GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT: THE BOOK

Global Development: Problems, Solutions and Strategy

A proposal for socially just, ecologically sustainable growth (1998)

Global Development analyses the economic, environmental, social and political problems humanity is facing today: from economic insecurity and destitute poverty to crime, environmental degradation and political ineptitude. It explains why, in spite of economic growth and technological development, many people face a decline in their living conditions. And it argues that if things continue as today, future generations are likely to live in a society which, due to a growing scarcity of natural resources and concentration of wealth, will be increasingly divided and torn by strife.

The book suggests that although the economic, social and environmental problems we face are huge, they can be overcome by investing humanity’s creative energy and skills in a worldwide program for sustainable development. The main components and ways of financing such a program are described. Moreover, a strategy for implementation is proposed, based on the creation of a global movement that should raise support among all beneficiaries of sustainable development: from the destitute poor in the Third World to the middle and most of the upper class of the rich countries.

A summary of the book, in the form of a synopsis by chapters, can be found here.

Download Global Development here.

A printed version can be obtained (at a discount) through the author, who can be reached through the Contact page of this site, and through the publisher, Jan van Arkel / International Books, http://www.i-books.nl/catalogue/bytitle/globaldevelopmentproblemssolutionsstrategy.html

An updated version of Global Development is planned for 2018. Though the book dates back almost twenty years many of the issues raised are as relevant today as they were then – as are the solutions proposed and the strategy to implement them.

A review of Global Development, published in Dutch the on-line magazine Civis Mundi in 2000, can be accessed here (in Dutch only).