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Development and
Well-Being. 2005.
Penerbit UKM: Bangi. ISBN 967-942-730-7 (paperback). 70 pp. RM 15.00.
Abdul Rahman Embong
Underdevelopment
and development have been a major theme in ideological and theoretical debates
as well as a major policy concern in newly independent countries in the last
half century. The field of development studies has been fraught by sharp
contestations between various schools of thought, ranging from modernisation
theory and neoliberalism to different strands of neo-Marxism and statist or
neo-statist theories. In terms of human experiences of development, the
success of East and South East Asia has spurred optimism, and formed the basis
for centering around the developmental role of the state. However, since the
ending of the Cold War and the neoliberal counter-revolution, the role of the
state has been seriously questioned, placing development and development
discourse, viz. its epistemology, theory, development experience as well as
the fate befalling development studies. These issues are addressed in light of
the debates in development studies and the history of development in the
developed as well as developing countries. This is a useful contribution
towards efforts at revitalising development theory and development studies as
scholarly fields and according them their deserved status. It also provides an
intellectual foundation to rededicate and reaffirm development as a historic
enterprise to advance human well-being and dignity. ABDUL
RAHMAN EMBONG, Ph.D., is Professor in the Sociology of Development at the
Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia. Among his other works with UKM Press are Negara Bangsa:
Proses dan Perbahasan (2000), Southeast Asian Middle Classes: Prospects
for Social Change and Democratisation (ed., 2001), and Globalisation,
Culture and Inequalities: In Honour of the Late Ishak Shari (ed., 2004). |
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