Global Development: Post-Material Values and Social Praxis

(Hardback)

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This text focuses on post-material consciousness, a concept that has not been developed in American literature offers a fresh perspective on the human condition and its social development as a vehicle of global welfare. Brij Mohan contends that post-modern societies, despite their affluence and the "superpower thaw", remain in a state of flux, and that the traditional approaches on the Left and Right have failed to present a viable program for peace, development and prosperity. Mohan's formulation is premised on three assumptions: existing ideologies, theories, and practices of national and international development are fraught with contradictions and anomalies; the world climate and its challenges call for a new thinking beyond bureaucratized disciplines; and "post-material" consciousness lends support to a "bio-global" strategy that is conceptually compatible with humankind's ultimate agenda for coexistence based on justice, equality, and peace. Part 1 deals with theoretical considerations in light of contemporary social events, and part 2 offers comparative analyses of three different societies - the United States, Germany, and India - with a particular emphasis on social development issues. Concepts such as "end of history", "end of ideology", and even "third world" are called into question. "Global development", premised on the notion of humanity's "one-ness", unravels the paradoxes of diversity and offers a rational, humane basis for a dignified existence of the human race beyond the ossified structures of conceptual boundaries and organizational morass.

Reviews

"Global Development is a passionate, thought-provoking, and at times controversial manifesto. It contains important, timely counter messages for everyone concerned with the fate of our species and its home."-David G. Gil Brandeis University (from the Foreword)

Author Bio

BRIJ MOHAN is Professor of Social Work and former Dean of the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University. He is founding editor of the Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare and author of several books, including Social Psychiatry in India (1973), Denial of Existence (1987), and The Logic of Social Welfare (1988). His forthcoming books include The World of Oppression: Social Policy and the Human Reality (Praeger, forthcoming) and Echoes of Nothingness.