International Development Studies

′A sure-footed and self-confident book, ambitious in scope, authoritative in execution and practical in its implications′ - Simon Maxwell, Director, Overseas Development Institute, London ′At last, a development studies text that encourages self-reflection from within the discipline. Highly recommended′ - Professor Ray Kiely, Chair in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London ′This is the book that academics, development researchers and practitioners have been seeking for a long time. [It] addresses the most important issues which development researchers and practitioners cope with each and every day′ - Dr Tran Tuan, Director, Research and Training Centre for Community Development, Hanoi, Vietnam. ′An insightful book for both development practitioners and researchers alike′ - Professor K.N. Nair, Director Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, India This book is about working professionally in Development Studies as a student, researcher or practitioner. It introduces and addresses the fundamental questions that everyone engaged with development must ask: " What is ′development′ and why do we wish to study it? " How do the many theoretical, methodological and espistemological approaches relate to research and practical studies in development? " How are development research and practice linked? Accessibly written, with extensive use of case study material, this book is an essential primer for students of development studies who require a concise, penetrating overview of its foundations. It is also core reading for students and practitioners concerned with the design of studies in the course of policy analysis, sector reviews, or project formulation, management and evaluation.

This book provides an overview of the key issues of development studies from a critical perspective: the nature of the global capitalist system and the dynamics associated with the development process, the outmigration and urbanization of rural areas, the formation of a global working class and the emergence of powerful resistance movements.

Investigates the effects of research in the field of international development.. Examines the consequences of 23 research projects funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre in developing countries. Shows how research influence public policy and decision-making and how can contribute to better governance.

Reconstructions is a book about international development and several of its conceptual, theoretical, and some of its practical and behavioural facets. It is an exploratory introduction to the subject for tertiary students and an advanced general readership. It is a book of field theory. This term is derived from two meanings. The first is fieldwork and its associations with the attempt to provide a structure where one did not previously exist; and secondly, to draw on experience that is gained from information derived from practical settings and established knowledge. Hence, the theory developed in the book has bearings from real-world referents, secondary though those sometimes might be. Through different lenses macro, conceptual, abstract, political, scientific and behavioural Reconstructions: An Introduction to International Development Studies explores concepts that inform both the foreground (by identifying issues and concerns) and background (by explaining theory and concepts) of international development work. Reconstructions is also partially a book about alternative development, in as much as it critiques certain aspects of conventional development theory and advocates a people-centred, sustainable development. Models of International Development might change, and need to do so to respond to different political, social, generational, androgogical and environmental differences. A constant human factor is the relationship of people to their environment and the desire to improve it in social, economic and resource-conscious ways. Hence, the basis of Reconstructions: An Introduction to International Development Studies concerns the relation of people to the environment from a developmental perspective.

Written by experts in the field, this book covers a range of contemporary developments, as well as providing coverage of the theory and practice of international development.

Revolution in Development uncovers the surprising influence of postrevolutionary Mexico on the twentieth century's most important international economic institutions. Drawing on extensive archival research in Mexico, the United States, and Great Britain, Christy Thornton meticulously traces how Mexican officials repeatedly rallied Third World leaders to campaign for representation in global organizations and redistribution through multilateral institutions. By decentering the United States and Europe in the history of global economic governance, Revolution in Development shows how Mexican economists, diplomats, and politicians fought for more than five decades to reform the rules and institutions of the global capitalist economy. In so doing, the book demonstrates, Mexican officials shaped not only their own domestic economic prospects but also the contours of the project of international development itself.

International development is now a major global activity and the focus of the rapidly growing academic discipline of development studies. The Encyclopedia of International Development provides definitions and discussions of the key concepts, controversies and actors associated with international development for a readership of development workers, teachers and students. With 600 entries, ranging in length from shorter factual studies to more in-depth essays, a comprehensive system of cross references and a full index, it is the most definitive guide to international development yet published. Development is more than a simple increase in a country's wealth and living conditions. It also implies increasing people's choices and freedoms; it is change that is inclusive and empowering. Development theory and practice has important applications to questions of economic growth, trade, governance, education, healthcare, gender rights and environmental protection, and it involves issues such as international aid, peacekeeping, famine relief and strategies against HIV/AIDS. The Encyclopedia treats these topics and many more, and provides critical analyses of important actors within development such as the United Nations and World Bank, non-governmental organizations and corporations. Contributors to this volume reflect the multidisciplinary and international nature of the subject. They come from social science disciplines such as economics, international studies, political science and anthropology, and from specialities such as medicine. This Encyclopedia provides crucial information for universities, students and professional organizations involved with international development, and those interested in related topics such as international studies or other studies of social and economic change today.

Culture is not simply an explanation of last resort, but is itself a rich, multifaceted and contested concept and set of practices that needs to be expanded, appreciated and applied in fresh ways if it is to be both valued in itself and to be of use in practical development. This innovative book places culture, specifically in the form of the arts, back at the centre of debates in development studies by introducing new ways of conceptualizing art in relation to development. The book shows how the arts and development are related in very practical ways – as means to achieve development goals through visual, dramatic, filmic and craft-inspired ways. It advocates not so much culture and development, but rather for the development of culture. Without a cultural content to economic and social transformation the problems found in much development – up-rooting of cultures, loss of art forms, languages and modes of expression and performance – may only accelerate. Paying attention to the development of the arts as the content of development helps to amend this culturally destructive process. Finally, the book argues for the value of the arts in attaining sustainable cultures, promoting poverty alleviation, encouraging self-empowerment, stimulating creativity and the social imagination, which in turn flow back into wider processes of social transformation. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter make this book ideal to help foster further thinking and debate. This book is an inspiring read for postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of development studies, cultural studies and sociology of development.