Third World in Global Politics – serie

Over the past fifteen years, ideas in the field of development studies have been highly contested. During this time, most countries from the South have come under the iron heel of the IMF and World Bank, who have imposed structural adjustment programmes wherever they have provided loan capital to governments. However, these programmes have had little success, and development studies has suffered accordingly. Many development theorists turned to postmodernist theory to try to move on from this impasse, which in the 1990s led to a new line of critical thought that heralded 'the end of development'. They argued that development studies should be replaced by new strategies of emancipation, or 'new social movements' theory, originating in groups such as the Zapatistas of Mexico. This book summarises the contested ideas of development studies and new social movements theory while rejecting calls for the end of development. Using postmodern theory to demonstrate that forms of development can be complementary to emancipatory social movement projects, Trevor Parfitt develops an alternative model of development which incorporates the needs of peoples both South and North.

Since the 1970s, Turkey has faced some of the most serious crises since the Republic was established in 1923. This book analyses the political and socio-economic problems faced by Turkey in recent decades and the country's gradual integration into the global economy. Social unrest, political and ethnic violence, paralysis of the state bureaucracy and other institutions, increasing foreign debt, decreasing economic growth, vast inflation and increasing unemployment have all been part of everyday life in Turkey's recent history. Zulkuf Aydin argues that this state of affairs is symptomatic of a deeper, more enduring crisis arising from the way in which Turkey has been integrated into the global economy. Looking at democracy, repression, the military, the Kurdish question and regional inequalities, civil society, human rights and Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey, he shows how Turkey has become reliant on foreign investment and international financial institutions, offering a broader critique of globalisation in this light.

Why do so many people worldwide suffer hunger and poverty when there is enough food and other resources globally to prevent it? This book shows how famine and food insecurity are an essential part of modern capitalism. Although trade, debt relief and development initiatives are important, they do not alter the structure of the global economy and poverty continues to be created by processes like privatisation, trade liberalisation and market reform. Despite the 'end poverty' rhetoric of the World Bank and the G8, these high levels of poverty sustain Western wealth and power. Is there any hope for change? Using case studies from Egypt and North Africa, Nigeria, Sudan and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, Ray Bush illustrates that there is resistance to neoliberal policies, and that struggles over land, mining and resources can shape real alternatives to existing globalisation.