Social Development and the Empowerment of Marginalised Groups: Perspectives and Strategies

Debal K. Singha Roy, Debal K Singharoy

SAGE Publications, 2001 - Business & Economics - 248 pages

Empowerment, civil society, and democratisation comprise the new package of liberalisation discourse which at face value at least respond to the long-standing demands of struggling groups. In practice, the contributors argue, each has been given a restricted meaning and has been oriented to serve the present global drive of Western capitalism.

This book thus provides a critique of the emergent social development discourse, and analyzes the processes and strategies of empowerment of marginalized groups in the context of globalisation, paradigm shifts in the strategy of development, initiatives taken by the state and civil society, and the dynamics of social movements and grass roots mobilizations.

Twelve interrelated essays establish the crucial relationship between theory and practice of social development and empowerment with the help of illustrations and case studies. This relationship embeds state-mediated policies and voluntary sector initiatives on the one hand, and the realities of people's struggles on the other.

Among the issues discussed are:

· the paradigm shift in development strategy

· role of social movements

· non-government organisations

· institutionalised indigenous bodies

· distance education

Contents

• Acknowledgements a: 9
• on the Concept of Empowerment: 22
• Towards an Alternative Paradigm of Development: 51

About the author

Debal K. SinghaRoy, MA, MPhil, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He is a recipient of the Australian Government Endeavour Fellowship, 2010, at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and the Commonwealth Fellowship at The Open University, the United Kingdom (2006–07). Furthermore, he is a fellow with the Alternative Development Studies Programme, Netherlands (2003); a visiting research fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001); and a visiting scholar at the la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (1999 and 2007). His academically acclaimed publications include Towards Knowledge Society: New Identitiesin Emerging India, Peasant Movementsin Post-ColonialIndia: Dynamics of Mobilization and Identity, Social Development and the Empowerment of the Marginalised Groups: Perspectives and Strategies (ed.), Women, New Technology and Development: Changing Nature of Gender Relations in Rural India, Women in Peasant Movements: Tebhaga, Naxalite and After, Social Movements: A Course Guide, Dissenting Voices and Transformative Actions: Social Movements in Globalizing World (ed.), Interrogating Social Development: Global Perspectives and Local Initiatives (ed.) and Surviving Against Odds: Marginalized in a Globalising World (ed.). Professor SinghaRoy has published several research papers in nationally and internationally reputed journals and contributed chapters on ‘Social Movements in India’ and ‘Peasant Movements’ in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, 2013

Bibliographic information

• Title: Social Development and the Empowerment of Marginalised Groups: Perspectives and Strategies
• Editors: Debal K. Singha Roy, Debal K Singharoy
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, 2001
• ISBN: 0761995595, 9780761995593
• Length: 248 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development; Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy; Social Science / Activism & Social Justice; Social Science / Developing & Emerging Countries; Social Science / General; Social Science / Minority Studies; Social Science / Sociology / General; Social Science / Sociology / Social Theory