Alternative Development

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.

Drawing upon ethnographic descriptions of three grassroots ethnic organizations, which work for indigenous peoples in promoting economic livelihood, education and strive for social justice, this book investigates the possibilities and challenges of alternative development.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The global economic crisis of 2008-2009 exposed systemic failings at the core of economic policy making worldwide. The crisis came on top of several other crises, including skyrocketing and highly volatile world food and energy prices and climate change. This book argues that new policy approaches are needed to address such devastating global development challenges and to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences to livelihoods worldwide that would result from present approaches. The contributors to the book are independent development experts, brought together by the UN to identify a development strategy capable of promoting a broad-based economic recovery and at the same time guaranteeing social equity and environmental sustainability both within countries and internationally. This new development approach seeks to promote the reforms needed to improve global governance, providing a more equitable distribution of global public goods. The contributors offer a critical evaluation of past development experiences and report on their creative search for new and well-thought out answers for the future. They suggest that economic progress, fairer societies and environmental sustainability can be compatible objectives, but only when pursued simultaneously by all.

The Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development explores the theories and approaches which, over a prolonged period of time, have existed as viable alternatives to today’s mainstream and neo-classical tenets. With a total of 40 specially commissioned chapters, written by the foremost authorities in their respective fields, this volume represents a landmark in the field of economic development. It elucidates the richness of the alternative and sometimes misunderstood ideas which, in different historical contexts, have proved to be vital to the improvement of the human condition. The subject matter is approached from several complementary perspectives. From a historical angle, the Handbook charts the mercantilist and cameralist theories that emerged from the Renaissance and developed further during the Enlightenment. From a geographical angle, it includes chapters on African, Chinese, Indian, and Muslim approaches to economic development. Different schools are also explored and discussed including nineteenth century US development theory, Marxist, Schumpeterian, Latin American structuralism, regulation theory and world systems theories of development. In addition, the Handbook has chapters on important events and institutions including The League of Nations, The Havana Charter, and UNCTAD, as well as on particularly influential development economists. Contemporary topics such as the role of finance, feminism, the agrarian issue, and ecology and the environment are also covered in depth. This comprehensive Handbook offers an unrivalled review and analysis of alternative and heterodox theories of economic development. It should be read by all serious scholars, teachers and students of development studies, and indeed anyone interested in alternatives to development orthodoxy.

Two-thirds of the population of the world are poor, and their number is growing in the first as well as in the third world, despite billions of dollars of aid. The economic development policies of the last two decades, and the theory which gave rise to them, have been discredited. The rich are disillusioned, apprehensive or uninterested, while the poor are embittered and without hope, the victims and agents of ignorance, instability and environmental degradation. The need for radical rethinking is urgent: this book makes an important contribution towards that end. John Friedmann argues that poverty should be seen not merely in material terms, but as social, political and psychological powerlessness. He presents the case for an alternative development committed to empowering the poor in their own communities, and to mobilizing them for political participation on a wider scale. In contrast to centralized development policies devised and implemented at the national and international level, alternative development restores the initiative to those in need, on the grounds that unless people have an active role in directing their own destinies long-term progress will not be achieved. The author takes the household as the strategic starting-point - stressing its moral, political and economic potential - as a source of continuity and as a location for production. From this basis he propounds a politics of emancipation that would enable the disempowered poor to assert their rights. Empowerment provides a morally-informed theoretical framework for a development policy that meets the needs of its recipients rather than of its makers.

This Economic Paper builds on the 2014 SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway, which provides guidance on economic, environmental and social priorities in small island developing states. It offers detailed analysis and guidance on alternative economic development strategies and recommends policies to build competitiveness in new industries.

This issue of International Development Policy looks at recent paradigmatic innovations and development trajectories in Latin America, focusing on the Andean region. It 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.

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.