Max Spoor – författare

Rural poverty is a phenomenon that is widespread yet often ignored by policy makers and researchers. This edited volume looks critically at rural poverty in Central Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, China and Vietnam in relation to land reform, farm restructuring and the development of rural markets and in the context of a large gap between rural and urban incomes and deteriorating rural social services and infrastructure. Although in most countries rural poverty has been decreasing in the past few years, economic growth in rural areas is slow, and rural incomes are not ‘catching up’ with the rapid overall growth rates of these transition economies. In general, the livelihoods of rural dwellers remain relatively poor.

Next to comparative studies, the chapters in this book explore various aspects of agrarian reform, and analyze the interlocking or interlinking (land, input and output) markets that are crucial for rural development that have often remained weakly developed in transition economies, including case studies from Russia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Vietnam and China and a wealth of detailed analysis. These chapters reflect the striking differences between transition countries in their processes of rural reform and development of rural poverty. These differences are generally dependent on the initial conditions at the eve of transition, the policies implemented, the sequencing of reforms, and the importance that was given to the sector in the overall development strategy, such as can be seen if the Asian transition economies (ATEs) are compared with many of those in Eastern Europe.

Rural poverty is a phenomenon that is widespread yet often ignored by policy makers and researchers. This edited volume looks critically at rural poverty in Central Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, China and Vietnam in relation to land reform, farm restructuring and the development of rural markets and in the context of a large gap between rural and urban incomes and deteriorating rural social services and infrastructure. Although in most countries rural poverty has been decreasing in the past few years, economic growth in rural areas is slow, and rural incomes are not ‘catching up’ with the rapid overall growth rates of these transition economies. In general, the livelihoods of rural dwellers remain relatively poor.

Next to comparative studies, the chapters in this book explore various aspects of agrarian reform, and analyze the interlocking or interlinking (land, input and output) markets that are crucial for rural development that have often remained weakly developed in transition economies, including case studies from Russia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Vietnam and China and a wealth of detailed analysis. These chapters reflect the striking differences between transition countries in their processes of rural reform and development of rural poverty. These differences are generally dependent on the initial conditions at the eve of transition, the policies implemented, the sequencing of reforms, and the importance that was given to the sector in the overall development strategy, such as can be seen if the Asian transition economies (ATEs) are compared with many of those in Eastern Europe.

This co-edited volume provides a unified scholarly treatment of intensifying debates on the relationship between water scarcity and environmental security in Central Eurasia. Using discussions of sustainable rural development as its conceptual backdrop, the chapters in this volume combine solid empirical investigation with critical analysis of key concepts such as ‘scarcity’, ‘expert knowledge’, and ‘efficiency’. The central theme emerging from the contributions emphasizes the need to reevaluate accepted wisdom in resource studies that considers distributional conflicts over water usage as inherently zero-sum outcomes in which one player’s gains inevitably correspond to another player’s losses. Instead, the empirical and critical analyses in this book demonstrate that effective management of water resources can be re-conceptualized as the basis for regional cooperation and sustainable rural development.

This co-edited volume provides a unified scholarly treatment of intensifying debates on the relationship between water scarcity and environmental security in Central Eurasia. Using discussions of sustainable rural development as its conceptual backdrop, the chapters in this volume combine solid empirical investigation with critical analysis of key concepts such as ‘scarcity’, ‘expert knowledge’, and ‘efficiency’. The central theme emerging from the contributions emphasizes the need to reevaluate accepted wisdom in resource studies that considers distributional conflicts over water usage as inherently zero-sum outcomes in which one player’s gains inevitably correspond to another player’s losses. Instead, the empirical and critical analyses in this book demonstrate that effective management of water resources can be re-conceptualized as the basis for regional cooperation and sustainable rural development.

Is ‘development’ passé? Is it merely a by-product or a ‘trickle down’ effect of economic growth, spurred by globalisation? Will poverty simply diminish with increased global markets? This state-of-the-art critical ‘development’ reader deals with these and related questions. Globalisation, Poverty and Conflict examines the inter-relationships between globalisation, poverty and conflict. It complements current debates in the field of development studies and, in an era in which development fatigue seems to have become more profound than ever before, it brings the importance of development once again to the forefront. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is a concrete target which many governments have agreed to work towards.Whether these goals can be realised is another issue. Nonetheless, the Millennium Development Goals have brought more focused attention to development in the past few years and renewed debate about the relationships between the process of globalisation and widespread poverty and the emergence of violent conflicts.

The authors in this edited volume discuss these inter-related and highly controversial topical elements of development in a number of chapters organised around three sets of issues: (1) globalisation, inequality and poverty; (2) governance, civil society and poverty; and (3) resource degradation, institutions and conflict. The contributions represent current thinking on (and practice of) development policy, poverty reduction, the need for multi-level democratic institutions, and the containing and prevention of conflicts. The authors confront the predominant mainstream ideas on ‘development’ and propose alternatives.

The chapters, written by a select group of scholars and development practitioners, will be of direct interest to those involved in this field of social sciences and in ‘development practice’, but they are composed in such a way as to remain accessible for the generallyinterested reader.