Alternative Development Paths

This 9th volume of International Development Policy looks at recent paradigmatic innovations and related development trajectories in Latin America, with a particular focus on the Andean region. It examines the diverse development narratives and experiences in countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru during a period of high commodity prices associated with robust growth, poverty alleviation and inequality reduction. Highlighting propositions such as buen vivir, this thematic volume questions whether competing ideologies and discourses have translated into different outcomes, be it with regard to environmental sustainability, social progress, primary commodity dependence, or the rights of indigenous peoples. This collection of articles aims to enrich our understanding of recent development debates and processes in Latin America, and what the rest of the world can learn from them. Contributors include: Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Alberto Acosta, Ana Elizabeth Bastida, Luis Bustos, Humberto Campodónico, Gilles Carbonnier, Ana Patricia Cubillo-Guevara, Fernando Eguren, Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva, Eduardo García, Javier Herrera, Antonio Luis Hidalgo-Capitán, Robert Muggah, Gianandrea Nelli Feroci, José Antonio Ocampo, Camilo Andrés Peña Galeano, Guillermo Perry, Darío Indalecio Restrepo Botero, Sergio Tezanos Vázquez, and Frédérique Weyer.

India has emerged as a rapidly developing economy in the 21st century. However, to support this growth, India needs to modernize its electricity sector and increase its generating capacity in the coming years. This calls for substantial investment in the sector over the next few decades. The investments must be economically, socially, and culturally consistent with the needs of India. Such investments in the energy sector being long term in nature, appropriate choices must also be made from the perspective of technology and environment This publication focuses on various 'alternatives in development' to ensure future sustainability of India's electricity industry and generate policy options for both developing the power sector and mobilizing foreign resources. It also looks at the critical issue of how India can develop required institutional framework that can promote the modernization of the electricity sector by encouraging endogenous and exogenous sources of funding into specific areas, issues related to technology transfer and sustainable development, the role of donor agencies and climate change funds, etc. A three-pronged research strategy was adopted to untangle the issues facing the electricity sector in India. First, the research team carried out a literature survey covering scientific literature, reports, and policy documents. Second, it studied country-specific cases to understand the lessons learnt from specific outcomes of the work done by other countries. And third, the team interviewed various stakeholders from the private sector, government, multilateral institutions, non-governmental organizations, and academic community. The information thus gathered was finally synthesized and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis was carried out. This publication, titled Alternate development paths: scope for mobilizing international resources for funding the power sector in India, will be useful to policy-makers, financial analysts, academics, decision-makers in international development agencies, and those interested in India's power sector.

This volume is the continuation of our research on economic and developmental policy-making in the global semi-periphery in the post-crisis cycle (see our two recently published volumes titled ‘Market-Liberalism and Economic Patriotism in Capitalist Systems’ edited by Gerőcs and Szanyi, 2019, Palgrave Macmillan and ‘The Post-Crisis Developmental State – Perspectives from the Global Periphery’ edited by Gerőcs and Ricz, 2021). Our new volume aims to be a contribution to the analysis of emerging market economies’ alternative development trajectories, as we explore the new perspectives on semi-peripheral dependent development since the Global Financial Crisis and especially amidst the new global pandemic, the COVID-19. The scope of comparative capitalism research has also been altered accordingly to include the analysis of emerging economies outside the core of the world system, and to make intertemporal comparisons possible (such as to define and characterise historical waves of state capitalism). Still, we are convinced that to better understand the current wave of state capitalism and to explore its national varieties there is a need to critically reconsider existing theoretical approaches and methodologies, and to search for new ones, if necessary. This book aims to be a contribution to the analysis of emerging market economies' alternative development trajectories and explores new perspectives on semi-peripheral dependent development, especially amidst COVID-19.

This book brings together a collection of essays that discuss alternative development and its relevance for local/global processes of marginalization and change in the Global South. Alternative development questions who the producers of development knowledges and practices are, and aims at decentring development and geographical knowledge from the Anglo-American centre and the Global North. It involves resistance to dominant political-economic processes in order to further the possibilities for non-exploitative and just forms of development. By discussing how to unravel marginalization and voice change through alternative methods, actors and concepts, the book provides useful guidance on understanding the relationship between theory and practice. The main strength of the book is that it calls for a central role for alternative development in the current development discourse, most notably related to justice, rights, globalization, forced migration, conflict and climate change. The book provides new ways of engaging with alternative development thinking and making development alternatives relevant.

China’s emphasis on infrastructure development has received support from African leaders. Its focus on infrastructure development in Africa was endorsed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between China and the African Union on 27 January 2015. The agreement outline plans for connecting African countries through transportation infrastructure projects, including modern highways, airports, and high speed railways. At the heart of Belt and Road Initiative lies the creation of an economic land belt that includes countries on the original Silk Road through Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as a maritime “road” that links China’s port facilities with the African coast, pushing up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean. China has from the outset emphasised that the Belt and Road Initiative will be developed within the framework of the five principles. These entails mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; non-aggression; non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence. This volume provides an analysis of this stance by both African and Chinese scholars. Africa through its Agenda 2063 has been driving, among others, the re-industrialisation of its economies, improved connectivity and infrastructure development, diversification of energy sources, technology transfer and skills development. The Belt and Road Initiative provides an alternative path for Africa to realise some of these milestones.

This insightful book examines the impact of two competing visions of Asian-Pacific economic growth paths and development governance. It discusses law, development and finance in the context of the Indo-Pacific Strategy versus the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), whilst also comparing parallel development financing systems.

Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the relationship between political structures and economic configurations of ancient chiefdoms and states through a framework of comparative archaeology. A group of highly distinguished scholars takes up important issues, theories, and methods stemming from the nascent body of research on comparative archaeology to showcase and apply important theories of households, power, and how the development of complex societies can be extended and refined. Drawing on the archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic records, the chapters in this volume contain critical investigations on the role of collective action, economics, and corporate cognitive codes in structuring complex societies. Alternative Pathways to Complexity is an important addition to theoretical development and empirical research on Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies. The theoretical implications addressed in the chapters will have broad appeal for scholars grappling with alternative pathways to complexity in other regions as well as those addressing diverse cross-cultural research. Contributors: Sarah B. Barber, Cynthia L. Bedell, Christopher S. Beekman, Frances F. Berdan, Tim Earle, Carol R. Ember, Gary M. Feinman, Arthur A. Joyce, Stephen A. Kowalewski, Lisa J. LeCount, Linda M. Nicholas, Peter N. Peregrine, Peter Robertshaw, Barbara L. Stark, T. L. Thurston, Deborah Winslow, Rita Wright

The Climate Change 2007 volumes of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide the most comprehensive and balanced assessment of climate change available. This IPCC Working Group III volume provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art and worldwide overview of scientific knowledge related to the mitigation of climate change. It includes a detailed assessment of costs and potentials of mitigation technologies and practices, implementation barriers, and policy options for the sectors: energy supply, transport, buildings, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management. It links sustainable development policies with climate change practices. This volume will again be the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change, including students and researchers, analysts and decision-makers in governments and the private sector.