Developmental Local Governance ─ A Critical Discourse in 'Alternative Development'

The primary purpose of this edited collection is to evaluate critically the relationship between local government and national economic development. It focuses on how the relationship between local government and development is structured, and the specific institutional arrangements at national and subnational levels that might facilitate local government's assumption of the role of development agent. In light of the contradictory outcomes of development and implied experimentation with new modalities, post-development discourse provides a useful an explanatory framework for the book. Schoburgh, Martin and Gatchair's central argument is that the pursuit of national developmental goals is given a sustainable foundation when development planning and strategies take into account elements that have the potential to determine the rate of social transformation. Their emphasis on localism establishes a clear link between local government and local economic development in the context of developing countries.

Eris D. Schoburgh is Associate Dean in the Faculty of the Social Sciences and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, where she teaches courses in public policy and public sector management at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She currently coordinates the Public Sector Management Unit.

John Martin is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University, Australia.

Sonia Gatchair is Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Her research interests are on technology, innovation and entrepreneurial policies to facilitate economic development. Current research activities include the examination of capacities to undertake organizational innovation and change.