prospects for healthy, active, and prosperous aging in Europe and Central Asia
Compared to other world regions, Europe is by far the oldest. Moreover, aging is set to accelerate further over the next decades, as large cohorts turn old. The objective of this report is to investigate what stands in the way of reaping the full benefits of increased longevity in the region-that is, longer lives and potentially prolonged payoffs ......
The world economy is not what it used to be twenty years ago. For most of the 20th century, the world economy was characterised by developed (North) countries acting as 'center' to a 'periphery' of developing (South) countries. However, the recent rise of developing economies suggests the need to go beyond this North-South dichotomy. This tectonic ......
This widely adopted text starts with the fundamentals--what is economic growth, what is development, and what is the relationship between these two concepts? The authors examine orthodox theories of growth grounded in different schools of economics (classical, neoclassical, Keynesian, neoliberal) before considering critical alternatives (Marxist, ......
Every policy relies on explicit or implicit assumptions about how people make choices. Those assumptions typically rest on an idealised model of how people think, rather than an understanding of how everyday thinking actually works. This year's World Development Report argues that a more realistic account of decision-making and behaviour will make ......
"This is a splendid book that dispels myths about 'identity' and presents a cultural-materialist case for the study of such keywords and their preoccupations under the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism." - Professor Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University 'Identity', particularly as it is elaborated in the associated categories of 'personal' and 'social' identity, is a relatively novel concept in western thought, politics and culture. The explosion of interest in the notion of identity across popular, political and academic domains of practice since the 1960s does not represent the simple popularisation of an older term, as is widely assumed, but rather, the invention of an idea. Identity and Capitalism explores the emergence and evolution of the idea of identity in the cultural, political and social contexts of contemporary capitalist societies. Against the common supposition that identity always mattered, this book shows that what we now think of routinely as 'personal identity' actually only emerged with the explosion of consumption in the late-twentieth century. It also makes the case that what we now think of as different social and political 'identities' only came to be framed as such with the emergence of identity politics and new social movements in the political landscapes of capitalist societies in the 60s and 70s. Marie Moran provides an important new exploration of the articulation of the idea of identity to the social logic of capitalism, from the 'organised capitalism' of the mid-twentieth century, up to and including the neoliberal capitalism that prevails today. Drawing on the work of Raymond Williams, the cultural materialist approach developed here provides an original means of addressing the political debates about the value of identity in contemporary capitalist societies.
The Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015 will, for the first time, monitor and report on the World Bank Group's twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity, while continuing to track progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This Global Monitoring Report examines how a select set of policies in the ......
"This is a splendid book that dispels myths about 'identity' and presents a cultural-materialist case for the study of such keywords and their preoccupations under the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism." - Professor Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University 'Identity', particularly as it is elaborated in the associated categories of 'personal' and 'social' identity, is a relatively novel concept in western thought, politics and culture. The explosion of interest in the notion of identity across popular, political and academic domains of practice since the 1960s does not represent the simple popularisation of an older term, as is widely assumed, but rather, the invention of an idea. Identity and Capitalism explores the emergence and evolution of the idea of identity in the cultural, political and social contexts of contemporary capitalist societies. Against the common supposition that identity always mattered, this book shows that what we now think of routinely as 'personal identity' actually only emerged with the explosion of consumption in the late-twentieth century. It also makes the case that what we now think of as different social and political 'identities' only came to be framed as such with the emergence of identity politics and new social movements in the political landscapes of capitalist societies in the 60s and 70s. Marie Moran provides an important new exploration of the articulation of the idea of identity to the social logic of capitalism, from the 'organised capitalism' of the mid-twentieth century, up to and including the neoliberal capitalism that prevails today. Drawing on the work of Raymond Williams, the cultural materialist approach developed here provides an original means of addressing the political debates about the value of identity in contemporary capitalist societies.
toward efficient, inclusive, and sustainable urbanization
In the last 30 years, China's record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labour, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanisation, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, ......