Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Intro to development

For those, who like me, haven't been around the development scene for ages, here is some reading material that I've found really useful in bringing me up to speed on the issues.

For an easy read, try Jeffrey Sach's 'The End of Poverty' which is an impassioned (and some would say naive) appeal to the developed world to increase its aid (or 'development assistance') to poor countries.

For something a bit meatier, check out Nobel Prize Winner Amartya Sen's 'Development as Freedom', which has been very influential in shaping the 'human development' concept championed by the United Nations Development Programme and their annual Human Development Report.

If you like history and a bit of old fashioned straight talking, invest in a copy of 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations' by David Landes. Landes is an economic historian whose central thesis is that culture matters in shaping economic development, and this explains the dominance of Western Europe over the last 300-500 years.

Finally, for something a bit closer to home, browse through 'The Bipolar Pacific', a recent analysis by the Centre for Independent Studies (a right-leaning/libertarian think tank) on the development situation in some of Australia's closest neighbours.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

One of my biggest issues while taking a course on international development at uni was its almost dichotomous nature; there’s the super-practical approach and there’s the super-theoretical approach. I think its important to understand both of these and I personally found this book extremely useful:

Leys, Colin 1996, The Rise and Fall of Development Theory, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

Just thought I would share this and if anyone has a spare moment, I honestly recommend finding an online link and browsing through… Some of the most interesting class debates and possibly the most interesting conversations I have had - were centred around development theory and its relevance in terms of practicality and the changing world.