Poverty, progress and development

Despite the tremendous advances in technology in our century, the majority of nations are still trapped in poverty, while in advanced industrial countries, economic growth has marginalized or even excluded such vulnerable groups as the young, the elderly, women and ethnic minorities.
The studies of poverty, progress and development in this volume, by a distinguished international roster of authors and researchers, aim to increase knowledge of the social mechanisms of pauperization, marginalization, and the exclusion of certain categories of society; to bring to light the potential and creative role of socio-cultural, intellectual, ethical, moral and spiritual values in progress and the development process; and to examine the links and contradictions between development and progress in order to propose ways of reducing social inequalities.
The first part of the volume approaches the multi-dimensional problems of progress and poverty from theoretical and philosophical points of view to facilitate a better understanding of the problems of development. The second part of the volume consists of concrete national experiences from India, China, Africa, Brazil and Egypt, and reflections on the fight against poverty and the phenomena of pauperization and misdirected development. There are many examples of development strategies applied without regard to the history and culture of countries, in the name of integrated global development. This worrying phenomenon is on the increase-and this volume is rich in important lessons to be learned.