International Development

Pragmatically drawing on a multitude of fields, driven by political practicalities (rather than insights from academic research), and fragmented, with no fixed answers--the field of international development stands apart from other disciplines. Editors Bull (Centre for Development and the Environment, U. of Oslo, Norway) and Boas (Institute for Applied International Studies, Oslo) explain that international development scholarship aims to "clarify the goals, means, and driving forces of improvements (or the lack of such) in the living conditions for the less privileged of the world's population." The editors have selected 67 previously published articles and book excerpts for this anthology, presenting them in four volumes. As would be expected, the topics range widely, and therefore their organization according to themes and subthemes is particularly important. The four volumes are devoted, respectively, to theories of modernization and economic growth (the first selection is the inaugural address of Harry S. Truman); dependency and underdevelopment; structural adjustment and transition to good governance (market orientation, neo-liberalism, population pressure, the environment, basic needs, market democracy); and feminism, human development and post-development (human rights and empowerment, post-development and social movement theory, post-colonialism, and state failure, war economies, and peace building). Selections are from such sources as The Economic Journal, The American Economic Review, New Left Review, Journal of Peace Research, and Economic Bulletin for Latin America, among others. There is no index. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)