Search results for ""Kumarian Press""

International development is big business. Official global aid flows from North to South are over $100 billion annually. China and India, former aid recipients, are rapidly entering the field as aid providers themselves, and international charity is being redefined with the resources of private donors like the Gates Foundation, for example, outstripping the annual budget of long-time donors like the UK, Canada or the World Health Organization. Lacking in the literature on international development is an introductory text that provides an overview of the practices of the 'business' of development. ""How the Aid Industry Works"" provides a basic description of what aid practices are and how they evolved. The arguments of both proponents and opponents of aid are presented and analyzed, along with real-life examples of projects and programs in context. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students encountering the subject of development for the first time, the book also serves as an overview for development practitioners who want a handy reference covering the universe they inhabit.

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Women everywhere have long struggled for recognition as equal, productive members of society, worthy of taking part in the political process. These struggles become even more pronounced in times of conflict and war, when the symbolism and myths of womanhood are used to stoke nationalistic ideas about the survival of the state. Yet for all the rhetoric that takes place in their name, it’s men who generally make decisions regarding war. Women and War examines how women respond to situations of conflict. Drawing on both traditional and feminist international relations theory, it explores the roles that women play before, during and after a conflict, how they spur and respond to nationalist and social movements, and how conceptions of gender are deeply intertwined with ideas about citizenship and the state. As Kaufman and Williams show, women do more than respond to conflict situations; they are active agents in their own right shaping political and historical processes. Their conclusions encourage us to rethink the prevalent assumptions of international relations, history and feminist scholarship and theory.

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Most young Africans are living in “waithood,” a period of suspension between childhood and adulthood. Failed neo-liberal economic policies, bad governance and political instability have caused stable jobs to disappear—without jobs that pay living wages, these young people cannot support families, thus becoming fully participating members of society. As this limbo becomes pervasive and prolonged, waithood in Africa becomes seemingly permanent, gradually replacing conventional adulthood. And with the deepening of the world economic crisis, youth in Europe, North America and other parts of the world face the same crisis of joblessness and restricted futures. In The Time of Youth, Alcinda Honwana examines the lives of young people in Africa, drawing on in-depth interviews in four countries: Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. While the case studies are local to Africa, the book argues that the ”waithood generation” is global, and possesses a tremendous transformative potential, as young people believe the struggle to overcome their predicament requires radical social and political change. From riots and protests in the streets of Maputo, Dakar, Madrid, London, New York and Santiago, to revolutions that overthrow dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the ”waithood generation” is taking upon itself to redress the wrongs of contemporary society and remake the world.

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The notion of America as land of refuge is vital to American civic consciousness yet over the past seventy years the country has had a complicated and sometimes fickle relationship with its refugee populations. Attitudes and policies toward refugees from the government, voluntary organizations, and the general public have ranged from acceptance to rejection; from well-wrought program efforts to botched ones. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary and historical material, and based on the author’s three-decade experience in refugee research and policy, Safe Haven? provides an integrated portrait of this crucial component of American immigration—and of American engagement with the world. Covering seven decades of immigration history, Haines shows how refugees, their supporters and detractors continue to struggle with national identities and the effect this struggle has had on American institutions and attitudes.|The notion of America as land of refuge is vital to American civic consciousness yet over the past seventy years the country has had a complicated and sometimes fickle relationship with its refugee populations. Attitudes and policies toward refugees from the government, voluntary organizations, and the general public have ranged from acceptance to rejection; from well-wrought program efforts to botched ones. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary and historical material, and based on the author’s three-decade experience in refugee research and policy, Safe Haven? provides an integrated portrait of this crucial component of American immigration—and of American engagement with the world. Covering seven decades of immigration history, Haines shows how refugees, their supporters and detractors continue to struggle with national identities and the effect this struggle has had on American institutions and attitudes.

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In Human Rights and Development, award-winning author Peter Uvin extends the examination of development aid and human rights violations that he presented in his book on the Rwandan genocide, Aiding Violence. Whereas that book is diagnostic, Human Rights and Development is prescriptive - a response to requests from development and human rights organizations to help them effect strategies for reducing conflict and improving human rights outcomes. By advocating a rights-based approach to development, Uvin shows how practitioners can surmount the tough ethical and human rights obstacles encountered in their endeavors. But Human Rights and Development is much more than a ""how to"" book for practitioners. It is also a major scholar's profound, passionate, and clearly written analysis of the need to effect principled social change throughout the global arena that solidifies rather than fragments our common humanity.

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The recent global financial crisis has raised widespread concern for the sustainability of the global economy. Much has been written concerning the negative impacts of economic development on natural ecosystems and civil societies. Unfortunately, few viable alternatives to the prevailing economic paradigms have been suggested for consideration. Those that have been are typically little more than suggestions for fine tuning capitalist or socialist economies. In his new book, John Ikerd addresses the basic principles and concepts essential to economic sustainability. Some of these concepts are capitalist, some are socialistic, and others are general principles validated by philosophy or common sense. What results is a synthesis: something that is neither capitalist nor socialist but fundamentally different; it is sustainable. A special emphasis is placed on the essential, but limited, role of markets in economic sustainability, including the constraints that must be placed on markets to protect nature and society from economic exploitation. Readers of any political and ideological persuasion will find this brief book engaging, informative, optimistic and refreshing. Instead of threats and apocalyptic pronouncements, Ikerd offers possibilities and assurance. Instead of epithets hurled at opponents, Ikerd offers possibilities for reconciliation and a renewed sense of the need to work co-operatively to find solutions to the most urgent problems of our era.

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