International Development And Alternative Futures

This comprehensive, critical examination of Africa’s future–written by a diverse group of Africans and Africanists–raises many questions and challenges concerning the development and unity of the African continent. Eclectic in range and method, but cohesive in concern, the book identifies and analyzes alternative probabilities in the political, economic, and social spheres and on the national, regional, and international levels. Many of the contributors point toward an unpromising future for Africa unless its development strategy is changed and its inheritance of dependence on the world system overcome.

The world is becoming more complex, fraught with increasing possibilities for conflict over national rivalries, economic competition, and cultural and ideological fault lines. This clear-eyed text offers a structured and theoretically grounded way to think about the forces that animate change and the alternative futures they may create. Donald Kelley views both contemporary reality and the future we face through the perspective of four different paradigms that shape our way of thinking about the world: The nation-state paradigm, built on the assumption that the traditional Westphalian nation-state remains the key building block of the present and the future, which leads us to predict the future in terms of the nature and alignment of nation-states The economic paradigm, built on the assumption that economic factors are increasingly important, which leads us to see the future in terms of factors such as interdependence, globalization, and trade as well as the growing opposition to these developments and the prioritization of national economic needs The identity and culture paradigm, built on the distinct identities and cultures of nations and regions, which leads us to view the future in terms of conflicting culture-based communities transcending formal national or economic interests The ideology paradigm, based on a post-cold war reemergence of ideological conflict within and among nations, which leads us to view a world based on ideology-based conflict From these paradigms and their interactions, Kelley builds a series of possible alternative futures of the international system. His framework provides a unique way of looking at how and why the world is changing and the many different “futures”—some peaceful and productive, some warlike and destructive, and others simply dysfunctional—in which we might live.

In the early stages of planning the Third International Conference in System Science in Health Care, the steering committee members, most of whom had participated in the first conference in Paris (1976) and the second in Montreal (1980), made some basic decisions about organization of subject matter. The earlier meetings had been very successful in bringing together specialists from the health professions and the traditional sciences. In addition to physicians and nurses, these were representatives of the disciplines of the behavioral sciences, system theory, economics, engineering, and the emergency fields of management science and informatics -all concerned with the development of health resources in a broad system context. The reported research and experience of the many disciplines represented had dealt with one or more of three concerns: 1) a major health problem, such as cardiovascular disease, or an important popUlation at risk, such as the elderly or children or workers; 2) some generic aspect of organization and decision making, including trial and evaluation ofinnovative health strategies; and 3) the methodology of research and analysis in system of health service. The challenge to the conference organizers lay in the eliciting and arranging of experiences in such a way that the health services could be seen as purposeful,living, evolving systems.

Henderson explains how GNP distorts the goal of human development, pointing out misleading assumptions and redefines health, wealth, and progress for humanity's long-term survival.

"Addresses ... the concept and design of alternative futures for such urgent world problems as international and national security systems, populations, diminishing natural resources, environmental deterioration, and the widening gap between rich and poor"--Cover 4.

This book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity and food security. Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and various other international bodies. The final part discusses the responses of civil society groups to the changing global rules, how these changes affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures. Published with IDRC and QIAP.

This comprehensive, critical examination of Africa’s future–written by a diverse group of Africans and Africanists–raises many questions and challenges concerning the development and unity of the African continent. Eclectic in range and method, but cohesive in concern, the book identifies and analyzes alternative probabilities in the political, economic, and social spheres and on the national, regional, and international levels. Many of the contributors point toward an unpromising future for Africa unless its development strategy is changed and its inheritance of dependence on the world system overcome.