Illusion or Opportunity

The failure of development strategies in the past few decades has given rise to a worldwide movement in the direction of “another development.” This is a form of development that is social as well as economic, oriented towards people’s basic needs, people-centred and initiated from below. It is human in scale and form, equitable and socially more inclusive, capacitating and empowering of the poor, sustainable in terms of both the environment and livelihoods, participatory and community-based. This concern for another development is a major theme of this book, which includes a series of analytical probes into the dynamics of social change–its theory and practice.