Despite the popularity of microfinance as a tool for economic development, there has been little analysis of its foundations or its real effectiveness in fighting poverty. Attempting to fill that gap, the authors of Confronting Microfinance first provide global perspectives that challenge the conventional wisdom and then focus on southeastern Europe—a key arena for microfinance and    More >

A grassroots citizens' group in Peru stops a multinational firm from digging a mine in the middle of  town. The research director of a think tank in Ghana helps convince the government to establish a national AIDS commission. An international NGO plays a key role in getting funding for climate-change adaptation included in a bill passed by the US Congress. All three are cases of the    More >

Is bullying an innocent part of growing up ... or a serious problem requiring large-scale policy remedies? What is behind our rapidly changing perceptions of  "acceptable" behavior? And when is the remedy worse than the problem? In their in-depth view of school bullying, Jeffrey Cohen and Robert Brooks navigate between empirical evidence and breathless media accounts to make sense    More >

What impact do economic, demographic, and social change have on the everyday health and well being of families and households in contemporary South Africa? The authors explore this question in twenty-nine case studies of people with diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, class, sex and gender, age, and location, considering the influence of these factors across the life course.    More >

Can postconflict states achieve both peace and justice as they deal with a traumatic past? What role does reconciliation play in healing wounds, building trust, and rectifying injustices? This provocative book, incorporating the frameworks of both peace/conflict studies and transitional justice, explores the core challenges that war-torn states confront once the violence has ended. The book is    More >

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Since its inception in 1987, Korean democracy has been an arena of continual drama and baffling contradictions: periodic waves of societal mobilization and disenchantment; initial continuity in political leadership, followed by the successive election to the presidency of two former opposition leaders and the arrest of two former heads of state; a constant stream of party renamings and    More >

International political economy is both a discipline and a set of global practices and conditions. This volume explores how the two are related, illustrating the changing character of the global political economy, as well as changing perspectives on that character. The authors first consider how social issues, policy concerns, and philosophical judgments help constitute IPE both as a worldview    More >

In this seminal collection, an interdisciplinary team of distinguished scholars draw on relevant conceptual models and compare experiences from other countries to show how South Africa could most successfully build a democratic developmental state. Macro- and microeconomic questions, as well as the institutional, governance, and social challenges facing South Africa are analyzed, as are the    More >

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