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This book explores the controversy in political science surrounding the civil society/social capital paradigm, by studying the performance of decentralized governments in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Gram panchayats and NGOs provide the focus of the study. The study intends to determine whether a growth in social capital can explain why decentralized governments seem to be more effective in West Bengal, though both areas decentralized their governments around the same time. The two regions have shared for centuries a common history, civic culture, ethnic identity and language, though religion led to the separation of the regions.
This edited book investigates how life is affected by the increasingly authoritarian regime in Bangladesh.Earlier a flawed but real electoral democracy, over the last several years Bangladesh has been characterised as a ‘hybrid regime’ in The Economist’s Democracy Index. Today it is a country in which law still rules and leaders are still chosen – but only on paper. The uniqueness of this book is not in defining regime type or investigating trajectories. It is in its efforts to study how these changes affect everyday life. All chapters are based on intimate knowledge of a field, on first-hand experience, and on interviews and ethnography. This book will interest political scientists and scholars of Bangladesh, the Islamic world and beyond, with findings of broad relevance to hybrid regimes.
Democratization in the Third World addresses many current issues of development, democratization and civil society in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America against the background of theoretical introductions and comparisons with the Swedish historical experience of democratisations. The authors, from seven different continents, examine civil society and its relation to the state throughout the world and assess prospects for sustainable democratization.
"Ranging over a wide terrain of social, political and economic thinking and specific country experiences, the author explains the key concepts in complex systems theory and their possible applications in development practice. He examines various development issues and institutions in the light of what he sees as the limitations of rigid linear thinking in an essentially fluid, non-linear world. Little wonder, he concludes, that the results of half a century of development effort have been so disappointing."--BOOK JACKET.
This publication is dedicated to the issues related to Social Justice in the Caribbean, and seeks to increase dialogue among practitioners, unions, labour activists, academics, policy-makers and other individuals from across the social sciences and humanities. It is purposely multi-disciplinary in orientation, intending to cover issues related to work, workers, labour, and related topics, as well as social, organizational and institutional aspects of work and industrial relations. It aims to set the tone for discourse on a wide range of issues related to the future of work and sustainable Caribbean development, Social Justice, industrial relations, governance systems, social protection, social dialogue, cooperatives and community empowerment, the future of education, migration and security, among others, nationally, and regionally. The publication will represent contemporary scholarly contributions from researchers presenting either original or innovative research that contribute to the theory, practice and public policy dimensions of work, migration, labour, industrial relations, and related issues.
The study of Islam since the advent of 9/11 has made a significant resurgence. However, much of the work produced since then has tended to focus on the movements that not only provide aid to their fellow Muslims, but also have political and at times violent agendas. This tendency has led to a dearth of research on the wider Muslim aid and development scene. Focusing on the role and impact of Islam and Islamic Faith Based Organisations (FBOs), an arena that has come to be regarded by some as the 'invisible aid economy', Islam and Development considers Islamic theology and its application to development and how Islamic teaching is actualized in case studies of Muslim FBOs. It brings together contributions from the disciplines of theology, sociology, politics and economics, aiming both to raise awareness and to function as a corrective step within the development studies literature.
The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is? Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.
In this book some of the leading thinkers in development studies trace the history of their multi-disciplinary subject from the late colonial period and its establishment during decolonization all the way through to its contemporary concerns with poverty reduction. They present a critical genealogy of development by looking at the contested evolution and roles of development institutions and exploring changes in development discourses. These recollections, by those who teach, research and practise development, challenge simplistic, unilinear periodizations of the evolution of the discipline, and draw attention to those ongoing critiques of development studies, including Marxism, feminism and...
1. Introduction : global variations in the political and social economy of care : worlds apart? / Shahra Razavi and Silke Staab -- 2. Democratic care politics in an age of limits / Joan Tronto -- 3. Advanced economy, modern welfare state and traditional care regimes : the case of Switzerland / Mascha Madörin, Brigitte Schnegg and Nadia Baghdadi -- 4. The struggle against familialism : reconfiguring the care diamond in Japan / Emiko Ochiai ... [et al.] -- 5. The boss, the worker, his wife and no babies : South Korean political and social economy of care in a context of institutional rigidities / Ito Peng -- 6. Beyond maternalism? : the political and social organization of childcare in Argent...