Development, Poverty of Culture, and Social Policy [Hardcover]

This book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of complex issues, constructs, and interventions that deal with human-social problems with global implications.?It posits social development theory and practice in a critically important context challenging the scientific orthodoxy of our times.PART I: CULTURE OF DEVELOPMENT Theorizing Poverty of Culture: Requiem for Change Development Delusion Entropy of Developmentalism Politics of Development PART II: THE MIND OF DARKNESS End of the Third World Rise of the Rest Banality of Global Evil The Caste War: Archeology of a Perpetual Conflict PART III: TRANSFORMATIVE POLICY The Ordeal of Reason Inanity of Social Intervention Rethinking of International Social Work Social Practice in a Troubled World New Social Development: A Paradigm Human Rights Today Idioms of Social Change Epilogue: Culture as a Defensive Spider

This complex book is no less than an indictment of humanity s progress as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century. . . . I would like to recommend this book to those students, academics, and practitioners of social development. It is stimulating, scholarly, and discomforting. - R. Kowalski, Research on Social Work Practice The practice of international development has long been waiting for a clear-eyed critique of its missteps and failures. Wait no more. Mohan has provided an antidote to the embedded romanticism of patronizing efforts to save the poor from themselves. Remarkably,this bookis argued with a credible, erudite humanism and a pervasive decency. - William M. Epstein, Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Long overdue is a book that squarely skewers the international development paradigm that has dominated the last three decades of development practice. Professor Mohan provides a powerful critique of the status quo and a cautious proposal for a more humane alternative. - Mark Lusk, Professor & Chair, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Healós