Author: Kristoffel Lieten
Publisher: Three Essays
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 99
ISBN/UPC (if available): 818878916X
Description
Kristoffel Lieten's book on the development debate is a timely intervention that takes into account what people themselves conceive of as development. In an era when Third World policy makers and ideologues are obsessed with abstract notions of growth and information revolutions under pressure from liberalizing policies of the imperialist world, or the politics of cultural difference which argue for different needs of the third world, Lieten argues that the only viable model of development for these countries is one that stands on the strength of democracy and social justice.
His field studies on population growth and family planning, fertility, child labour and schooling are a rich source of information on what people themselves want of their governments, and the very important conclusion that people still look up to the State and governments for their well being, and are least impressed with the markets and NGOism that today's developmentists are obsessed with. He also underlines how much there is in common between India and Pakistan in terms of popular aspirations and development issues.
In his eloquent style, and with an enormous reservoir of empirical data collected from long duration stays in villages of northern India and Pakistan, Kristoffel Lieten give voice to the under-privileged. He has produced three poignant essays, which directly address core issue in the development discourse: the impact of the various routes of rural development on the village population, the attitude of men and women towards population growth and family planning, and the very meaning of development. He does this while simultaneously addressing the theoretical issues and carefully presenting the views, hopes and dilemmas of people in rural India and Pakistan. The essays combine academic rigour and real life experience and will be useful for anybody interested in development issues.
Contents
PREFACE
Faltering Development and the Post-modernist Discourse
State and People: Village Views on Development in India and Pakistan
High Fertility, Education and Child Labour in Pakistan