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Book SynopsisThis book explores the joys and occasional frustrations of a development economist working for the United Nations.From 1982 to 2000 Richard Jolly worked in senior positions in UNICEF and UNDP on assignments that were innovative, for the UN, the countries concerned and for development. The book analyses his experiences as Deputy Director of UNICEF, Principal Coordinator and co-author of UNDP's widely acclaimed Human Development Report and a community development officer in Kenya, as well as his involvement in the UN and country mission to Zambia and ILO employment missions to Colombia, Sri Lanka and Kenya. It shows what the UN can achieve when there is strong leadership at central and field levels, together with decentralized approaches. Jolly's experiences lead him to conclude there are in fact three UNs: the formal UN of governments; the second UN comprising UN staff members, often the source of initiatives and action; and the third UN of NGOs, experts, conTable of ContentsIntroduction 1.UN development- more pioneering and professional than generally realized 2.Early Life, One Life-Changing Event and Four People 3.Discovering development -Baringo, Kenya 4.Cuba – close-up to the revolution and the Cuban missile crisis 5.Education, UNESCO and ECA 6.Zambia – My first UN mission in the heady days of African Independence 7.Applied Economics in Cambridge and in oil-rich Abu Dhabi 8.ILO and the IDS- employment policy in Colombia, Sri Lanka and Kenya 9.UNICEF -global goals and lessons of successful implementation 10.UNICEF Economists and children 11.UNDP and Human Development 12.UN Ideas that Changed the World 13.The Third UN and the North-South Roundtable 14.Final Words

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Book SynopsisIn recent years China has achieved impressive economic growth, and also made remarkable progress in human development. However, contemporary China is still faced with the great challenge of widespread poverty. This not only constitutes a barrier against China's pursuit of sustainable economic growth, but also poses a potential threat to China's attempts to construct a harmonious society in the future. This book, written by three renowned poverty-reduction experts under the aegis of the China Development Research Foundation - one of China's leading think-tanks - and drawing on the research of over twenty of China's top scholars in this field, examines China's efforts to eliminate poverty through development. It analyses all of the key issues, providing a review of China's past record in poverty alleviation, comparing this with the experiences of other countries, identifying the new characteristics and trends in poverty in recent years, and discussing the factors responsible. It assesTable of Contents1. Preface 1.1 A review of China’s Poverty and Anti-poverty Efforts 2.1 Socioeconomic Development and Poverty Reduction 3.1 Evolution of Poverty Concepts and other Countries’ Experiences 2. New Characteristics of Poverty in China today 2.1 The Absolute Poverty Line in China 2.2 Poor Populations in Rural Areas of China 2.3 Size and Geographical Distribution of Poor Populations in Urban Areas 3. Analysis of the Causes of Poverty 3.1 Agricultural Dependence and Natural Environmental Constraints 3.2 Human Capital Constraints 3.3 Public Services Constraints 3.4 Causes of Urban Poverty 3.5 A Brief Summary of the Causes of Poverty 4. China’s Poverty Alleviation Policies: Goals and Impacts 4.1 Main Poverty Alleviation Policies and their Characteristics 4.2 The Effects of Poverty Alleviation Policies in Rural Areas 4.3 The Poverty Alleviation Effects of Anti-poverty Policies in Urban Areas 4.4 Conclusive Evaluation of China’s Anti-poverty Policies 5. Governance and Poverty Alleviation 5.1 The Organization of China’s Poverty Alleviation Forces and their Functions 5.2 The Chinese Government’s Primary Experiences in Poverty Alleviation 5.3 The Main Problems with the Chinese Government’s Administrative Practices for Poverty Alleviation 6. Suggestions for Poverty Alleviation Policies

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Book SynopsisA self-contained introduction to the field of ethics and development for students, practitioners and the general reader.Trade ReviewDes Gasper's critical survey of the field of 'the ethics of development' is not a difficult read and can be appreciated as much by the general reader as by students of development ! a helpful source book for a module on the subject area. Journal of Development Studies Des Gasper has written the best book available on the "ethics of development" -- its history, scope, and challenges. Offering searching criticisms of mainstream development as conceptually blinded to human destitution and social justice, Gasper insightfully analyzes and evaluates alternative development visions. Novice and specialist alike will benefit from his careful dissection of such concepts as economic growth, efficiency, equity, poverty, violence, basic human needs, culture, and human development. -- Professor David Crocker, University of MarylandTable of ContentsPreface; 1. What is the Ethics of Development?; 1.1. Why Development Ethics? Cases and Questions; Extreme poverty amidst immense riches; Health and sickness, needs and profits; Towards a 'calculus of pain': recognising varieties of suffering and violence; The infliction of costs on the weak: the examples of dams, famines, debt, and structural adjustment; Global obligations and universal values?; What is development?; 1.2. What? On Meanings and Agenda; The core agenda of development ethics; Emergence and contributors; Definitions; 1.3. How? On Methods and Roles; Methods; Possible roles of development ethics; Global or Southern?; 2. The Meaning of 'Development'; 2.1. Purposes and Themes; 2.2. Ahistorical Definitions; Usages across the disciplines; Usages in development studies; 2.3. Historically Specific Conceptions Of Development: On Change, Intervention and Progress; 2.4. On Improvement: Issues in Normative Ahistorical Definition; Development as opportunity or as achievement?; Universalism and relativism; Commonality?; 2.5. Conclusion; 3. 'Efficiency & Effectiveness'; - Mainstream Development Evaluation in Theory & Practice; 3.1. Introduction: Mainstream Value Positions, and Alternatives; 3.2. Effectiveness Towards What and For Whom?; Effectiveness towards what?; Effectiveness for whom?; 3.3. Efficiency in Terms of Which Values ?; What is efficient depends on what one's values are; Tacit variants of economic efficiency: Paretian and utilitarian; Concepts of efficiency and practices of victimization; 3.4. Setting Economic Efficiency in Social and Environmental Context; Limitations of a separate concept of economic efficiency; Economic efficiency confined to a delimited role within a human and physical context; Means and ends; 3.5. Understanding Value-Systems; Comparison of value positions in development evaluation; The structure of market-oriented arguments; 'Consumer sovereignty'; 3.6. Conclusion: Beyond Economism; 4. 'Equity' - Who Bear Costs and Who Reap Benefits?; 4.1. Sacrificing the Weak; 4.2. Aspects of Equity; Criteria of distributive equity; An application to the regulation of grazing in Zimbabwe; An application to selection for resettlement in Zimbabwe; Positive discrimination; 4.3. A Deeper Analysis of Concepts; Sen's framework for understanding different distributive criteria; Land, returns, and the fruits of effort; Whose are the international debts?; 4.4. Assessing the Different Interpretations; Equality of what? Why equality?; Selecting from or interrelating the principles; Socio-political contexts; 4.5. Conclusion; 5. Violence and Human Security; 5.1. The Reemergence of Violence and Security as Central Concerns; 5.2. Development and Violence as Value-relative? On Concepts; 'Violence'; 'Development' and peace; 5.3. Development as Value-Damaging?; Varieties of violence; Violence and the economy; 5.4. Downgrading the Cost of Violence and Denying Alternatives; Market theory: only interests, no passions; The downgrading and defining away of costs and alternatives; 5.5. Real Alternatives and Painful Choices; Notions of tragedy, evil, dilemma; Towards a calculus of pain with a respect for persons?; 6. Needs and Basic Needs; 6.1. First Things First; 6.2. The Language of Need; Meanings and syntax of 'need'; A unifying framework for needs ethics and policy; Meanings of 'basic'; 6.3. A Richer Picture of Persons; Do we need a picture of persons?; A better empirical base for prediction and evaluation; Reinterpretations of poverty, luxury, and limitless demand; 6.4. Dangers in Needs Theories and Ethics; Passive and pacifying?; Overextended?; 6.5. The Discursive and Practical Strategy of 'Basic Human Needs'; A required basis for other ethics; Steps in operationalization; A programmatic alternative to economism; 6.6. Conclusions: Beggars can't be Choosers; 7. 'Human Development': Capabilities and Positive Freedom; 7.1. From Basic Needs to a Fuller Philosophy of Development; 7.2. The UNDP Human Development School; The Human Development Reports; Human Development and Human Rights; 7.3. Sen's Capability Approach and 'Development as Freedom'; Freedom and Reason; Development as Freedom; Components of the capability approach; Policy orientation; 7.4. Doubts and Alternatives; Sen's picture of persons, capabilities and freedom; Nussbaum's capabilities ethic; For and against a universal list of priority capabilities; 7.5. Conclusion; 8. Cultures and the Ethics of Development; 8.1. Can One Criticise Cultures and Yet Avoid Ethnocentrism?; Agenda; Introductory cases; Is liberalism illiberal?; 8.2. Culture: The Underlying Issues; Conceptions of 'culture'; Roles perceived for culture; Natural man, plasticine man, and nurtured natural man; The uneasy balance between individual rights and group rights; Women's right to employment?; 8.3. Communitarian Ethics and Cultural Relativism; The texture of communitarian ethics; Walzer's worlds; Communitarianism is based on poor sociology; Cultural relativism is inconsistent; The centrality of internal criticism; 8.4. Cases and Procedures; Criteria for just decisions; An overview of cases; 8.5. Conclusion; 9. Epilogue; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisOrganised as a dialogue between nature and design, this book explores design ideas, opportunities, visions and practices through relating and uncovering experience of the natural world.Presented as an edited collection of 25 wide-ranging short chapters, the book explores the possibility of new relations between design and nature, beyond human mastery and understandings of nature as resource and by calling into question the longstanding role for design as agent of capitalism. The book puts forward ways in which design can form partnerships with living species and examines designers' capacities for direct experience, awe, integrated relationships and new ways of knowing. It covers: New design ethics of care Indigenous perspectives Prototyping with nature Methods for new design and nature relations A history of design and nature Animist beliefs De-centering human-centered design Understanding nature has power and agencyTable of ContentsIntro SECTION I: Lying: Lying down to receive A Shift of Attention "Towards…. Something More Liveable" A Moth Journey. An Unexpected Rapport: Mushrooms, a Designer + Everyone Else Sitting in Trees Co-creating with a Tick SECTION II: Sitting: Sitting to open dialogue Hybrids. Others/Selfies Poem: ‘Zoology’ Narrating the Impression. Thick Description Through Visualisations – Towards New Representations of Nature Learning from Harakeke — Towards a Network for Textile Design in Aotearoa New Zealand Becoming-with Vegetal: Sympoietic Design Practice with Plant Partners To Name is to Value Design and Nature: A History Part one: Foundation Part two: Ecological Design as Mastery Part three: Bio this...and Bio that Part four: Moving Forward SECTION III: Standing: Standing to achieve a view Short-comings and Vulner-abilities Living Landfill Design and Nature as Seen through Fur: Systems of Manipulation and Care Bully Goes Fishing Dirty design (or A bloody mess) - In celebration of life affirming design SECTION IV: Walking: Walking to move Earthbond Prototyping, a Method for Designers to Deepen Connections to Nature Design Students in Sustainable Systems Design on the Wing: Collaborative Work with Nature We Become Gardeners After All. A Nourishing Dialogue with the Material Environment The Poetics of Cultural Landscapes through Ecological Wisdom Antarctica SE3: a Conversation on Designing with Care Folding In Conclusion

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis extensive text investigates how architects, planners, and other related experts responded to the contexts and discourses of development after World War II. Development theory did not manifest itself in tracts of economic and political theory alone. It manifested itself in every sphere of expression where economic predicaments might be seen to impinge on cultural factors. Architecture appears in development discourse as a terrain between culture and economics, in that practitioners took on the mantle of modernist expression while also acquiring government contracts and immersing themselves in bureaucratic processes. This book considers how, for a brief period, architects, planners, structural engineers, and various practitioners of the built environment employed themselves in designing all the intimate spheres of life, but from a consolidated space of expertise. Seen in these terms, development was, to cite Arturo Escobar, an immense design project itself, one that requiresTrade Review"Brilliantly questioning the figure of 'development' that haunts modernism, Aggregate gets down to the dirt of the Bretton-Woods world: the entanglement of architectural discourse in food insecurity and mining infrastructures, debt servicing and dictators, supply chains of materials and expertise. A must-read for architectural thinkers."Swati Chattopadhyay, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA"This timely book addresses a major blind spot in contemporary architectural scholarship: the central role of the design disciplines in the processes of modern, postcolonial development in creating the exclusions and inequalities of our time."Fernando Lara, Potter Rose Professorship, University of Texas at Austin, USATable of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Developmental time 1. Incompletion: on more than a certain tendency in postwar architecture and planning 2. God’s gamble: self-help architecture and the housing of risk Part II: Expertise 3. Planning for an uncertain present: action planning in Singapore, India, Israel, and Sierra Leone 4. To which revolution? The National School of Agriculture and the center for the improvement of corn and wheat in Texcoco and El Batán, Mexico, 1924–1968 5. From rice research to coconut capital 6. "The city as a housing project": training for human settlements at the Leuven PGCHS in the 1970s–1980s Part III: Bureaucratic organization 7. Folders, patterns, and villages: pastoral technics and the Center for Environmental Structure 8. The technical state: programs, positioning, and the integration of architects in political society in Mexico, 1945–1955 9. "Foreigners in filmmaking" Part IV: Technological transfer 10. The making of architectural design as Sŏlgye: integrating science, industry, and expertise in postwar Korea 11. Infrastructures of dependency: US Steel’s architectural assemblages on Indigenous lands 12. Reinventing earth architecture in the age of development Part V: Designing the rural 13. Globalizing the village: development media, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, and the United Nations in India 14. "Ruralizing" Zambia: Doxiadis Associates’ systems-based planning and developmentalism in the nonindustrialized South 15. Food capital: fantasies of abundance and Nelson Rockefeller’s architectures of development in Venezuela, 1940s—1960s 16. The Jewish Agency’s open cowsheds: Israeli third way rural design, 1956–1968 17. Floors and ceilings: the architectonics of accumulation in the Green Revolution Part VI: Land 18. Policy regionalism and the limits of translation in land economics 19. Leisure and geo-economics: the Hilton and other development regimes in the Mediterranean south 20. Antiparochì and (its) architects: Greek architectures in failure

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Book SynopsisInhabitants of poor, rural areas in the Global South heavily depend on natural resources in their immediate vicinity. Conflicts over and exploitation of these resources â whether it is water, fish, wood fuel, minerals, or land â severely affect their livelihoods. The contributors to this volume leave behind the polarised debate, previously surrounding the relationship between natural resources and conflict, preferring a more nuanced approach that allows for multiple causes at various levels. The contributions cover a wide array of resources, geographical contexts (Africa, Asia and Latin America), and conflict dynamics. Most are of a comparative nature, exploring experiences of conflict as well as cooperation in multiple regions.This volume finds its origin in an innovative research programme with the acronym CoCooN, steered by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO/WOTRO) and involving universities and civil society partners in many countries. It presents tTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Conflict and cooperation on natural resources: Justifying the CoCooN programme 3. New directions in conflict research from an economics perspective 4. How natural is natural? Seeking conceptual clarity over natural resources and conflicts 5. Analysing the role of politics in groundwater management – research in Ethiopia, Palestine and Yemen 6. Harms, crimes and natural resource exploitation: A green criminological and human rights perspective on land-use change 7. Property rights, nationalisation and extractive industries in Bolivia and Ecuador 8. Engaging legal systems in small-scale gold mining conflicts in three South American countries 9. Theorizing participatory governance in contexts of legal pluralism – a conceptual reconnaissance of fishing conflicts and their resolution 10. An analytical framework for assessing the impacts of Jatropha Curcas on Local Livelihoods 11. Challenges in the design of a research and development programme on conflict and cooperation over natural resources

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Book SynopsisMountain regions are subject to a unique set of economic pressures: they act as collective enterprises which have to valorize rare resources, such as spectacular landscapes. While primarily rural in nature, they often border large cities, and the development of industries such as hydroelectric power and the rapid development of tourism can bring about sweeping socio-economic change and vast demographic alterations.The Spatial and Economic Transformation of Mountain Regions describes the socio-economic changes and spatial impacts of the last four decades, with the transformation of mountain areas held up as an example. Much of the real-world context draws on the Alps, spanning as they do the significant economies of France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Chapters address academic discourse on regional development in these mountain areas and suggest alternative approaches to the liberal-productivist societal model.This book will be essential reading for profesTrade Review"It is an important scientific mountain book, based on in-depth and years-long research. It makes a major contribution to the questioning of the political positioning of mountain regions in the contemporary world. The critical approach, running through the book, is a goldmine providing an abundance of thoughts and of new avenues of research to examine and discuss the mountain problematique."Gilles Rudaz, Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 39, No. 4.Table of ContentsList of Figure. List of Tables. List of Plates. List of abbreviations. Preface. Part I: Space, environment, and culture as a social question. 1 Why study mountains? Mountains as a laboratory and pertinent indicator. 2 The theoretical approach to mountain research from the socio-economic point of view. 3 The issue of spatial inequality in a new light. Part II: Devaluation and revaluation of territorial capital in mountain areas. 4 Spatial and socio-economic processes in mountains. 5 The new role of mountains as global suppliers. Part III: A new level of inequality. 6 The shift from state-organized to liberal-productivist regimes. 7 The new spatial disparities. Part IV: The new disparities and possible alternatives. 8 Liberal-productivist mountains: three main aspects. 9 Three possible trajectories for mountain regions. 10 Beyond liberal-productivism. Bibliography. Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together accounts from facilitating or ''brokering'' researchers in three settings afflicted by armed conflict, including DR Congo, Sierra Leone and Jharkhand, India. Indispensable to the research practice carried out by so-called ''contracting researchers'', who are often based in the Global North, it is these facilitating researchers who truly regulate the access and flow of knowledge, and yet are often referred to merely as ''fixers'', with their contributions systematically erased in the final research texts. This book recounts first-hand the varied and crucial roles played by such researchers, meanwhile bearing witness to the insecurities and scarce resources navigated by them in order to facilitate the research of others. By listening to and learning from their experiences, the book outlines different routes towards a more equitable fieldwork, and a more collaborative process of knowledge production.Trade ReviewFacilitating Researchers in Insecure Zones is a compelling and innovative book that highlights the unequal relationship between Contracting Researchers and Facilitating Researchers engaging in research in conflict-affected countries. Examples from experiences in Sierra Leone, India and DR Congo are used to discuss the types of inequalities in the research process, from the conceptualization of the research to the publication of the research findings and analysis, including the funding of the research. It is an invaluable resource for researchers to establish a good and equal relationship prior to future research endeavors. * Gameela Samarasinghe, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka *Facilitating Researchers sheds needed light on the plight of unsung heroes, those Global South scholars who despite their role in shaping the production of knowledge are hardly acknowledged. It is a timely decolonial intervention that charts a new course for doing ethical and more equitable fieldwork in the Global South. * Didier Gondola, Johns Hopkins University, USA *For anyone interested in global postcoloniality, this is a wonderful and must-read book by mainly Global South-based researchers on North-South knowledge production. Rooted in Global South sites of armed conflict, the book’s contributions are all the more compelling – and therefore all the more insightful – on the perils and potentialities of researcher relationships and knowledge co-production across the North-South, elite-subaltern, war-peace, and class/gender/ethnic/racial divides. * Ilan Kapoor, author of The Postcolonial Politics of Development and Confronting Desire: Psychoanalysis and International Development. *This book catalyses transformative thinking about the ethics and practice of equitable research partnerships between researchers in the global north and global south. It brings together compelling chapters by researchers from Sierra Leone, Congo and Jharkhand who share their reflections of working in insecure zones through multiple relationalities between communities and institutions across diverse spatial contexts and social hierarchies. This book is a must read for scholars and practitioners of international development and international relations who are looking for practical and actionable ways for decolonising research methods in conflict and post conflict settings. * Ipshita Basu, University of Westminster, UK *This volume provides an honest, useful analysis for researchers from various disciplines on the difficult question of collaboration between research teams. The various chapters provide powerful accounts and innovative approaches to understanding the complex relationships between those who make research possible in often very difficult contexts and in some cases in their communities where research is conducted who they call ‘facilitating researchers’, and those from ‘Contracting researchers’ often from outside the researched communities. The examples drawn from lived experiences are rich as they are from various countries in Africa, and Asia but also reflect on dilemmas familiar to researchers globally. Unlike most literature on similar topics, the volume concludes with practical ideas that point to more hopeful future pathways to navigate these ethical challenges during the research process in sensitive contexts. * David Mwambari, associate professor KU Leuven University, Belgium *Table of ContentsChapter 1: Spotlight on the Research Backstage: Introduction by the editors Chapter 2: Getting and keeping engaged Chapter 3: The indispensable bridge: “without us no research” Chapter 4: Systematically silenced and non-­-recognized Chapter 5: Navigating insecurity with scarce resources Chapter 6: Beyond a narrow South/North divide Chapter 7: Beyond the bleak picture: Comraderie into the Future Chapter 8: Recommendations: how to bring about change?

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates work of the NGO Tostan as a working model of human development. The study is grounded in the ethnographic study of the actual change that happened in one West African village.

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Book SynopsisA collection of scholarly studies exploring the diverse challenges facing Africa today.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe has emerged as a highly contested reform process both nationally and internationally. The image of it has all too often been that of the widespread displacement and subsequent replacement of various people, agricultural-related production systems, facets and processes. The reality, however, is altogether more complex. Providing new and much-needed empirical research, this in-depth book examines how processes such as land acquisition, allocation, transitional production outcomes, social life, gender and tenure, have influenced and been influenced by the forces driving the programme. It also explores the ways in which the land reform programme has created a new agrarian structure based on small- to medium-scale farmers. In attempting to resolve the problematic issues the reforms have raised, the author argues that it is this new agrarian formation which provides the greatest scope for improving Zimbabwe’s agriculture and development. Based on a broader geographical scope than any previous study carried out on the subject, this is a landmark work on a subject of considerable controversy.Trade ReviewWe still do not know fully what happened after paramilitary groups seized Zimbabwe's white-owned farms and transferred them to others. Read this book for its analysis of those varied outcomes. Tabulating his findings with admirable clarity, Matondi helps fill a wide gap in the empirical and applied scholarship of rural Zimbabwe. * David McDermott Hughes, author of Whiteness in Zimbabwe: Race, Landscape, and the Problem of Belonging *The study addresses an extraordinarily rich array of issues with economy, nuance and insight. In its attention to the role of the civil servants and in its disaggregation of multiple actors from the centre to the grassroots, it confronts the important question of whether the beneficiaries of land were predominantly political cronies. This is an exceptionally useful and intelligent response to an exceptionally chaotic and complex moment of history. * Diana Jeater, professor of African history, University of the West of England, Bristol *A hot must-read for an informed discussion on the Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe. The author tackles sensitive issues in a unique yet educative manner, balancing benefits and challenges of the land reform. The book reveals how the process remains the most empowering for Zimbabweans. * Dr Neddy Matshalaga, chairperson of Ruzivo Trust *Readers looking for a well-informed, comprehensive, measured and evidence-based analysis of the FTLRP should opt for Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform. * Gareth D James, in African Affairs *This excellent book adds to a growing body of work on Zimbabwe's controversial land reform. Fundamentally challenging the picture projected by most international commentary, it shows how many have benefited from land redistribution, notwithstanding much diversity in both processes and outcomes. Solid, field-based empirical research, as presented in this book, is crucial as Zimbabwe seeks out a new future with a radically changed agrarian structure. * Ian Scoones, professorial fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and co-author of Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities *A significant empirical and analytical contribution towards a deeper understanding of contested land reforms in Zimbabwe by a committed African scholar. * Kjell Havnevik, professor at the Nordic Africa Institute and the University of Agder, Norway *More than a decade on, Prosper Matondi provides a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis through which surfaces the "emerging order" and a future out of the "chaos" of Zimbabwe's controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme. * Mandivamba Rukuni, director, of the Mandi Rukuni Seminars *Refreshingly measured in its evidence-based analysis, Matondi's work is scholarly, non-partisan and eschews the entrenched, dogmatic and often vested stances and positions that have been adopted by many of the analysts of the FTLR Programme. This book not only constitutes a valuable addition to the growing literature on the programme, but also is a sound academic addition to the corpus of international land and agrarian reform literature. * Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa, dean of the Faculty of Social Studies, University of Zimbabwe *A welcome addition * Rory Pilossof, in Journal of Agrarian Change *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Understanding Fast Track Land Reforms in Zimbabwe 2. Land occupations as the trigger for compulsory land acquisition 3. Interrogating land allocation 4. Juggling land ownership rights in uncertain times 5. Complexities in understanding agricultural production outcomes 6. Access to services and farm-level investments on Fast Track Farms 7. A revolution without change in women's land rights 8. Social organisation and reconstruction of communities on Fast Track Farms Conclusion: from a 'crisis' to a 'prosperous' future?

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Book SynopsisThis unique and insightful text offers an exploration of the origins and subsequent development of the concept of just sustainability. Introducing Just Sustainabilities discusses key topics, such as food justice, sovereignty and urban agriculture; community, space, place(making) and spatial justice; the democratization of our streets and public spaces; how to create culturally inclusive spaces; intercultural cities and social inclusion; green-collar jobs and the just transition; and alternative economic models, such as co-production. With a specific focus on solutions-oriented policy and planning initiatives that specifically address issues of equity and justice within the context of developing sustainable communities, this is the essential introduction to just sustainabilities.Trade ReviewJulian Agyeman has produced a powerful new statement of the need to integrate justice and sustainability. Building on his own ground-breaking work, he analyses the key themes of food, space, place, and culture, showing how equity, justice and inclusion are fundamental to any enduring practical expression of sustainability. * Andrew Dobson, Professor of Politics, Keele University, and author of Citizenship and the Environment *In this beautifully written book, Julian Agyeman builds on his groundbreaking concept of just sustainabilities to include an exploration of how food, space, place, and culture shape our capacities to imagine and pursue a world of possibilities. From Bogota to Boston, he always asks the right questions and makes sure to consider the real world applications and implications of just sustainability. Agyeman also offers a bold and refreshing critique of reformist approaches to sustainability and social change. He presents a clear agenda for policy, planning, and practical pathways to co-produce societies in which we all are recognized and respected. * David Naguib Pellow, Don A. Martindale Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota, and author of Resisting Global Toxics *Julian Agyeman has done more than any other scholar to emphasise the potential in the relationship between environmental justice and ecological sustainability. In this book, he explores the evolution and recent development of the crucial concept of just sustainability, in particular how it manifests itself in various aspects of our everyday lives. In doing so, Ageyman makes both the idea and practice of just sustainability more inclusive and salient to a new generation of students, activists, policy-makers, and environmental practitioners. * David Schlosberg, Professor of Environmental Politics, The University of Sydney *There’s lots to think about if we want to build cities that are culturally-inclusive and sustainable in the most comprehensive sense of that term. Julian Agyeman brings great passion, intelligence, and imagination to the task, and nicely primes the pump for the rest of us. * Dean Saitta, University of Denver *With this excellent book, Agyeman both consolidates and advances his ground-breaking work on just sustainabilities. Readers looking for a clear and concise review of the concept and underpinning ideas, as well as those wanting compelling examples of its practical application will be more than satisfied. * Professor Gordon Walker, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University *With Just Sustainabilities, Julian Agyeman again demonstrates why he is considered one of the world's foremost modern thinkers on the relationship between humanity and nature. By eloquently making the case that the loss of human potential is as detrimental to our future as the loss of environmental potential, Agyeman shows that we need to transform the way we treat each other as well as the planet. * Professor Mark Roseland, Director, Centre for Sustainable Community Development, Simon Fraser University, and author of Toward Sustainable Communities: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments *Agyeman presents the issues involved in the movement, specifically as to how they relate to other social justice movements more focused on race and class. In the process, he provides an important, essential and convincing challenge to modern sustainablity movements and their approach to questions of race and class. It is to his further credit that he presents this challenge in a manner likely to move efforts inside those movements toward a synthesis that encompasses the intent of the movements while expanding the breadth of their base. * Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch *Agyeman's engaging analysis brings the concept of 'just sustainabilities' to the centre of the stage, right where it deserves to be. In this essential book, he brings together the literature on sustainability, particularly environmental sustainability, with that of environmental justice, illuminating the discussion throughout with cases where communities are striving to achieve just sustainability on the ground. Agyeman makes very clear the importance of cultural diversity and paying attention to the needs of situated identities. * Yvonne Rydin, Chair of Planning, Environment and Public Policy, and Director of the Environment Institute, University College London *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Introducing just sustainabilities 2. Food 3. Space and place 4. Culture Conclusions

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Book SynopsisNew Perspectives in International Development focuses on the latest thinking in the field, moving the debate into areas such as the connection between security, conflict, and development, managing energy crises, the impact of environmental and climate change, and the role that technology can play in alleviating these challenges. The book explores the theme of development as a process of change; as historical transformation in relation to contested sites of power; it considers how human agency can affect change and the different scales, from the local to the transnational, at which change can occur. The interaction between these threads highlights the complex processes involved in international development that cannot be understood in isolation. Writers bring their own theoretical and empirical tools from social sciences including geography, politics, economics and environmental science. Chapters move from the theoretical to include case studies, placing theory in the context of the deliberate actions of people to improve their lives. The book concludes by suggesting possible ways forward to link development theories, models and practices. New Perspectives in International Development is the second of two books in The Open University's International Development series.Table of ContentsIntroduction Fear and Development Wars, States and Development Human Security or Human Development in a World of States? Solidarity, Sovereignty and Intervention Vulnerability in a World Risk Society Perspectives on Development, Technology and the Environment The Challenge for Environment, Development, and Sustainability in China Environment, Inequality and the Internal Contradictions of Globalisation Climate Change: Causes and Consequences for Development Making International Development Personal Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Democratic Republic of Congo has the natural resources the world needs – it is crucial to satisfying our craving for the latest high-tech gadgets; the Inga Dam could light up all of Africa; while Congo’s farmers could feed a billion people. These realities are redefining the country’s strategic contribution to a globalized world. A resource paradise for some, the DRC is an environmental nightmare for others. Congo’s Environmental Paradox analyses the new dynamics in the country’s forest, mineral, land, water and oil sectors, revealing the interactions between these sectors. Connecting the dots, it shows how we need to fundamentally rethink power, politics and resource management in Congo today.Trade ReviewAn unusual, fascinating and important book … While there is often a tendency to sensationalize the country, the author takes a more balanced approach, demonstrating deep insight, engagement and knowledge.' * International Affairs *A sharp and well informed argument that shows that Congo’s environmental paradox is also at the heart of the world’s environmental paradox. * Africa at LSE *An excellent overview of the major ecological resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo … reading this book is essential for understanding the many environmental paradoxes. * African Studies Quarterly *An invaluable contribution – a truly remarkable synthesis of the pathways to Congolese economic improvement and the many roadblocks along the way - the succinct and sparkling summation of the key elements of the political economy is most useful. The author's capacity to convey a rich treasure chest of information and acute analytical skills make this a landmark work. * Crawford Young, University of Wisconsin *A fascinating read, giving a no-nonsense view of the multitude of problems besetting Congo’s natural resource sectors, how they affect ordinary people’s daily lives, and how well-meaning donor initiatives are often intrinsically flawed. The book puts today’s problems into historical perspective and will serve as a reality-check to politicians and activists. * Daniel Balint-Kurti, Global Witness *Most studies of natural resources and development delve into the details sector by sector. Linkages to violence, politics and state-building are treated separately for different resources. This eloquent and richly documented book focuses attention on the connections, and on the global forces adding complexity to these interactions and altering the political economy of possible change. * David Booth, Overseas Development Institute *This remarkable, fact-filled study will undoubtedly rank as required reading for anyone with an interest in the DRC – whether for specialists or for the general reader. Following his Congo Masquerade, this should confirm Trefon’s standing as one of the most perceptive observers and analysts of that central African giant. * Edouard Bustin, Boston University *The first successful attempt to take stock of emerging trends in Congo’s natural resource sectors. Well-written, clearly structured and thoroughly documented, Trefon offers fresh analysis on the gap between resource potential and socio-economic development. * Jeroen Cuvelier, University of Ghent *A remarkable guide to the tangled relationships between minerals, water and other sectors of the political economy in the Congo. It goes beyond slogans such as "rich land, poor people" to explain how the rich get richer while the poor struggle to survive. Indispensable reading for humanitarians and human rights advocates, both Congolese and international * Tom Turner, author of The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality *Table of Contents1. Introduction: Potential in a Land of Plenty 2. Forests of Wealth and Mystery 3. Food and Agriculture 4. Water: An Uncertain Ebb and Flow 5. Oil: Plenty for Some, Nothing for Most 6. Mining: Rise, Decline and Renaissance 7. Conclusion: Uncertainty and Predation in a Land of Plenty

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Book SynopsisAcross the world, 2 billion people experience menstruation, yet menstruation is seen as a mark of shame. We are told not to discuss it in public, that tampons and sanitary pads should be hidden away, the blood rendered invisible. In many parts of the world, poverty, culture and religion collide causing the taboo around menstruation to have grave consequences. Younger people who menstruate are deterred from going to school, adults from work, infections are left untreated. The shame is universal and the silence a global rule. In It’s Only Blood Anna Dahlqvist tells the shocking but always moving stories of why and how people from Sweden to Bangladesh, from the United States to Uganda, are fighting back against the shame.Trade ReviewWritten in an accessible style, “It’s Only Blood” is a marvelous blend of individual women’s experiences, activism and academic research. The subject matter is so compelling and engaging. A remarkable educational text for all genders, It’s Only Blood is eye-opening read. * The Gazette *An excellent text … Dahlqvist manages to harvest rich testimony. The great strength of Dahlqvist’s narrative is the way she insists on the continuum between the struggles of menstruating women in developing countries and the comparatively benign experience of those in the West. * TLS *It’s Only Blood is intimate, provocative, and often funny, shattering the stigma of menstruation for people all around the world. * Foreword Reviews *An eye-opening and necessary book that will challenge your assumptions. Thought provoking, relevant and sensitively written. If you want to know more and do more to end menstrual taboos, read it. * Chella Quint, founder of #periodpositive *Brilliant. It was frustrating to realise how much there is to be done, but also inspiring to read about these groups of women all over the world working bloody hard toward the same ideal: that periods do not need to stand in the way of an education, a future, or a good life. * Gabby Edlin, founder of Bloody Good Period *Only when we call out the unnecessary shame and stigma that surrounds periods can we demand meaningful change. Dahlqvist’s deft, compassionate storytelling, and her critical global perspective, are a tremendous contribution to the movement for menstrual equity. * Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity *A necessary contribution to the conversation on gender liberation. Dahlqvist masterfully moves between storytelling and frameworking how stigma holds menstruators back globally, while offering tangible solutions to many of these problems. A must read. * Kiran Gandhi, musician, activist, and free-bleeding runner at the 2015 London Marathon *Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and take action against the global consequences of menstrual shame, stigma, and taboo. An insightful and inspiring read that will challenge you to think and behave differently. * Mandu Reid, founder of The Cup Effect *Table of Contents1. Stains 2. Our Shame 3. Lost Days 4. A Comprehensive Set of Rules 5. A Painful Silence 6. Millions of Menstruating Textile Workers 7. ‘I Just Kept Bleeding’ 8. Bloody Menstrual Protection! 9. The Struggle

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Book SynopsisThis collection considers academic research engagements with indigenous, small peasant, urban poor and labour social activism against colonial capitalist dispossession and exploitation in Asia and the Americas. Bringing together contributors from a range of different disciplines, Research, Political Engagement and Dispossession demonstrates how research done for and with these struggles against dispossession by mining, agribusiness plantations, conversation schemes, land-forest grabs, water projects, industrial disasters and the exploitation of workers and forced migrants, can make productive contributions towards advancing their social and political prospects.Trade ReviewRich in insights from practical experience, this book is essential reading for everyone who aspires to make decolonized academic knowledge serve people resisting dispossession and the silencing of their voices * John Gledhill, University of Manchester *This book is both a critical resource for evaluating research methods, and for thinking about the power and politics of struggle. * Lesley Wood, York University, Toronto *This is a truly compelling, timely, urgent volume. The complex chapters remind us of the academic obligation to engage the class struggle. * Michelle Fine, author of Just Research in Contentious Times *Table of ContentsResearch for indigenous, peasant and urban poor activism: Capital, dispossession and exploitation in the Americas and Asia - Dip Kapoor & Steven Jordan Part I: Research and Indigenous and Peasant Activisms 2.The MST and research with and for landless peasant-worker struggles in Brazil - Alessandro Mariano & Rebecca Tarlau 3.Critical oral histories and the pedagogies of dispossession and resistance in Brazil's Landless Workers’ Movement - David Meek 4.Participatory research for social change in mining and agribusiness settings in Colombia - Irene Vélez-Torres 5.Anticolonial Participatory Action Research (APAR) in Adivasi-Dalit forest-dweller and small peasant contexts of dispossession and struggle in India - Dip Kapoor 6.Conservation and palm oil dispossession in Sumatra and Sulawesi: Third-Worldist PAR, indigenous and small peasant resistance and organized activisms Hasriadi Masalam 7.PAR, local knowledge and peasant assertions in Southwestern Bangladesh: Taking back the river in contexts of NGO-led dispossession - Bijoy Barua (East-West University, Bangladesh) 8.Grassroots-oriented research as political engagement for social justice: Exposing corporate mining in indigenous contexts in the Philippines - Ligaya McGovern Part II: Research and Urban Poor Activisms 9.Countering dispossession through cooperativisation? Waste-picker ethnography, activism and the state in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Paraguay) - Santiago Sorroche & Patrick O’Hare 10. Historians, guerilla history and class struggle in Argentina - Pablo Pozzi 11.Public sociology and scholar activism in the U.S.-Filipino Labor diaspora - Robyn Rodriguez 12.The Bhopal (India) struggle and neoliberal restructuring: Research, political engagement and the urban poor - Eurig Scandrett & Shalini Sharma 13.Praxis-oriented research for the building of grounded transnational Marriage Migrant Movements in Asia - Hsiao-Chuan Hsia

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Book SynopsisThe smartphone and social media have transformed Africa, allowing people across the continent to share ideas, organise, and participate in politics like never before. While both activists and governments alike have turned to social media as a new form of political mobilization, some African states have increasingly sought to clamp down on the technology, introducing restrictive laws or shutting down networks altogether. Drawing on over a dozen new empirical case studies – from Kenya to Somalia, South Africa to Tanzania – this collection explores how rapidly growing social media use is reshaping political engagement in Africa. But while social media has often been hailed as a liberating tool, the book demonstrates how it has often served to reinforce existing power dynamics, rather than challenge them. Featuring experts from a range of disciplines from across the continent, this collection is the first comprehensive overview of social media and politics in Africa. By examining the historical, political, and social context in which these media platforms are used, the book reveals the profound effects of cyber-activism, cyber-crime, state policing and surveillance on political participation.Trade ReviewMethodologically innovative, rich in data and analytically profound. This is one of the most important studies of social media in Africa in recent times. * Dr George Ogola, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Central Lancashire *Brilliant, rich and much-needed! Dwyer and Molony have done a fantastic job of bringing social media to the core of the present, and future, of African politics. * Dr Toussaint Nothias, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society’ *Moving beyond technological utopianism, this exciting edited collection provides much-needed nuanced analysis of the way in which social media both challenge and reproduce power relations. * Dr Wendy Willems, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science *Table of Contents1. Mapping the Study of Politics and Social Media Use in Africa - Maggie Dwyer & Thomas Molony 2. ‘Igu sawir gone too far’? Social media and state reconstruction in Somalia - Peter Chonka 3. ‘We are not just voters, we are citizens’: Social Media, the #ThisFlag Campaign, and Insurgent Citizenship in Zimbabwe - George Karekwaivanane & Admire Mare 4. Social Media and Protest Movements in South Africa: #FeesMustFall and #ZumaMustFall - Tanja Bosch 5. Enemy Collaborators: Social imaginaries, global frictions, and a gay rights music video in Kenya - Brian Ekdale 6. Between Excitement and Scepticism: The Role of WhatsApp in Sierra Leone’s 2018 Elections - Maggie Dwyer, Jamie Hitchen, & Thomas Molony 7. Chaos and Comedy: Social Media, Activism, and Democracy in Senegal - Emily Riley 8. Social Media and Elections in Nigeria: Digital Influence on Election Observation, Campaigns, and Administration - Nkwachukwu Orji 9. From FM radio stations to Internet 2.0 overnight: information, participation and social media in post-failed coup Burundi - Jean-Benoît Falisse & Hugues Nkengurutse 10. Cybercrime and the policing of politics in Tanzania - Charlotte Cross 11. A familiar refrain: Political discourse and Facebook use in Mombasa, Kenya - Stephanie Diepeveen 12. Inside the #OperationUsalamaWatch echo chamber: Twitter as site of disruption or elite conversation? - Alisha Patel 13. From Whispers to the Assemblage: Surveillance in Post-Independence East Africa - Denis Galava Postscript: Research Trajectories in African Digital Spheres - Bruce Mutsvairo & Kate Wright

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