The Violence of Development
Resource Depletion, Environmental Crises and Human Rights Abuses in Central America
This book examines the failure of 'development' in Central America, where despite billions of dollars of development funding and positive indicators of economic growth, poverty remains entrenched and violence endemic.
Martin Mowforth shows how development is predicated on force and systematic violence, through which the world's most powerful governments, financial institutions and companies punish the global south.
Crucially, the analysis in The Violence of Development comes from many development project case studies and over sixty interviews with a range of people in Central America, including nuns, politicians, NGO representatives, trade unionists, indigenous leaders and human rights defenders. This book is a compelling synthesis of first-hand research and development theory.
Martin Mowforth shows how development is predicated on force and systematic violence, through which the world's most powerful governments, financial institutions and companies punish the global south.
Crucially, the analysis in The Violence of Development comes from many development project case studies and over sixty interviews with a range of people in Central America, including nuns, politicians, NGO representatives, trade unionists, indigenous leaders and human rights defenders. This book is a compelling synthesis of first-hand research and development theory.
Martin Mowforth lecturers at the University of Plymouth in the UK. He is the author of The Violence of Development (Pluto, 2014) and co-author of Tourism and Sustainability: Development, Globalisation and New Tourism in the Third World (2009).
'Distinctively emphasises the violent and destructive effects of the development policies that have been implemented in Central America' - Linda Holland, Director of The Institute for Central American Studies (ICAS)
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Food: For Whose Table?
3. Water: Flowing in the Wrong Direction
4. Energy: Powerful Forces
5. Mining: All That Glitters…
6. Deforestation and Reforestation – Can’t See the Wood for the Trees
7. Industrialisation and Free Trade Treaties: From Slavery to Sweatshop
8. Indigenous Groups: The Fourth World Fights Back
9. The Violence of Development: Human Rights Defenders against the Wall
10. Whither Development?
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Food: For Whose Table?
3. Water: Flowing in the Wrong Direction
4. Energy: Powerful Forces
5. Mining: All That Glitters…
6. Deforestation and Reforestation – Can’t See the Wood for the Trees
7. Industrialisation and Free Trade Treaties: From Slavery to Sweatshop
8. Indigenous Groups: The Fourth World Fights Back
9. The Violence of Development: Human Rights Defenders against the Wall
10. Whither Development?
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Mar 2014
eBook ISBN: 9781783710362
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