Globalizing Rural Development : Competing Paradigms and Emerging Realities

This collection of 17 papers examines the impact of the changing paradigm of rural development on poverty alleviation, equity, gender, food security, employment, and sustainability. The volume′s major concern is: are these goals of rural development being achieved in a globalized world? More specifically, it examines how endogenous and participatory approaches may prove helpful for sustainable rural development and the way the changing role of the state and the interventions of NGOs can make a difference.

The central argument is that the new paradigm of rural development reflects the core - periphery dichotomy, in which the core imposes on the periphery - in a top-down approach--in all major interventions. As a result, the new paradigm is ridden with limitations in addressing the highly differentiated needs and contexts of rural development both in developing and developed countries.

Divided into four sections including the introduction, the volume:

• Examines the inherently contradictory relationship between the new development paradigm and the goals of rural development
• Studies the emerging role of the state and state-led interventions in the context of globalization, and the role and potential of NGOs in rural development
• Highlights the rural livelihood framework and the impact of endogenous efforts at rural development in various European and Asian countries
• Presents participatory methods for addressing problems like food security, women′s empowerment, and poverty alleviation

The book...is perhaps the first independent analytical account of changing rural development paradigms and emerging realities in the wake of process of globalisation.

Author: Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics