Development Studies
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From Recipients to Donors
Emerging Powers and The Changing Development Landscape
Emma Mawdsley
Foreign aid has seen enormous changes in the last decade. In the early millennium, it appeared that donor nations might succeed in combating partisan interests, and commit to a new era of coordinated policies and practices. However, the last few years have witnessed a number of challenges to this model: the problematic intrusion of security agendas; inherent difficulties in harmonization and alignment; and difficulties in securing promised finances after the financial crises. One of the key challenges… (more information)
How to Manage an Aid Exit Strategy
Derek Fee
After almost 40 years of development aid most commentators agree that aid as we know it has not worked. Aid fatigue is suffered on both the donor and recipient sides, with a wide divergence between those who call for a radical overhaul of aid delivery methods, those who advocate a complete end to development aid and those who continually demand significant increases in aid flows. How to Manage an Aid Exit provides a refreshing insightful and comprehensive analysis of how an exit may actually be… (more information)
Africa to the Rescue of Africa
Sanou Mbaye
What has happened that the hopes born during decolonisation are now so dissipated? How can Africa escape its current impasse? Since independence, the development model imposed on Africa by the west has utterly failed but Sanou Mbaye shows that Africa already has the cards in its hands to carry out its own development. The author dissects the structural causes of the failure that has dragged African people into a spiral of poverty and violence. He makes western responsibilities clear without hiding… (more information)
Development Cooperation and Emerging Powers
New Partners or Old Patterns
Edited by Sachin Chaturvedi, Thomas Fues, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos
Existing global frameworks for development cooperation are heavily dominated by the experiences of industrialized countries. However, emerging economies have begun to accelerate their development cooperation with other developing countries, and attempts to bring them into existing aid models have been met with caution and reservation. This expert and topical volume explores the development cooperation policies of China, India, Brazil and South Africa and compares them with those of Mexico and… (more information)
Paved with Good Intentions
Canada’s Development NGOs on the Road from Idealism to Imperialism
Nik Barry-Shaw, Dru Oja Jay
“NGOs are as Canadian as hockey,” declared a 1988 Parliamentary report. Few institutions epitomize the foundational Canadian myth of international benevolence like the non-governmental organization devoted to development abroad. This book raises important questions about these organizations and their development projects: Just how “non-governmental” are organizations that get most of their funding from government agencies? What impact do these funding ties have on NGOs… (more information)
Economics of killing
How the West Fuels War and Poverty in the Developing World
Vijay Mehta
Globalisation has created an interconnected world, but has not diminished violence, militarism and inequality. The Economics of Killing describes how the power of global elites, entrenched under globalisation, has created a deadly cycle of violence. In this groundbreaking work, Vijay Mehta shows how attempts at peaceful national development are routinely blocked by Western powers. He locates the 2008 financial crisis in US attempts to block China’s model of development. He shows how Europe… (more information)
Maldevelopment
Anatomy of a Global Failure, 2nd edition
Samir Amin
In this updated edition of his 1990 book Samir Amin explains with great clarity the complex changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the transformations in Eastern Europe and in the world economy, the growth of capitalism in China and, despite the West riding on the crest of new technologies, its materialist goals being increasingly questioned by new social movements including the Greens. In this context, Amin examines the failure of development from a political stand-point… (more information)
Eradicating Extreme Poverty
Democracy, Globalization and Human Rights
Edited by Xavier Godinot
The failure of attempts to tackle global poverty have bred cynicism and ‘compassion fatigue’. Eradicating Extreme Poverty provides an urgently needed fresh approach which will re-energise action on this issue. Rejecting traditional ‘top-down’ approaches, Xavier Godinot and his colleagues start from the experiences, capabilities and strategies of the poor themselves. They argue that the first step is a close connection with poor communities followed by a commitment to take… (more information)
Community Economic Development
Building for Social Change
Edited by Eric Shragge, Michael Toye
Having made major gains in practice and having built local capacities through innovation, Community Economic Development practice now stands at a crossroads. In Building for Social Change, Eric Shragge, Michael Toye and colleagues from across the country offer a timely critical examination of CED practices and debates. This book is designed for CED practitioners, for others working in community-based organizations and those being trained. The goal of this book is to describe and analyze… (more information)
Food Sovereignty in Canada
Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems
Edited by Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Nettie Wiebe, Hannah Wittman
Contemporary Canadian agricultural and food policies are contributing to the current global food crisis: the industrialized, high-input, export-driven agricultural production sector, coupled with concentrated corporate processing and retailing, are ecologically unsustainable, increasingly unaffordable, unhealthy and socially unjust. Employing an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach, Food Sovereignty in Canada explores how communities all over the country are actively engaged in implementing… (more information)
Women, Gender and Development Reader
2nd edition
Edited by Lynne Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, Nalini Visvanathan, Nan Wiegersma
Third World women were long the undervalued and ignored actors in the development process but are now recognized as playing a critical role. This book is a comprehensive reader presenting the best of the now vast body of literature that has grown up alongside this acknowledgement. Divided into five parts, this book incorporates readings from the leading experts and authorities in each field. The first part acts as an introduction to the field, examining the key theoretical debates and discourses… (more information)
Confronting Female Genital Mutilation
The Role of Youth and ICTs in Changing Africa
Marie-Hélène Mottin-Sylla, Joëlle Palmieri
It is not possible, in Africa or elsewhere, to think about the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) – excision – in the same way as 25 years ago. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are no longer a novelty, and increased access to information and ideas has contributed to wider discussion. Beliefs and practices are shifting, particularly among young people. FGM is no longer the private concern only of women – it is a social and political issue that concerns both… (more information)
Conflict and Development
Development Matters
Eleanor O’Gorman
During the 1990s the drive of liberal peace efforts in the form of humanitarian intervention transformed the ways in which traditional development assistance operated in war and post-war situations. From Somalia and Rwanda to Bosnia and Sri Lanka, conflict, security and development became more intertwined as more integrated programmes and interventions were advocated by the international community. Conflict and Development, whilst serving as an in-depth introduction to key themes and context, questions… (more information)
Participation Reader
Edited by Andrea Cornwall
Calls for greater participation of those affected by development interventions have a long history. This expert reader explores the conceptual and methodological dimensions of participatory research and the politics and practice of participation in development. Through excerpts from the texts that have inspired contemporary advocates of participation, accounts of the principles of participatory research and empirical studies that show some of the complexities of participation in practice, it offers… (more information)
Generation NGO
Edited by Alisha Apale, Valerie Stam
Young Canadians are increasingly active and engaged in global issues. Many are eagerly poised to contribute—in smaller and even larger ways—to international development and the Canadian national politics that, for better or worse, shape the field. Generation NGO captures some of the first impressions of these young international development professionals before they are relegated to the dusty corners of memory. It provides snapshots of some of their first experiences with inequality… (more information)
Critical Development Studies Handbook
Tools for Change
Edited by Henry Veltmeyer
This handbook is a guide to ‘critical development studies’ (CDS)—the study of international development from the standpoint of social change, a critical perspective. As such the handbook provides a set of tools for entering and understanding the nature and scope of the interdisciplinary field of development studies. It is organized as a set of 50 short course modules. Each module is written by a well-known research specialist in the area; and each (a) identifies the six most critical… (more information)
Food Sovereignty
Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community
Edited by Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Nettie Wiebe, Hannah Wittman
Advocating a practical, radical change to the way much of our food system currently operates, this book argues that food sovereignty is the means to achieving a system that will provide for the food needs of all people while respecting the principles of environmental sustainability, local empowerment and agrarian citizenship. The current high input, industrialized, market-driven food system fails on all these counts. The UN-endorsed goal of food security is becoming increasingly distant as indicated… (more information)
Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work?
The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism
Milford Bateman
Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly… (more information)
Development and Globalisation
Daring to Think Differently
Yash Tandon
Development is self-defined. It is primarily the responsibility of the South to develop itself; the North does not owe it to the South to develop it, nor should the South expect it. Development is about building confidence between governments and people, and not building confidence with the banks and global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, which is what globalization has been for over the last three decades. This book challenges the misdirected policies of the last 30… (more information)
From Clients to Citizens
Communities Changing the Course of Their Own Development
Edited by Gordon Cunningham, Alison Mathie
Communities worldwide act on their own initiative, drawing on their own resources of leadership and solidarity and, in spite of poverty, to achieve their own goals. Development practitioners have too often viewed poor communities as helpless and disadvantaged and have encouraged their dependency. Yet if instead communities are recognized as having social and cultural as well as material assets, then their capacity to negotiate external assistance on their own terms will be strengthened. &ldquo… (more information)
Development Has a Woman’s Face
Insights from within the UN
Krishna Ahoojapatel
“The richness of Krishna Ahoojapatel’s analysis of the connections between women and the economy comes from the diversity of her engagements as a UN policymaker, an academic and an activist. Her analysis is therefore multidimensional. It is not a historical work, but captures four decades of changes in policies, in paradigms and in women’s lives. It is rare to see such different strands come together in one person and one book.” —Vandana Shiva, Founder/Director, Research… (more information)
Technological Transformation and Development in the South
Krishna Ahoojapatel, Surendra J. Patel, Henry Veltmeyer
These essays cover approximately a half a century from approximately the 1960s to the end of the millennium. Patel begins with a broad review of changes in the world economy in the second half of the twentieth century and then summarizes its main features. “In all his work, Surendra Patel was purposeful in making the science of economics work for the betterment of the human race. He had the rare ability to make economic statistics talk to us, to chart the remarkable achievements of the third… (more information)
Transforming or Reforming Capitalism
Towards a Theory of Community Economic Development
Edited by John Loxley
Growing worldwide interest in community economic development has led to a blossoming of “how to” manuals,as well as analyses of co-operatives, development corporations, gender, financing, etc. Yet in all this discussion very little is said about the basic objective of CED: Is it designed to fill holes left by capitalism or is it intended to replace it? There is equally little on a theory of CED. This book draws on several disciplines—particularly economics, sociology and political… (more information)
Doing Community Economic Development
Edited by John Loxley, Kathleen Sexsmith, Jim Silver
Challenging traditional notions of development, these essays critically examine bottom-up, community economic development strategies in a wide variety of contexts: as a means of improving lives in northern, rural and inner-city settings; shaped and driven by women and by Aboriginal people; aimed at employment creation for the most marginalized. most authors have employed a participatory research methodology. The essays are the product of a broader, three-year community-university research collaboration… (more information)
Partners for Progress
A Canada-Africa Venture in University Building
Edited by Michael J. Larsen, James H. Morrison
Education is the only self-generating energy source ever discovered by human beings, and higher education has proven to be the most effective and efficient route to our social, cultural and economic growth and well-being. Tragically, the poorer nations of the developing world must send many of their most promising students abroad for higher education only to lose them to the brighter prospects of the developed world. This was a dilemma known all too well to the people of The Gambia, West Africa.… (more information)
Development After Globalization
Theory and Practice for the Embattled South in a New Imperial Age
John S. Saul
This reflection on the situation in the countries of the global South examines their shared but diverse experiences of the hard facts of poverty and exclusion in the world of capitalist globalization. It probes the reality of ‘underdevelopment’ in an unequal world, driven by western power and capitalist profit-seeking and supported by inequalities within the countries of the ‘third world’ themselves. John Saul suggests fresh ways to consider the dynamics of this situation… (more information)
Reclaiming Development
An Alternative Economic Policy Manual
Ha-Joon Chang, Ilene Grabel
”There is no alternative to neo-liberal economics, Americanization and globalization” remains the driving assumption within the international development policy establishment. Ha-Joon Chang and IIene Grabel question the validity of this assertion by combining data, a devastating economic logic and an analysis of the historical experiences of leading Western and East Asian economies. They also include practical alternatives in key areas: trade and industrial policy; privatization; intellectual… (more information)
Stolen Fruit
The Tropical Commodities Disaster
Peter Robbins
Many countries in the South have been encouraged to grow coffee, sugar, cotton and other crops, but small farmers get only a tiny share of the final price of these commodities in the North. As prices collapse, the terms of trade between North and South have widened. This investigation, by one of the leading authorities on commodity trading, analyzes the current trading arrangements and their disastrous effect on foreign exchange earnings, tax revenues and economic growth in developing countries.… (more information)
Give and Take
What’s the Matter with Foreign Aid?
David Sogge
Billions are spent each year on foreign aid and tens of thousands are employed in the aid industry. The Purpose of aid is ostensibly selfless and benign. Yet it is also the focus of controversy. In Give and Take, David Sogge asks if there is a real net flow of financial resources to the South. He questions how much aid there should be, on what terms should it be given, and if the strings imposed imply a resurection of colonial controls. Can Northern governments, international financial institutions… (more information)
The Development Myth
The Non-Viable Economies of the 21st Century
Oswaldo de Rivero
Be intellectually honest and politically realistic about what is happening to the majority of people in Third World countries. With a very few exceptions, development has not come. Nor is it going to. The necessary investment will not be available. Modern technology cannot provide the jobs. And the environment cannot take the strain. Most countries are not in the process of becoming Newly Industrialized Countries, but Non-viable National Economies.What then is to be done? The wealth of nations agenda… (more information)
Planet Dialectics
Explorations in Environment and Development
Wolfgang Sachs
Sachs is one of the most thoughtful and appealing intellectuals to deal with the dual crisis in the Western world’s relations with nature and social justice. In this book readers–be they concerned citizens, environmentalists, development specialists or cultural historians–will find trenchant and elegant explorations of some of the foremost issues the world faces at the beginning of the new century: Efficiency, the mantra of our times; Globalization, a market inevitability and the… (more information)
The Post-Development Reader
Edited by Victoria Bawtree, Majid Rahnema
Most scholars and practitioners are now agreed that the world is on the threshold of a completely new era in the history of development. This reader brings together in a powerfully diverse, but ultimately coherent, statement some of the very best thinking on the subject by scholars and activists around the world. The contributors provide a devastating critique of what the mainstream paradigm has in practice done to the peoples of the world, and to their richly diverse and sustainable ways of living… (more information)
The Women, Gender & Development Reader
Edited by Lynne Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, Nalini Visvanathan
Third World women, long the undervalued and ignored actors in the development process, are now recognized by scholars, practitioners and policy makers alike as playing a critical role. This book is a comprehensive reader for undergraduates and development practitioners, presenting the best of the now vast body of literature that is grown up along side this acknowledgement. Five parts cover respectively a review of the history of the theoretical debates, the status of women in the household and family… (more information)