Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Rural Development.

Abstract

This edition owes its publication to the success of the first edition in 1985. The contributors have attempted to weigh their earlier conclusions against development experience accumulated during the second half of the 1980s. Their chapters seek to capture the newly emerging trends in the development thinking and practice that are likely to characterize the 1990s. This edition highlights the issues related to : a) natural resources management (particularly water, forests, and fisheries); b) the environmental implications of development programs; and c) the development of human capital through investments in forming grassroots organizations and promoting participation. The contributors also draw attention to certain adverse consequences of development, such as the risk of greater impoverishment of some marginal groups, the forced displacement and involuntary resettlement of populations, and deterioration and dissipation of common property income-generating assets. All of the authors are concerned with understanding the conditions for long-term sustainability of development investments. Finally, the edition analyzes specific cases in which the difficult transition from social science knowledge to the formulation of policy principles and industrial planning procedures was made successfully. This edition strengthens the argument that sociological analysis brings an increment of professional precision to the thinking and practice of induced development.