The Comparative Political Economy of Development: Africa and South Asia

ISBN-13: 9780415809955 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 358 str.

Barbara Harriss-White

Opis

This book illustrates the enduring relevance and vitality of the comparative political economy of development approach promoted among others by a group of social scientists in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors demonstrate the viability of this approach as researchers and academics become more convinced of the inadequacies of orthodox approaches to the understanding of development. Detailed case material obtained from comparative field research in Africa and South Asia informs analyses of exploitation in agriculture; the dynamics of rural poverty; seasonality; the non farm economy; class formation; labour and unfreedom; the gendering of the labour force; small scale production and contract farming; social networks in industrial clusters; stigma and discrimination in the rural and urban economy and its politics. Reasoned policy suggestions are made and an analysis of the comparative political economy of development approach is applied to the situation of Africa and South Asia. Aptly presenting the relation between theory and empirical material in a dynamic and interactive way, the book offers meaningful and powerful explanations of what is happening in the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of South Asia today. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, rural sociology, political economy, policy and practice of development and Indian and African studies.

Spis treści

1. Introduction Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer  2. The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: Dinosaur or Phoenix? Lucia Da Corta  3. Strategic Dimensions of Rural Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa Frank Ellis  4. From 'Rural Labour' to 'Classes of Labour': Class Fragmentation, Caste and Class Struggle at the Bottom of the Indian Labour Hierarchy Jens Lerche  5. Poverty: Causes, Responses and Consequences in Rural South Africa Elizabeth Francis  6. Seasonal Food Crises and Social Protection in Africa Stephen Devereux  7. The Political Economy of Contract Farming in Tea in Kenya: The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), 1964-2002 Cosmas Ochieng  8. Networking for Success: Informal Enterprises and Popular Associations in Nigeria Kate Meagher  9. Free and Unfree Labour: The Cape Wine Industry 1938-1988 Gavin Williams  10. The Opium Revolution: Continuity or Change in Rural Afghanistan? Adam Pain  11. The Marginalisation of Dalits in a Modernising Economy Judith Heyer  12. Shifting the Grindstone of Caste? Decreasing Dependency Amongst Dalit Labourers in Tamilnadu Hugo Gorringe  13. Liberalisation and Transformations in India’s Informal Economy: Female Breadwinners in Working Class Households in Chennai Karin Kapadia  14. Dalit Entrepreneurs in Middle India Aseem Prakash  15. Stigma and Regions of Accumulation: Mapping Dalit and Adivasi Capital in the 1990s Barbara Harriss-White with Kaushal Vidyarthee