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This book revisits some of the persisting challenges of development of India, which remain unresolved even after twenty-five years of economic reforms and almost fifteen years of high growth rate. These include defining purpose of development, inequality, labour, work, unemployment, agrarian distress and migration. The book questions the overemphasis on growth to the extent of neglecting basic issues of development. With a number of contributions re-imagining development and its political economy, the book discusses above mentioned issues in light of new data and more recent conceptions of the issues. The contributors of this volume are eminent researchers in their respective field. Presenting primary as well as secondary data, the book considers the latest advances and research and also addresses new challenges like the global reorganization of production and the consequences for labour and the world of work, along with skills question. World of work has received detailed investigation in this book. This is a timely addition in existing literature especially in context of pandemic and lockdown. Informality and un/employment question is addressed in this context. Relationship among poverty, inequality and growth is examined in light of newer understanding. Agrarian distress is looked in a broader context. A number of papers are examining migration question by expanding coverage of migration and including labour mobility as apart of migration debate. The present crisis of migrant labour and absence of social security for these workers is also discussed.This book is primarily intended for those interested in recent advances on some of the basic aspects of development, like poverty, inequality, informality, word of work, migration and labour mobility. It is also useful for researchers, policy makers, journalists and civil society organizations working on these issues.

The authors discuss the impact of foreign aid and tackle the question of why assessing the impact of aid is so difficult. The authors focus on peer-reviewed, cross-country studies published over the last decade and draw together some global-level assessments, considering the context and conditions under which aid might be said to ‘work'. Glennie and Sumner argue that the evidence in four areas shows signs of convergence that may have direct relevance for policy decisions on aid and for aid effectiveness discussions. These are as follows: Aid levels (meaning if aid is too low or too high); Domestic political institutions (including political stability and extent of decentralisation); Aid composition (including sectors, modalities, objectives and time horizons); and Aid volatility and fragmentation. Notably, this study finds that there is no consensus that the effectiveness of aid depends on orthodox economic policies.

This textbook presents a detailed insight into the structures and processes of preparing students for Model United Nations (MUN) conferences and for attending Model United Nations conferences, subsequently. It serves as a handbook and practical guide for the implementation of MUN into courses and classes in educational institutions.Written by a Faculty Advisor, and offering additional insights from an experienced award-winning MUN delegate, the book provides a particularly exceptional insightful, and well-rounded approach. The author explains how a MUN course can be taught, presents exercises to prepare students for the conference, and discusses how the MUN delegation and trip to the conference can be organized. This comprehensive guide offers insights into a broad range of topics, including debates with peers, diplomacy to solve international crises, and learning about the system of the United Nations (UN) organization through simulation. Further, it covers the development of soft skills and communication at the conferences and building international friendships, while it additionally allows learning more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the process.With tips, tricks, and bonus material this book will serve as an anchor throughout the students'first MUN experience, as well as provide valuable help for more advanced participants. The book, therefore, is a must-read for both academic staff teaching MUN, as well as students attending MUN courses and planning to attend MUN conferences.

This book provides a thorough understanding of the key policy debates on international trade and investment for development with a focus on the East African Community (EAC) to strengthen Member States'capacity to develop policies to promote their exports'competitiveness and diversification. Beyond Member States', the book serves as a base for a deeper understanding of the challenges, opportunities and requirements of the intra-continental trade agreement which is now in sight with the ratification of the Tripartite (EAC-COMESA-SADC) Free Trade Area that is critical in addressing key constraints to trade in the African continent. Moreover, the lessons from this edited volume may also extend to the challenges and opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The book brings together a comprehensive overview and an evidence-based analysis that can be considered best practice in the region. The trade and investment policy analysis of constraints and opportunities aims to improve trade and competitiveness and covers macro- (economy-wide), meso- (sectoral) and micro- (firm or household) levels. This multi-level approach is crucial for understanding how current trade and investment policies limit competitiveness and diversification in order to identify more tangible policy action for overcoming such constraints. The individual contributors follow comprehensive applied empirical approaches, and each chapter generates knowledge needed to identify key challenges and opportunities focusing on research-led policy-relevant approaches that enable readers to better understand national, bilateral, and multilateral cooperation as well as policies for sustainable development in East Africa. The contributors know the EAC context very well as their engagement in policymaking goes beyond the context of the papers they are writing about. The individual chapters were developed as part of a research and capacity building programme under the aegis of ACP and EUthat we implemented in 2020-2022. The research project well fits into the Frontiers in African Business Research series as we have many African contributors. The contributions matter to policymakers and academic circles. For students, the book serves as an excellent guide for understanding international trade and investment theories and gaining up-to-date knowledge on developments in the world economy and their effects on developing countries and SDGs. Trade policy researchers and students will be able to extend theories and empirical data to address new and emerging topics beyond the settings already covered in the book.

Marek Thee was a Jewish Polish journalist, scholar, and activist. This book tells his life from narrowly escaping death in the Holocaust to exile in Palestine, where he became attached to the Polish consular service. On his return to Poland in 1950, he worked for the Foreign Ministry and later for the Polish Institute for International Affairs. He served as Head of the Polish delegation to the International Control Commission in Indochina in the late 1950s. In 1968 he lost his job and his Polish citizenship in a nationalistic and antisemitic campaign. He was able to move to Norway where he worked for twenty years at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), editing an international quarterly journal, Bulletin of Peace Proposals and doing research on the arms race. In retirement, he continued his research and writing at the Norwegian Human Rights Institute. The book vividly relates the drama of his life in Poland, Palestine, Indochina, and Norway.This is an open access book.

This book mainly focuses on the miracle of China's foreign trade in the past 40 years from five perspectives: first, it briefly reviews the import substitution strategy China adopted before its opening-up; second, it analyzes the export-oriented strategy that contributes a lot to China's economic growth since 1980s; third, it discusses the impacts of trade liberalization and China's participation in WTO on Chinese firms; forth, it addresses the deepening opening-up in the context of global financial crisis; last, it provides policy advice on China's newly conducted all-around opening-up strategy. By dividing China's opening-up into five stages, this book offers a comprehensive discussion to understand and analyze the reason, performance and challenge of China's economic growth from the perspective of foreign trade.

This book provides recent research on soft computing and fuzzy methodologies in innovation management and sustainability. The uncertainty in the business world is increasing. Significant changes are generated unexpectedly, so using fuzzy logic and soft computing methods allows us to create flexible scenarios adaptable to new realities. Within the book, we will find different applications of fuzzy methodologies that can apply to various topics such as sustainability, innovation, tourism, costs, exports, systems administration, among others. The book's main contribution is the applicability of the various methodologies to specific cases, which allows generating a relationship between theory and practice. In addition, it has some bibliometric studies on various topics that give us a visualization of what has happened and where multiple topics are headed. This book is recommended mainly for students who wish to know how the various fuzzy and soft computing tools can betaken to real situations, allowing a better understanding of these and generating new visions of future applicability.

Developing countries have made rapid but highly varied progress since the 1990s. So much so that the boundaries to the traditional industrialized countries have become partially blurred. On the other hand, there are a number of mostly fragile states that have not succeeded in doing so, or have only rudimentarily succeeded. Talk of one'Third World'and common development problems thus explains little. Instead, development has become a requirement for all states, which this textbook breaks down and assesses according to key development goals.This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Entwicklungspolitik by Joachim Betz, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book willread stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

This book offers a collection of distinguished contributions that identify current growth accelerators in India, and suggest policies and strategies to make India's growth more sustainable and inclusive. The papers are divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on issues related to industrial growth in India. The discussions include India's industrial development (manufacturing, construction and mining); role of manufacturing; global value chains; and of environment in industrial development. In turn, section II deals with issues related to trade and FDI as accelerators of India's growth. The respective chapters explore the changing patterns of trade, impacts of technology, and spill-over effects of FDI, to name but a few. Lastly, the third section discusses employment-related issues like measurement of labour input, the dichotomy of the Indian labour market, the nature of firms and employment generation, and impacts of technology on employment. Given its scope and focus, the book offers an invaluable resource for researchers and policymakers alike.

This book is more or less a companion volume of the author's book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering published by Springer in March, 2018. Since social systems engineering is a complex emerging discipline, this book will focus more on the evolution of the concept and the formation process. This is related to the book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering within the context of the author's working and study experience of around 33 years in engineering and 36 years in policy research and planning at national and regional level.

This book aims to build the ideal model of China's grand strategy framework, which is based on three key variables: national power, strategic concept and international institution. Taking the rise of China as an opportunity, this book adopts the assessment of national strategic resources as the beginning, focuses on the evaluation of strategic capability, the choice of strategic orientation, the establishment of strategic objectives, the planning of strategic content and the implementation of strategic means. Further, following this main line, this book establishes a China's grand strategy framework based on active participation and integration-transformation-shaping process. This book emphasizes that to achieve the goals of China's grand strategy; China should uphold this strategic attitude: It should not be seduced by praise and should not be made aggressive by criticism. It should learn to be glorious but remain humble, maintain a wealthy, influential but modest position by restraint. This book can be regarded as the essence of the author's 20 years long-term focus and research on the China's grand strategy. The author's postdoctoral tutor Professor Hu Angang's comment of this book can hit the nail on the head:'This book is a pioneering theoretical study of China's great strategic research and makes a significant contribution to this research field. The basic arguments of this book have been submitted through various approaches to decision-making references or published in academic papers, and have received numerous positive responses and resonance. In my opinion, the basic ideas and important findings of this book will provide imperative reference to long-term strategy decision-making process. In addition, the fundamental theory and analysis method of the book will have an important influence in both domestic and international academic field.'

This open access book examines the future of inequality, work and wages in the age of automation with a focus on developing countries. The authors argue that the rise of a global ‘robot reserve army'has profound effects on labor markets and economic development, but, rather than causing mass unemployment, new technologies are more likely to lead to stagnant wages and premature deindustrialization. The book illuminates the debate on the impact of automation upon economic development, in particular issues of poverty, inequality and work. It highlights public policy responses and strategies–ranging from containment to coping mechanisms—to confront the effects of automation.

This edited volume consists of three parts. It is a culmination of selected research papers presented at the second version of the international conference on Improving Sustainability Concept in Developing Countries (ISCDC) and the second version of the international conference on Alternative and Renewable Energy Quest in Architecture and Urbanism (AREQ), organized by IEREK in Egypt, 2017. It discusses major environmental issues and challenges which threaten our future. These include climate change impact, environmental deterioration, increasing demand for energy and new approaches for alternative renewable energy sources which became a necessity for survival. In addition to addressing the different environmental issues witnessed today, research presented in this book stressed on the need of sustainably shaping buildings and cities using renewable energy sources. Topics included in this book are (1) Resilience in the Built Environment, (2) Design for energy-efficient architecture and (3) Alternative and Renewable Energy Resources Quest in Architecture and Urbanism. The book is of interest to researchers and academicians who continuously aim to update their knowledge in these fields, as well as decision makers needing the enough knowledge to carry out the right decisions towards the benefit of the environment and society.

This book examines the life and work of Ajit Singh (1940-2015), a leading radical post-Keynesian applied economist who made major contributions to the policy-oriented study of both developed and developing economies, and was a key figure in the life and evolution of the Cambridge Faculty of Economics. Unorthodox, outspoken, and invariably rigorous, Ajit Singh made highly significant contributions to industrial economics, corporate governance and finance, and stock markets – developing empirically sound refutations of neoclassical tenets. He was much respected for his challenges both to orthodox economics, and to the one-size-fits-all free-market policy prescriptions of the Bretton Woods institutions in relation to late-industrialising developing economies. Throughout his career, Ajit remained an analyst and apostle of State-enabled accelerated industrialisation as the key to transformative development in the post-colonial Global South. The author traces Ajit Singh's radical perspectives to their roots in the early post-colonial nationalist societal aspirations for self-determination and autonomous and rapid egalitarian development – whether in his native Punjab, India, or the third world – and further explores the nuanced interface between Ajit's simultaneous affinity, seemingly paradoxical, both with socialism and Sikhism. This intellectual biography will appeal to students and researchers in Development Economics, History of Economic Thought, Development Studies, and Post-Keynesian Economics, as well as to policy makers and development practitioners in the fields of industrialisation, development and finance within the strategic framework of contemporary globalisation.

In this book Edward and Sumner argue that to better understand the impact of global growth on poverty it is necessary to consider what happens across a wide range of poverty lines. Starting with the same datasets used to produce official estimates of global poverty, they create a model of global consumption that spans the entire world's population. They go on to demonstrate how their model can be utilised to understand how different poverty lines imply very different visions of how the global economy needs to work in order for poverty to be eradicated.

This book provides a brief history of the notion of development and related policies. Readers will find an overview of the main development notions and debates from 1950 to the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The author argues that sustainable development is equal to empowerment within a specific historical setting; development is a dialectic relationship between people's empowerment and the existing social and economic structures. The book examines some well-known growth theories from Harrod in 1939 to contemporary debates views about the role of the state and the market. Some major structural changes are also examined from economic growth in Asia to international finance: the author contends that contemporary issues on development can be better understood with the help of the founding fathers of economics, from the Mercantilist era to Marx. They help to understand the difficult relationship between development and market forces within different models of social and economicreproduction. The author contends that the main development challenge is that of building a global partnership in a system with enormous differences in economic powers and offers some examples of how to re-balance the existing economic powers particularly in trade and finance.

This book considers the effect of China's unprecedented economic growth and more prominent geopolitical role in the twenty-first century. Rising powers considerably alter international relations, leading to the emergence of a multipolar world order that impacts more traditional international players like the European Union (EU). China's growing economic and diplomatic influence is particularly relevant in Africa, where it presents an alternative to conventional North-South relations and proposes a new type of South-South partnership. Stahl examines the EU's foreign policy response regarding China's growing presence in Africa, as well as the EU's attempts to refocus attention on the African continent. Drawing on a rich body of evidence collected through fieldwork in China and Africa, and extensive expert interviews, the author sheds light on the novel trend of EU-China-Africa trilateral relations. The book offers a new analytical framework for the study of the EU's foreign policy ofengagement with emerging powers and will appeal to graduate students and scholars interested in the EU's international role, international relations and development, as well as contemporary Chinese and African studies.

The collected papers in this volume cover the effects of environmental stress under a biological and energetic model. Examples are taken from fossil and living animal populations, and from outlier human populations and traditional societies. These examples indicate that stress increases energy demands and so reduces reproductive fitness. A wide range of stressful situations also are analyzed under the less stringent conditions experienced by modern human populations, when cultural factors assume importance. These emphasize the interaction between genetic, physiological, psychological and social factors in everyday life and in clinical settings.

Based on a decade of research by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, this volume includes material on inter-generational transmission, the importance of assets and vulnerability, and conflict, and new thinking about the close relationship between social exclusion and adverse incorporation.

As the income gap between developed and developing nations grows, so grows the cacophony of voices claiming that the quest to find a simple recipe for economic growth has failed. Getting Better, in sharp contrast, reports the good news about global progress. Economist Charles Kenny argues against development naysayers by pointing to the evidence of widespread improvements in health, education, peace, liberty -- and even happiness. Kenny shows how the spread of cheap technologies, such as vaccines and bed nets, and ideas, such as political rights, has transformed the world. He also shows that by understanding this transformation, we can make the world an even better place to live. That's not to say that life is grand for everyone, or that we don't have a long way to go. But improvements have spread far, and, according to Kenny, they can spread even further.

The experience accumulated in the wake of more than two decades of sustained effort to promote growth and change in the low-income countries presents a rich field for scholarly inquiry and new insights into the development process. The success and failures of such projects, the new skills and attitudes they impart, and the internal tensions they sometimes generate obviously have an important bearing on the next stages of a county's development effort. Yet little has become known about these truly formative experiences which are due to the behavior—and misbehavior—of development projects. In this recent volume, Professor Albert O. Hirschman turns his attention to the ways in which decision making is molded, activated, or hampered by the specific nature of the project that is undertaken; for example, the establishment and operation of a pulp and paper mill in east Pakistan, an irrigation project in Peru, railway expansion in Nigeria, and other development undertakings. In some parts of the present inquiry Hirschman elaborates on his earlier writings in this series; and occasionally, he qualifies or modifies his previous conclusions; the bulk of the study explores new territory.

From a sociological perspective, this book explores issues related to population mobility, family pensions, and the lives of workers and peasants during the 70 years of urbanization since the founding of New China from the perspectives of population, pension security, employment structure transformation, and social insurance systems, thus exploring the deep logic behind China's successful experience. The relevant issues studied in this book are a systematic summary of the experiences and lessons learned from social reforms since the founding of the country and also provide guidance for the future direction of social development and change.

How do international students and alumni contribute to development in their countries of origin? Is the development effect greatest when students return to their countries of origin directly after completing their studies and become involved locally there, or can they also support the development of their country of origin if they remain abroad after their studies and contribute their knowledge and capital to the development process of their country of origin via transnational networks? Specifically, this question is examined in this publication using the example of the scholarship and alumni work of the Catholic Academic Alien Service (KAAD) in five countries of different developing regions: Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Colombia and Palestine.

This book is a comprehensive compilation of groundbreaking insights stemming from the esteemed International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems for Sustainable Development (AI2SD'2023), hosted at Cadi Ayyad University Morocco. Focused on the crucial themes of energy, environment, agriculture, and industry, this book captures the essence of transformative discussions and cutting-edge research that unfolded during the conference. Within these pages, readers are invited to explore the intricate world of intelligent systems, where innovation converges to tackle the key challenges of sustainability. The book immerses its audience in a wealth of knowledge that deeply represents the latest advancements shaping the future landscape. Diverse topics are intricately woven into the fabric of this discourse, covering AI-driven solutions designed for energy optimization, environmental sustainability, precision agriculture, and intelligent industry applications. Each contribution serves as a testament to the collaborative efforts of researchers, practitioners, and experts who gathered to drive innovation at the intersection of intelligent systems and sustainable development. Crafted as an invaluable resource,'Advancements in Intelligent Systems: AI2SD'2023 Proceedings‘ caters to a diverse readership eager to delve into the forefront of trends and developments emerging from the crossroads of advanced intelligent systems in energy, environment, agriculture, and industry. Whether you're a researcher, practitioner, or enthusiast, unlock the transformative potential inherent in these innovative domains.

'Dies ist eine sehr reichhaltige Monografie, die auf einer beeindruckenden Feldforschung in China basiert und die ausgezeichnete qualitative und ethnografische Forschungsfähigkeiten, Forschungsintegrität und kulturelle Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit in der Analyse demonstriert. Dieses Buch wird einen großen Beitrag zur Literatur über Politiktransfer und -mobilität sowie über Stadtpolitik im zeitgenössischen China leisten, da es ein umfassendes Verständnis der konkreten Praktiken des Transfers und des Lernens'vom Ausland'bietet.'Claire Colomb, Professorin für Urbanistik und Planung am University College London, Großbritannien.Dieses Buch untersucht das Konzept der behutsamen Stadterneuerung, ein Konzept der Stadterneuerung, das in den 1980er Jahren in Berlin entstand und Anfang der 2000er Jahre für Yangzhou, eine chinesische Stadt in der wohlhabenden Provinz Jiangsu, vorgeschlagen wurde. Das Buch geht der Frage nach, ob Wissen und Ideen, die in einem bestimmten Umfeld entstanden sind, auf einen anderen Ort übertragen werden können, der Tausende von Kilometern vom Ursprungsort entfernt ist, und ob sie die Möglichkeit haben, die Politik und die Praktiken der Zielstadt zu verändern. Das Buch zeigt, dass ausländische Ideen ehrgeizige Reformen der Politik einer einzelnen Stadt inspirieren können, dass es aber auch zahlreiche Herausforderungen für das politische Lernen und die Verwurzelung neuer Ideen in der lokalen Praxis gibt. Um diese Herausforderungen zu erforschen, wird in diesem Buch eine Analyse der Mikrodynamik des Politiktransfers entwickelt, die zeigt, dass es mehrere Hierarchien gibt, denen eine chinesische Stadt unterworfen sein kann und die zeitweise'Fenster für politisches Lernen'öffnen oder schließen.

This volume examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market and the business environment in the European Union (EU), with a specific focus on Romania, the least developed country in the EU. The book emphasizes the need to rethink recovery models and suggests a new normal based on the pillars of economic, climatic, and social resilience. Is proposed the redefinition the policies'mix that will allow fundamental changes in development, focused also on social and societal profit, the redefinition of productivity and environmental performance of businesses, and the rebalancing of work and leisure life. The COVID-19 crisis not only accelerated the digital transformation of society but also reconfigured the coordinates of economic development by prioritizing sustainable development for all, based on green jobs as a starting point for business innovation and decent jobs for active social protection. Following this approach, the contributions discuss selected issues with importance to the development of society in the post-pandemic world. The book is of interest to students, scholars and researchers in economics, business, management and political science, as well as to policy makers and practitioners, for a better understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market and the business environment in European Union.

This book delves into Trinidad and Tobago's development with a fresh lens. It stands as the inaugural empirical exploration of the country's unique attributes, including its diversity, ex-British colony status, small-state categorization by population size, and its dependence on hydrocarbons.Through meticulous empirical analysis, this book scrutinizes the nation's economic, social, and political outcomes within the context of these four distinctive parameters, offering fresh insights into the country's development trajectory.What sets this book apart is its unwavering commitment to a data-driven approach. Drawing upon a vast array of databases from both international and national sources, it provides a thorough examination of development indicators, household welfare metrics, firm-level performance, and individual perspectives on a wide range of political, economic, and social issues.For scholars, policymakers, and anyone with an interest in understanding how unique contextual factors shape a Trinidad and Tobago's development, this book offers an enlightening and data-rich perspective on the nation's journey towards progress and prosperity.

This book is a pioneering multi-disciplinary analytical study of Caribbean political corruption grounded in Caribbean epistemology, challenging universalist perceptions generated outside the region which take no account of historical and cultural elativity. In tracing the history and development of Caribbean political systems and corruption, it collates and synthesizes existing data, indispensable to current and future research. Rigorous analysis of international corruption measurement tools demonstrates deficiencies and limited validity for small island states in the Caribbean and worldwide. Highly detailed case studies and fieldwork research investigating perceptions of corruption and democratic capacity present invaluable new empirical data and offer insights into remodelling corruption analysis. With its wide cross-disciplinary appeal, this book makes significant and timely contributions to decolonial studies and an emerging decolonization discourse in the Caribbean.

In this innovative volume, experts from international relations, anthropology, sociology, global public health, postcolonial African literature, and gender studies, take up Ngūgī wa Thiong'o's challenge to see how Africa gives to the west instead of the reverse. Humanitarian assumptions are challenged by unpacking critical legacies from colonial and missionary genealogies to today's global networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Who Gives to Whom: Reframing Africa in the Humanitarian Imaginary is a decolonial gesture that builds on Ngūgī's work as well as that of pan-Africanist and intersectional feminist scholars. Contributions range from assessing the impact of historical legacies of colonialism on gender, religious/secular attempts at “saving” Africans to (South) African unrealized project to reconfigure foreign policy frameworks shaped by apartheid. Case studies of “silver bullet” solutions focus on the incorporation of women in peacebuilding, microfinance, and e-waste disposal, to argue that humanitarian interventions continue to mask ongoing forms of despoiling African well-being while shortchanging intersectional African forms of agency.

This book offers a multidisciplinary redefinition of China's model of crony comprador capitalism. The author argues that this model emerged through the fusion of market Leninism and global capitalism in the early 1990s within the post-Cold War and post-Communist global context. While driving robust export-led growth, this approach hindered China's structural transformation and limited its ascent, ironically leading to the regime's accelerating totalitarian turn and the onset of a new Cold War. In line with the call for ‘Capitalism 3.0,'the book advocates Western decoupling from China and promoting the country's transition to a democratic developmental state, fostering a safer world for democracy over autocracy. It will be of interest to academics and policy-makers in a wide range of fields, including political economy, political studies, international relations, and economic history.

This volume examines some of the major challenges and opportunities for Europe in the light of the intensifying US-China global strategic rivalry. In doing so, the book investigates European roles and behavior in the contemporary US-China-Europe triangular relationship. While the book's focus is on Europe, the contributors originate from, or are based in, the US and China, thus presenting a unique outside-in perspective to the analysis of European conduct in the areas of security, geo-politics, geo-economics, global governance, development, and climate change. Each area is investigated by one American and one Chinese scholar, respectively, presenting the different views held on Europe's behavior and positioning in the US and China. In addition to providing critical assessments of Europe's roles and performance as seen through the prism of their respective country, contributors also pose concrete policy recommendations for Europe.The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science and international relations, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of Europe's role in the US-China rivalry and its relationship to the two countries.

This study traces the welfare regimes of Mauritius and South Africa from the early 20th century focusing on the historical circumstances that gave rise to the dominance of state-funded old-age pensions within their respective welfare frameworks. It highlights intersections between powerful business interests, the state, and social forces that sowed the seeds of social entitlements. Due to different mobilisation efforts of these social actors, both countries have spawned welfare regimes of different persuasions. Mauritius has maintained its long-standing traditions as a social democracy stretching back to the late 1950s, while South Africa continues relentlessly in pursuit of a liberal welfare state, a journey it has treaded since 1928 when the old-age pension laws first came into effect. While unravelling the innermost workings of welfare state development in Mauritius and South Africa, it also probes the present political and economic circumstances that have kept these two welfare regimes resolutely unchanged. Against this backdrop, it draws parallels between current welfare outcomes and those of old as they continue to chart their way into the future.

How do we try to make the world a better place, when the challenges of poverty, disease, war, conflict, and climate change continue to impact millions of lives? Global Development: The Basics is a lively and engaging introduction to the shifting landscape of global development, right from its origins, to present-day problems, and on to what the future for global development might look like. Recognising global development as an economic, political, and social project, this book tackles a series of critical questions: asking ‘what'development is and how it is measured, where and to whom it is assumed to happen, how its approaches are developed, and whose benefit do they serve? The book invites readers to consider the complexities and challenges of the concept of development, including its historical roots in colonialism, and the geopolitical power relations which continue to set much of the agenda. It investigates whose voices are included or silenced in dominant approaches to development, and the growing importance of ‘non-traditional'development funding and approaches.Covering key topics in the field, from economics and politics, through to gender and climate change, Global Development: The Basics is perfect for readers starting out in their understanding of global development.

This book is the first to analyse the practice of governance to resolve conflict in the case of Aceh in Indonesia. Combining theoretical discourse on conflict, democracy, and governance, it draws from original field research on the separatist conflict, utilizing a social constructivist approach in collating observations and interviews with political elites from both the Government of Indonesia and the Aceh Independent Movement (GAM). The conflict was an intractable one in which thousand civilians were killed between 1976 and 2006. The author zooms into the 2003 and 2007 period, against the broader context of the political landscape of Indonesia under the Suharto regime. In doing so, the book tackles the challenges presented by intrastate conflicts relating to ethno-religiosity, land use, and separatism. It unpacks the Indonesian political system's shift from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one, and demarcates the prevalence of state violence in managing conflicts, as exemplified in the Aceh separatism conflict. Relevent to political scientists and scholars in peace, conflict and development studies, this co-published book presents novel sociological insights into Indonesia's historical, and contemporary, political landscape.

This book examines the implications of Brexit for Africa-UK relations amid a ‘new scramble'for the continent. Engaging Nkrumah on neo-colonialism and recent scholarship on global coloniality, Langan here underscores concerns that Brexit was fuelled by an imperial romanticism that now gives rise to a Global Britain project involving the perpetration of ‘Empire 2.0'in Africa. In this context, he examines UK elites'pursuit of Brexit trade deals and the ‘development'consequences of premature market opening. Throughout its chapters, this work assesses strategic usages of UK aid monies in terms of economic leverage and the externalisation of migration and highlights the impact of UK development finance and corporate activities for the health and wellbeing of workers and host communities. Significantly, Langan explores the UK's pursuit of security interests and human rights criticisms and concludes by highlighting African agency to resist the Global Britain project amid the fragility of the British state itself.

This book summarises the evolution of the higher education system in post-Soviet Georgia, amidst democratisation, economic liberalisation and European integration. The author gives an overview of the recent political history in Georgia, paying particular attention to both the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the Rose Revolution, and their roles in transforming the education system. The book seeks out national and international perspectives to understand how higher education in Georgia can be further developed to meet the needs of all Georgians, while also further advancing Euro-Atlantic integration. It will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative education, as well as the related fields of international development, political science and history.

Based on an extensive literature review, in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and anecdotal evidence, this text examines China's engagement with East Africa (notably Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) and considers these relationships through the lens of history, diplomacy, education, trade, media, cultural exchanges, and infrastructure. It probes the sentiments of pessimism, optimism, and pragmatism to explore perceptions about China in East Africa Africa. China's ancient connection to the East African coast, as well as other incidents of contact in the past, are analyzed from the viewpoint of the deployment of Chinese soft power capital in current times.The book notably examines the significant role China is playing in the construction of new infrastructure and housing throughout East Africa and addresses China's involvement in the natural resources sector and the political debate surrounding the construction of gas and oil pipelines, itsinvestment in the tourism sector, in the news media and information and communication technology sectors as well as in educational and cultural programs.

This book analyzes China's transformative political power in today's world while simultaneously addressing global issues and the reformation of world institutions. China has become known as the world's first factory and trading power, but more knowledge on China's rise is necessary to understand the world of today and the future. The main question is where China's rise is headed and how this affects the increasingly connected world that faces problems that no state can effectively address on its own. This book analyzes both sides of the coin, that is, the problems of a world scale and the change of the world political order. China is among the major actors for global issues such as mitigating climate warming, controlling weapons of mass destruction, combating economic inequality and underdevelopment, and improving health for all. In the current setting of the new world order, all countries and especially world powers develop a general blueprint for the future, as cultural andmaterial conditions of the present world are very different from the past. Under such conditions, China faces a review of its bilateral and regional strategies, as well as its position and actions in world institutions that have the mission of forming policy responses to issues of a global scale.This book, therefore, provides insight into China's view of world problems and the future world order. It is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of China's role in today's world and the global power shift.

In light of the tremendous growth of frugal product and process innovations in both emerging markets and economies in the Global North, this book offers a clear understanding of this new direction of technological change within a Schumpeterian analytical framework. Characterising frugal innovation as a new technological paradigm, it illuminates the relationship between frugality and sustainability.Using important case studies from around the globe, Christian Le Bas explores the key characteristics of frugal innovations: products with fewer artefacts, decreasing technological complexity and design simplification. Chapters systematically synthesise economic knowledge on the topic, mapping the environmentally positive consequences of frugal innovation and identifying the crucial socio-economic and ecological contemporary issues that frugal innovation can help resolve.Concise and timely, this book will be a useful resource for economics and management scholars and students. The tools for understanding the nature and scope of frugal innovation, as well as insights on sustainable innovation, also make this an important read for managers, decision-makers and stakeholders.

This open access book sets out the contours of feminist political ecology (FPE) as a major contribution to ongoing debates in the field. As Professor Lyla Mehta says in her Foreword, the book is'foregrounding multiple ways of knowing and being, thus enabling new conceptions of politics, justice and alternatives to dominant, capitalist development trajectories'. In an innovative methodological twist, the edited book engages the reader in conversations that have emerged from the multi-sited and cross-generational dialogues of the Well-Being Ecology Gender cOmmunities (WEGO) network over the last four years. The conversations explore topics that range from climate change and extractivism, to body politics and health, degrowth, care and community well-being. The authors reflect on their collective learning process as they map out the new directions of FPE research and analysis. The chapters highlight WEGO transnational/transdisciplinary conversations with local communities, social movements and different academic spaces. The book foregrounds the ethics of doing feminist work inside and outside academe and brings to life the importance of doing reflexive research aware of situated historical and contemporary geographical contours of power.

This Open access book brings a cultural lens, and a distinctive analytical framework, to the problem of transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon future. The world faces a seemingly impossible hurdle – to radically alter long-established social, economic and technological systems in order to live within the biophysical limits of the globe, while ensuring a just and enduring transition. The overarching premise of this book is that this cannot be achieved without widespread cultural change. ‘We need a change in culture'is often used rhetorically, but what does this really mean?Stephenson starts by exploring culture's elusiveness, describing its divergent interpretations before identifying core features of culture that are common across most definitions. These characteristics form the core of the cultures framework, an extensively tested approach to studying the links between culture and sustainability outcomes. The framework makes culture an accessible concept which can be analytically applied to almost any sustainability problem. Using many examples from around the world, Stephenson illustrates how cultural stability, cultural flexibility and cultural transformation all have a part to play in the sustainability transition. She guides the reader in the use of the cultures framework for policy development and to underpin research undertaken by individuals or by multi-disciplinary teams.Clearly and engagingly written, Culture and Sustainability is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers and indeed anyone interested in a sustainable future.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.This stimulating and accessible Advanced Introduction critically engages with dominant, modernist, and ahistorical narratives of development, foregrounding the overlooked dissonant discourses that are largely written out of mainstream development. It argues that development discourse and practice must remain aware of how historically unequal relations continue to be reproduced today and outlines a range of effective strategies for guiding change towards achieving global social justice.Features include:challenges to the claims of universality evident in much development scholarshipexposure of critical discourses overlooked by conventional development historiesidentification of progressive ways to guide change towards achieving global social justiceguidance on development approaches and ideas that avoid reproducing colonial forms of representation, knowledge, power, and controlthe foregrounding of critical postcolonial, decolonial, and feminist perspectives to identify how progressive possibilities for change can emerge.This insightful Advanced Introduction will be beneficial to students and scholars of development studies, geography, sociology, anthropology, history, and indigenous studies seeking an understanding of unequal global relations, knowledge production, and the exercise of global power and control. Further, it will be of great value to academics and students interested in postcolonialism, contemporary colonial legacies, and processes of decolonisation and decoloniality.

Dieses Buch basiert auf der Auffassung, dass die menschliche Existenz aus dem Zusammenspiel von vier Dimensionen resultiert: Geist, Herz, Körper und Seele, die ihren Ausdruck in Gedanken, Emotionen, Empfindungen und Bestrebungen finden. Durch die Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis, einschließlich der persönlichen Erfahrungen, die der Autor während seiner zwei Jahrzehnte währenden humanitären Arbeit in Notstandsgebieten gemacht hat, zielt das Buch darauf ab, den Leser zum Verstehen (Gedanken), Fühlen (Emotionen) und Erleben (Empfindungen) zu bringen und ihm den Wunsch zu vermitteln, Teil eines Paradigmenwechsels zu sein, der auf einen lokalen und globalen Wandel abzielt (Bestreben). Es wird eine Methodik vorgestellt, mit der das Zusammenspiel zwischen dem Einzelnen und den Institutionen und Gesellschaften, in denen er arbeitet, seine Familie aufzieht und seine Träume verfolgt, optimiert werden kann. Darüber hinaus wird versucht, den Zweck wieder in den Mittelpunkt des täglichen Lebensund der humanitären Institutionen zu stellen. Die zentrale Botschaft des Buches lautet, dass eine bessere Welt nicht abstrakt und abstrus ist und auch nicht sein sollte, sondern dass sie in den Händen eines jeden liegt.

Die internationale Friedensförderung ist in eine Sackgasse geraten. Ihre hochgesteckten Ziele haben bestenfalls zu einem mittelmäßigen Erfolg geführt, der von Momenten des völligen Scheiterns unterbrochen wurde. Die Diskreditierung des Begriffs'liberale Friedenskonsolidierung'hat dazu geführt, dass er sich weiterentwickelt hat, um auf die zahlreichen Kritiken zu reagieren. Begriffe wie'inklusiver Frieden'verbinden das liberale Paradigma mit kritischen Begriffen des Kontexts und der Notwendigkeit, Praktiken zu verfeinern, um'das Lokale'oder'Komplexität'zu berücksichtigen. Es ist jedoch unklar, wie sich dies in klare Leitlinien für die Praxis der Friedensförderung umsetzen lässt. Paradoxerweise hat die gegenwärtige Politik der Friedenskonsolidierung ein noch nie dagewesenes Maß an Vagheit erreicht. Frieden in der politischen Unruhe bietet eine alternative Antwort, die in einem neuen Diskurs verwurzelt ist, der darauf abzielt, sowohl auf die Erfahrungen der Arbeit in Friedensprozessen einzugehen. Es zeichnet ein neues Verständnis von Friedensprozessen als Institutionalisierung formalisierter politischer Unruhe und zeigt neue Wege auf, damit umzugehen. Das Buch zeigt auf, wie Friedensprozesse Formen der Uneinigkeit institutionalisieren und fortlaufende Prozesse schaffen, um sie zu bewältigen, anstatt sie zu lösen. Es schlägt einen bescheidenen Ansatz vor, um'Aufhänger'für künftige Prozesse zu schaffen und den Einsatz kreativer Nicht-Lösungen und Praktiken der Uneinigkeit zu maximieren, die als Wege für pragmatische Nachkriegsübergänge diskutiert werden. Nur wenn wir die Natur und die Techniken der formalisierten politischen Unruhe verstehen, können wir neue konstruktive Wege finden, mit ihr umzugehen.

This volume covers Kenya's history, society, culture, economics, politics, and environment from precolonial times through the first years of independence. The book comprises twenty-one chapters divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the long precolonial moment, detailing the nature of precolonial Kenyan societies and their economics, politics, gender dynamics, and social organization. Part II examines Kenyan societies'encounters with British colonialism, critically outlining the impact and implications of these encounters. The volume concludes with an examination of political consolidation after the country's attainment of political independence and the subsequent foundations for political authoritarianism.

Challenging the dominant and mainstream views in global development, this pioneering Handbook questions the entirety of the development process in order to outline holistic political economies of development, discontents, and alternatives.Critically engaging with key theoretical debates and constructs in development studies, the contributors assess the problem of global development and underdevelopment, and the existing problematic explanations and solutions, before outlining alternatives. Chapters explore the nature of development, engaging with, critiquing, and going beyond the dominant theoretical approaches of modernisation, dependency, neoliberalism, human development, sustainable development, and postdevelopment. The chapters further examine more recent powerful forces of change, including sustainability, self-reliance, social and solidarity economies, and ecological alternatives. The Handbook makes a convincing case for an open-ended, ongoing theorisation of development and leaves readers with a key take-away: that not only inequalities but also social stratification can be used to frame the theorising, teaching, practice, praxis, policies, politics, activism, and indeed everything in the political economy of development.Underpinning innovative new research on development, this Handbook will prove invaluable to students and scholars of development studies, development economics, political economy, and social policy in emerging countries. Global in scope, policymakers and practitioners working in the Global South and the Global North will also find this Handbook refreshing.

This book offers an examination of Africa's scientific landscape based on extensive empirical data encompassing fifty-four African countries. It traces the evolution of science on the continent, highlighting research areas, global partnerships, funding sources, research capacity, and the impact of science policies. Acknowledging that Africa relies heavily on external sources, particularly from the Global North, for scientific research, the book identifies and addresses obstacles hindering self-reliance and underscores the urgent need for revitalized partnerships and cooperation to bolster Africa's scientific autonomy. It offers valuable recommendations to promote self-reliance, making it an indispensable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.

This book sheds light on Africa's development performance and dynamics arising from the interface between corruption and sustainable development on the one hand and the challenges that poses for peace, security and stability. Corruption also contributes to the spread of terrorism and violent extremism. Pervasive corruption networks often include politicians, civil servants working at all levels of state institutions, representatives of the private sector and members of crime syndicates. The consequences of corruption are detrimental in many aspects, such as undermining governments'ability to serve public interests and eroding public trust in democratic processes. Presenting empirical evidence, the book explains why corruption and the looting of staggering amounts of national assets undermine the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has a negative impact on peace, stability, security, the rule of law, gender equality, the environment and human rights. This makes the book a must-read for students, researchers and scholars of political science, international relations, and economics in general, as well as African studies, development studies, and security sector studies in particular, covering issues and themes on corruption, governance, socio-economic sustainable development, public administration and management, policing in an international context, police reform, and security sector reform. It will also serve as a helpful resource for policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the connection between corruption, sustainable development, and security challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This Open Access textbook is a result of the work of ENTAN – the European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network. It provides students with a comprehensive analysis of the different aspects and issues around the concept of non-territorial autonomy (NTA). The themes of each chapter have been selected to ensure a multi- and interdisciplinary overview of an emerging research field and show both in theory and in practice the possibilities of NTA in addressing cultural, ethnic, religious and language differences in contemporary societies. This is an open access book.

Dieses Buch untersucht den Regionalismus in der Entwicklungsgemeinschaft des Südlichen Afrika (SADC) und beleuchtet die Einflussnahme der Europäischen Union (EU) als außerregionaler Akteur auf die Organisation und den Integrationsprozess. Die SADC, eine ehrgeizige Organisation, die die Zusammenarbeit in einer Reihe verschiedener Politikbereiche fördert, ist eine Fallstudie darüber, wie erfolgreicher Regionalismus als Strategie für politische Sicherheit und wirtschaftlichen Wohlstand dienen kann, ähnlich wie das erfolgreiche Beispiel des europäischen Integrationsprozesses. Muntschicks Studie zeigt, dass Südafrika eine regionale Schlüsselrolle als Motor für die Integration spielt, während der externe Einfluss der EU ambivalenten Charakter hat, da er sowohl eine unterstützende als auch eine behindernde Wirkung auf den Regionalismus in der SADC entfaltet. Der Autor argumentiert, dass die EU auf der Grundlage von Mustern asymmetrischer Interdependenz Einfluss auf regionale Integrationsprozesse in der SADC gewinnt und zu einem'gamechanger'wird, insofern sie Lösungen für regionale Kooperationsprobleme entweder erleichtert oder behindert.