This guide questions conventional thinking about wealth and poverty—is the opposite of poverty really wealth, or is it safety and sufficiency? Drawing on experience of poor people all over the world, the author gives voice to those whose views are rarely sought and shows how we all need to live more modestly to make poverty history. Jeremy Seabrook has written more than thirty books (including Travels in the Skin Trade and Children of Other Worlds), and has worked as a teacher, social worker, journalist, lecturer, and playwright. He has contributed to many magazines, including the New Statesman and The Ecologist.
With globalization, traditional societies are being replaced by an international working class and a small minority of the global rich. In such a situation, who is to guarantee social justice?
At the turn of the new millennium, the United Nations determined that world poverty would be halved by 2015. International agencies are all committed to "poverty abatement." The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have renamed their structural adjustment policies "poverty reduction strategies." But can this work? No, argues Jeremy Seabrook, not if we fail to understand the meaning of poverty. Drawing on testimonies from around the world, as well as on the hard facts, he challenges the assumption that wealth overcomes poverty, and demonstrates that the opposite of "poor" is not "rich" but "self-reliant." Appealing passionately for a shared sense of "sufficiency," he gives verbal snapshots of people's lives to show how poverty shifts, changes and endures in response to the growth of wealth.
Globalisation has become one of the most used and encompassing words over the past decade, of undeniable influence in economics, politics and activism. Globalisation is literally all around; every aspect of life is affected by a global structure of communication and economy. This fully revised and updated guide condenses this complex subject into clear, concise commentary. It examines the debt trap, the acceleration of neoliberalism, competition for energy resources, the links between the war on terror, the arms trade and the alternatives to corporate control.
Green issues and politics are no longer separate entities, and as environmental issues will only become more pertinent in the future, it will dominate the political spectrum. From climate chaos to consumerism, the crisis facing human civilisation is clear. Yet the response from polticians at present is still inadequate and environmental activists focus on single campaigns rather than electoral politics. The new addition to the No-Nonsense Guides measures the rising tide of eco-activism and awareness and explains why it heralds a new politcal era worldwide.
Science is the great intellectual adventure, but can also be an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the twenty-first century our last. To make sense of this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions. This No-Nonsense Guide to Science introduces a new way of thinking about science, moving away from ideas of perfect certainty and objectivity. We must accept uncertainty and ignorance in the field, as well as the need for citizens’ participation in the policies involving science.
The only up-to-date work on the global arms trade, this book puts the global trade in weapons into the context of history. It includes recent controversial deals as well as case studies on Zimbabwe, Iraq and Darfur. Veteran human rights campaigner Nicolas Gilby exposes the cynicism, bribery and secret deals which characterise this dirty - albeit legal - business.
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.
