There has been an unprecented flourishing of new social movements around the world in recent years. This revival has opened our eyes to wider horizons, and strengthened our confidence in the fact that "another world is possible." Giri's book gives inspiring glimpses of this process' - Jean Dreze, Visiting Professor, Delhi School of Economics
A book that gives voice to the unsuing heroes of the worldwide strugle for social justice... and which the huge reservoir of creativity that resides in contemporary social movements' -
John Clammer, Professor of Comparative Culture, Sophia University, Tokyo
This unusual book is about a more humane world in the making. It describes the visions, experiments, struggles and aspirations of several social movements and voluntary organizations from India and other parts of the world which are striving to realize new modes of human development in various fields--education, religion, human rights, tribal development and community development. The author shows how these movements and organizations touch on many key contemporary issues--self-development, reconstitution of public space and reconstruction of government.
The book is structured as a series of dialogues where the participants critique their lives, as also their organizations or movements. The objective of putting together these dialogues is to facilitate a learning process between scholars and activists and across movements and organizations.
Giri, Ananta Kumar: -
Ananta Kumar Giri is currently on the faculty of Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India and has worked and taught in many universities in India and abroad including Free University,
Amsterdam, University of Kentucky, Aalborg University, Denmark and Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg, Germany where he was a Humboldt Fellow (2006-2007). He has an abiding interest in social movements and cultural change, criticism, creativity and contemporary dialectics of transformations, theories of self, culture and society, and ethics in management and development. Dr Giri has written more than a dozen books in Oriya and English. Among his previous books are: Global Transformations: Postmodernity and Beyond (1998), Sameekhya o Purodrusti [Criticism and the Vision of the Future, 1999], Conversations and Transformations: Toward a New Ethics of Self and Society (2002); Building in the Margins of Shacks: The Vision and Projects of Habitat for Humanity (2002); Reflections and Mobilizations: Dialogues with Movements and Voluntary Organizations (2004); Self-development and Social Transformations? The Vision and Practice of the Self-study Mobilization of Swadhyaya (2008); Mochi o Darshanika [The Cobbler and the Philosopher, 2009] Rethinking Social Transformation: Criticism and Creativity at the Turn of the Millennium (editor, 2001); A Moral Critique of Development: In Search of Global Responsibilities (co-editor, 2003); Creative Social Research: Rethinking Theories and Methods (editor, 2004) and Religion of Development, Development of Religion (co-editor, 2004).
