Labor of Development

Patrick Heller is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

This is a well-written book that will be of interest to South Asia specialists as well as students of development studies, economic sociology, political economy, industrial relations, and democratization.- Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania (American Journal of Sociology) Heller's work challenges both mainstream and some Marxist analyses of capitalist development.... The Labor of Development should be required reading for all World Bank and International Monetary Fund apologists and mandarins who sing the praises of neoliberal structural adjustment and ignore the rich development potential of worker and peasant agitation within the capitalist world order.- John Willoughby (Review of Radical Politic Economics) Patrick Heller offers an important and compelling account of how powerful social movements articulated to a democratic state can drive a mode of economic development that is certainly more equitable, and perhaps more effective, than the reigning neoliberal prescriptions.... His book should be read by those interested in comparative political sociology, social movements, development, and political economy.- Archon Fung, Harvard University (Contemporary Sociology) This book is an engaging and insightful account of social development.... I recommend The Labor of Development without reservation.- Adam Lee (Industrial and Labor Relations Review. October, 2000.) This is the first and most up-to-date scholarly contribution towards understanding of the macro-economic parameters affecting socio-economic formations of Kerala. The book goes beyond economic history and examines contemporary development problems that affect conditions of the working class in India's most successful state in a human development index.- Vibhuti Patel (Pacific Affairs)