial urban greenspaces. Through this research, this book challenges the dominant instinct in Western urban planning to "rediscover" and redevelop these spaces for economic growth rather than ecological resilience and social justice. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of Urban Planning, Ecological Design, Landscape Architecture, Urban Geography, Environmental Planning, Restoration Ecology, and Aesthetics.
The Environmental Impact of Cities assesses the environmental impact that comes from cities and their inhabitants, demonstrating that our current political and economic systems are not environmentally sustainable because they are designed for endless growth in a system which is finite. It is already well documented that political, economic and social forces are capable of shaping cities and their expansion, retraction, gentrification, re-population, industrialisation or de-industrialisation. However, the links between these political and economic forces and the environmental impact they have on urban areas have yet to be numerically presented. As a result, it is not clear how our cities are affecting the environment, meaning it is currently impossible to relate their economic, political and social systems to their environmental performance. This book examines a broad selection of cities covering a wide range of political systems, geography, cultural backgrounds and population size. The environmental impact of the selected cities is calculated using both ecological footprint and carbon emissions, two of the most extensively available indices for measuring environmental impact. The results are then considered in terms of political, economic and social factors to ascertain the degree to which these factors are helping or hindering the reduction of the environmental impact of humans. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainability, urban planning, urban design, environmental sciences, geography and sociology.
The Right to Development in International Law rigorously explores the right to development (RTD) from the perspectives of international law as well as the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and the Islamic concept of social justice in Pakistan. The volume draws on a wide range of relevant sources to analyse the legal status of international cooperation in contemporary international law, before exploring the domestic application of the right to development looking at the example of Pakistan, a country that is undergoing radical transformation in terms of its internal governance structures and the challenges it faces for enforcing the rule of law. Of particular importance is the examination of the RTD and Shari'ah law in Pakistan which adds a new perspective to the RTD debate and enriches the discussion about human rights and Shari'ah across the world. Through focusing on Pakistan the book links international perspectives and the international human rights framework with the domestic constitutional apparatus for enforcing the RTD within that jurisdiction. In doing so, Khurshid Iqbal argues that the RTD may be promoted through existing constitutional mechanisms if fundamental rights are widely interpreted by the superior courts, effectively implemented by the lower courts and if Shari'ah law is progressively interpreted in public interest. Iqbal's work will appeal to researchers, professionals and students in the fields of law, human rights, development, international law, South Asian Studies, Islamic law and international development studies.
How best to foster agricultural development in the Third World has long been a subject of debate and from a European perspective the persistent failure to design peasant-friendly technology is puzzling. From the late 19th century, for example, various western European countries also underwent 'green revolutions' in which systematic attempts were made to promote the adoption of technological innovation by peasant-farmers. This book focuses on the development of public-sector plant-breeding in Germany from the late nineteenth century through its fate under National Socialism. Harwood uses this historical case study in order to argue that peasant-friendly research has an important role to play in future Green Revolutions.
This book examines the various economic, political and developmental policy challenges that Malaysia faces in her shift from a middle income to high-income economy. This issue is of great interest to academics, policy makers and development practitioners in the developing world, particularly in middle-income economies where there is a widespread concern about the challenges of managing such a transition. Malaysia is one of the developing world's greatest success stories. The book argues that as one of the developing world's most open economies, with a reputation for prudent macroeconomic management, Malaysia has achieved consistent growth since independence. It has moved from a largely resource-based economy to a multinational-led, export-oriented, industrial economy. Despite this success, Malaysia, like other developing countries, is currently at a crossroads in its development strategy; it is in danger of being unable to graduate to the level of more advanced economies - such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore - but with the basis of its success at risk from competition from efficient, lower-wage countries - such as China, India and Vietnam. Moreover, there are new threats to the political stability and affirmative action programmes which have successfully held together a very racially diverse population.
Industrialization in Africa has relied heavily on state institutions of various kinds and on the inflow of foreign capital, especially foreign aid. With particular reference to technology and on the basis of a wide range of case-studies, this book explains how these features of the African experience have jointly contributed not only to the many cases of failure in the public sector, but also to a number of exceptional cases that can be regarded as success stories.
This book systematically analyses state responses towards Maoism in India and studies the role of state policies in prolonging conflict. It looks at how the structural maladies that once gave rise to conflict have now found a place in the government responses meant to address it. The book studies the socio-political conditions of Adivasis and lower caste groups that make up large sections of the cadre and highlights the exclusionary nature of the Indian political landscape. It discusses various themes such as state legitimacy, the political landscape through exclusion, the agency of Maoist foot soldiers, limitations of government welfare responses, and the idea of the marginalised in India. Rich in empirical data, the book will be useful for scholars and researchers of development studies, political studies, political sociology, minority studies, exclusion studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also be of interest to policy-makers.
This book examines the complex relationship between the state, society and business in China, focusing on the experience of the island province of Hainan. This island, for many years a provincial backwater, was given provincial rank in 1988 and became the testing ground for experiments of an economic, political, and social nature that have received great attention from Beijing, in particular the "small government, big society" project. This book provides a full account of this transition, showing how Hainan casts important light on a number of highly topical issues in contemporary China studies: central-local relations, institutional reform, state-society relations, and economic development strategies. It provides detailed evidence of how relations between party cadres, state bureaucrats, businesses, foreign investors and civil society play out in practice in China today. It argues that despite the liberalization of recent years, especially in the economic sphere, the party state remains the most powerful actor in Chinese society, and that path-breaking reform experiments such as in Hainan remain highly vulnerable due to the central government's hesitation to commit the resources and unequivocal political support needed for the experiments to be successfully realized. |
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