Social And Economic Development Volume I

Communities have long been ahead of governments in responding to changes in the economy, forging ahead with innovative grassroots projects that now make up a substantial portion of economic development initiatives. Having made major gains in practice and having built local capacities through innovation, Community Economic Development 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. There are a growing number of post-secondary programs in English Canada that educate students in CED and related fields such as regional development, yet there are not many publications that provide analytical perspectives and debate. The goal of this book is to describe and analyze CED practice, primarily in Canada, through a wide range of subjects--the evolution of its definitions, economic dimensions and the key elements that form its context. Building for Social Change situates CED in wide political, economic and social contexts: rich examples of the scope and practices, and some of the limits--in Aboriginal communities, as a tool to support women, psychiatric survivor enterprises, housing and worker ownerships--are explored to help spur further critical discussion and debate.

The EU has experienced serious economic and political crises such as the sovereign debt crisis and Brexit in the past few years. However, despite these issues, the EU has implemented considerable institutional, fiscal, and collective improvements during the unification process to continue as a significant actor in the global economy. The Handbook of Research on Social and Economic Development in the European Union provides a multidisciplinary evaluation of the institutional, economic, and social development of the European Union and makes inferences for the future dynamics and collaborations of the EU, the global economy, and other countries. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as energy security, gender discrimination, and global economics, this book is ideally designed for government officials, policymakers, world leaders, politicians, diplomats, international relations officers, economists, business professionals, historians, market analysts, academicians, researchers, and students concerned about the multifaceted integration processes surrounding the EU.

This book explores the various aspects of Waqf management in IsDB member countries/jurisdictions as well as in non-Muslim majority countries. Topics covered include Waqf regulation, its modernization and relationship to Maqasid Al-Shari’ah; performance of Waqf activities; time and activity-wise distribution of Waqf resource management; the antecedents and consequences of Waqf assets (both physical and cash); the strategies and models to promote Waqf-related activities for greater socio-economic development; good governance practices through the formulation of informed policies for Waqf projects; the confluence of Waqf, zakah, charity, and Islamic microfinance impacting socio-economic development and so on. Comprising different issues and perspectives adopted by various authors/researchers, the book is specifically designed to meet the needs of academics and industry practitioners in the field of Islamic finance to provide general and Shari’ah guidelines on the emerging issues within the subject.

Taking a comparative and multidisciplinary approach, this textbook offers a non-technical introduction to the dynamics of socio-economic development and stagnation.

Why are poor countries poor and rich countries rich? How are wealth and poverty related to changes in nutrition, health, life expectancy, education, population growth and politics? This modern, non-technical 2005 introduction to development studies explores the dynamics of socio-economic development and stagnation in developing countries. Taking a quantitative and comparative approach to contemporary debates within their broader context, Szirmai examines historical, institutional, demographic, sociological, political and cultural factors. Key chapters focus on economic growth, technological change, industrialisation, agricultural development, and consider social dimensions such as population growth, health and education. Each chapter contains comparative statistics on trends from a sample of twenty-nine developing countries. This rich statistical database allows students to strengthen their understanding of comparative development experiences. Assuming no prior knowledge of economics the book is suited for use in inter-disciplinary development studies programmes as well as economics courses, and will also interest practitioners pursuing careers in developing countries.

Lead firms, development organisations, donors and governments view value chains and voluntary standards as vital instruments for achieving millennium development goals through trade and market-related interventions. The precise foundations for these development strategies, which suggest positive development outcomes from integration of poor actors into value chains, are as yet underdeveloped. The interdisciplinary work in this volume shows how trade is managed and asks theory-driven questions about how value chains relate to locally-rooted development processes. Policy makers and development practitioners are increasingly using value chain analysis to frame pro-poor development interventions. This book offers multiple conceptualizations of development outcomes of inclusion of small producers, firms and workers in value chains. Processes of inclusion at different scales are unpacked in order to identify the terms of participation of small producers, firms and workers. As value chains are embedded, the book further argues that inclusion can be conceptualized as the degree of alignment between value chain logics and the institutions and capacities in the local business system. The combination of inclusive governance and endogenous development informs a grounded debate on roles of development-oriented partnerships. Chapters in this volume draw on multiple strands of economics, sociology, political science, geography and management studies; and for empirical grounding engage in comparative analysis of cases from Latin America, SubSaharan Africa and East and South East Asia. These are combined with processes taking place at a global level, such as the proliferation of standards and the growth of roundtables and multi-stakeholder partnerships. The contributions explore contrasts – between contexts, between industries or commodities/products, and between conceptual frameworks; and the context dependency of development impact necessitates cross-case investigations. This collection will be of interest to scholars in development studies, economics, business studies, as well as to development policy makers.

The chapters in this volume explore the challenges and opportunities raised by this concept for researchers, practitioners and teachers. Social Capital and Economic Development is based upon a consistent, policy-based vision of how social capital affects well-being in developing countries.

What accounts for the varying long term growth patterns across developing countries? Why were some economies able to achieve sustained and rapid growth in the past three decades, while others failed? In Social Capability and Long-Term Economic Growth, an impressive panel of economists come together to develop a theory of long-term growth, focusing on the dynamic relationship between the social capability to manage scarce resources and long-term growth. Various theoretical issues concerning social capability are explored, and in-depth case-studies of the development experiences of Asian, Latin American, and socialist economies are presented with significant empirical findings. The authors argue that a nation's social capability to efficiently manage human resources is a crucial ingredient for sustaining growth. This study is a serious response to the important question of how a poor developing country can transform itself into a developed one, and its findings offer valuable insight to the development of a long-term growth theory and to economic development policies.