Kumarian Press, Inc.

Kumarian Press was founded in 1977 to respond to the expressed need for books on international development and management that were geared to the needs of developing countries. Kumarian's range of topics has expanded to include issues of globalization, peace and conflict resolution, the environment, women and gender, NGOs, civil society, microfinance, health, and the interaction between the richer and poorer societies. The Press has been pioneers in publishing books emphasizing the people-centered approach to development.
As an independent press, Kumarian enjoys freedom from outside influences in choosing topics and authors. Kumerian is able to publish books, written from a radical perspective, which are informative, challenging, and provocative. They address 21st Century issues and are designed to motivate readers to be part of a critical mass working to bring about a world that works for all.
Kumarian books are for use by students and professors, professional organizations and consultants as well as the general reader who wishes to be kept up-to-date on vital issues affecting the future of humanity.

DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS: Thailand and Cambodia
Following are some recent examples of the extensive Kumerian Press list of titles. For a full catalogue of their publications, please contact Orchid Press. Please note that not all Kumerian titles are in stock in Thailand at all times - please contact Orchid Press for your requirements and we will advise availability.

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Buddhism At Work
by George D. Bond
2004, 192 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-176-9 $21.95

In one of the world's most inspirational grassroots-development stories, Buddhism at Work outlines the vision and evolution of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, as its members have sought to engage and awaken society with Buddhist and Gandhian ideals.
Now an international movement and NGO, Sarvodaya calls for individuals and groups to achieve non-violent social transformation through cooperative work. Its vision and its voice are poised to contribute to the emerging global dialogue on peace, social justice, and community development. Buddhism at Work embraces a new hope for humanity.

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Creating a Better World
Interpreting Global Civil Society
edited by Rupert Taylor
2004, 224 pp., softbound 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-188-2 $24.95

The term "global civil society" has become a catchphrase of our times. But efforts to define and interpret what global civil society actually is have led to ambiguity and dispute. This major work of scholarship and advocacy pierces through the generalizations and debates. It presents cogent examples of groups within civil society-from the Seattle and Genoa protesters to transnational grassroots movements, such as Slum/Shack Dwellers International-that are creatively meeting the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly interconnected world.
The contributors offer clarity and the hope that another world is possible-one in which civil society's global networks can effectively create a free, fair, and just global order. Scholars, students, and anyone interested in understanding new forces influencing contemporary world politics will want to have this book on their shelves.

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Development Brokers and Translators
The Ethnography of Aid and Agencies
edited by David Lewis & David Mosse
2006, 288 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-217-X $25.95

The success of any international development agency depends on an understanding of the ways in which a community and individuals relate to ideas and resources. David Lewis and David Mosse have brought together a number of anthropologists engaged in development research to show how ethnography can be an indispensable tool for understanding these complex and dynamic relationships.
The world that this ethnography of development reveals does not divide neatly into the developers and the developed, perpetrators and victims, domination and resistance, or the incompatible rationalities of scientific and indigenous knowledge. It is a world in which interests and practices are always hybrids, where the realms of reason and the real world are not neatly separate, and in which rational policy representations frequently conceal the messiness of practice that precedes the ideas and technologies of development.
The wealth of new ideas offered in this collection will be especially valuable to graduate students in anthropology and development studies, but also to undergraduates and those working in development organizations who wish to run more effective operations on every level.

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Development NGOs and Labor Unions
Terms of Engagement
edited by Alan Leather & Deborah Eade
2005, 400 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-196-3 $25.95

Development NGOs and labor unions have much to gain from collaborating in the pursuit of a social justice and rights agenda, yet the two sectors have traditionally tended to operate independently of one another. The "another world is possible" movement; a continuing series of anti-globalization protests; and conflicting views on core labor standards, corporate codes of conduct, and the WTO have placed civil society organizations at the center of public debates on global governance.
While NGOs and unions will naturally pursue diverse strategies and tactics, neither sector can afford to go it alone. The essays collected in this volume elucidate some of the underlying tensions between trade unions and NGOs and illustrate the scope for constructive and respectful dialogue-and potential partnership-between them.

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Development with Women
edited by Deborah Eade, introduced by Dorienne Rowan-Campbell
1999, 196 pp., softbound, 21.5 x 14 cm.
ISBN 0-85598-419-8 $20.95

Many practitioners and thinkers have tried to make women "matter" in development. However, women-focused approaches have often sought to address women's needs outside the wider social contexts in which they live. As a result, they have been perhaps more damaging than earlier "gender-blind" efforts that simply ignored women's specific concerns.
Dorienne Rowan-Campbell introduces papers on issues such as mainstreaming versus specialization, methodologies for incorporating gender analysis into planning and evaluation, the limitations of gender training, the unintended impacts of women-focused credit programs, and how institutional policies to promote gender equity are often tacitly undermined by patriarchal interests.

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Development, Women, and War:
Feminist Perspectives
edited and introduced by Haleh Afshar and Deborah Eade
2003, 256 pp., softbound, 21.5 x 14 cm.
ISBN 0-85598-487-2 $25.95

Policy makers, practitioners, and academics discuss long-running conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. They highlight the shared experiences of women, and their potential to contribute both to war and to peace. Chapters survey feminist approaches to peace building and conflict resolution, and present concrete policy measures to achieve these ends. Underlying all the essays in this volume is a sense of the need to understand gendered power relations and the dynamics of social change.

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The Economic Life of Refugees
by Karen Jacobsen
2005, 176 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-204-8 $22.95

Popular images of refugees depict thousands of traumatized people pouring across borders, congregating in camps where relief agencies try to meet their health and food needs in and outside camps. This book explores the economic life of refugees in protracted situations in a variety of settings: in camps, in urban areas and in third countries in the West.
In The Economic Life of Refugees, Karen Jacobsen stresses that refugees fleeing violence and persecution are economic actors. She explores how some of the innovative ideas influencing migration theory can be applied to the study of refugees, and the ways in which humanitarian programs can support their efforts to pursue their livelihoods.
This book is intended for undergraduates and graduate students, practitioners in the field, libraries, NGOs and anyone seeking to learn more about understanding refugees and the response of organizations trying to help them. Written with elegance and passion, The Economic Life of Refugees is destined to be a classic work of activism as well as social science.

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Global Civil Society (Vol. II)
Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector
by Lester M. Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and Associates
2004, 368 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-184-X $39.95

Volume Two of Global Civil Society builds on the comprehensive overview of the scope, size, composition, and financing of the nonprofit, or civil society, sector established in Volume One. This book is sure to become a crucial source of information on the nonprofit world. A key reference tool for libraries, the book will also be essential reading for nonprofit and foundation leaders, international development agency officials, and public policy makers.

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Globalization and Social Exclusion
A Transformationalist Perspective
by Ronaldo Munck
2004, 208 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-192-0 $19.95

We inhabit a world of consequences and butterfly effects. When global economies integrate, what disintegrates as a result? The answer, Ronaldo Munck contends, is social equality. This is the first book to view globalization through the lens of social exclusion--defined as all the ways in which people are prevented from obtaining the necessities of life.
To illustrate how globalization deepens the existing inequities of race, place, gender, and class, in both the global North and South, the author highlights disparities in living conditions; the feminization of poverty and the global sex trade; the effects of racism, migration, and multiculturalism; and the formation and political manifestations of social class.
He boldly develops a politics and ethics of transformation to move us beyond social exclusion-even beyond mere social inclusion. He provides us with the tools to transform society from within, creating a more democratic and just global order.

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The Hidden Assembly Line
Gender Dynamics of Subcontracted Work in a Global Economy
edited by Radhika Balakrishnan
312 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-139-4 $21.95

The Hidden Assembly Line studies the impact of subcontracted work in different national settings, linking it to the global economy and to changes in women's financial security and work opportunities. The contributors debate the implications for women's empowerment and for the changing social relations of production.
This book contains clear, practical information for scholars, students and researchers interested in women's roles regarding economic development and the globalization of the world economy.

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Progress and the World's Women 2005:
Women, Work, and Poverty
by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
2005, 112 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-932827-26-9 $17.95

Progress of the World's Women 2005 marks the fifth anniversary of the U.N. Millennium Declaration and the tenth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. It argues that unless government and policymakers pay more attention to employment and its links to poverty, the campaign to make poverty history will not succeed, and the hope for gender equality will founder on women's growing economic insecurity.
Women, Work, and Poverty makes the case for an increased focus on women's informal employment as a key pathway to reducing poverty and strengthening women's economic security. It provides the available data on the size and composition of the informal economy and compares national data on average earnings and poverty risk across different segments of the informal and formal workforces in six developing countries and one developed country to show the links between employment, gender, and poverty.
This report can and should be used as a call to action to help activists, policymakers, governments, and the international community "make poverty history."

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Protecting the Future
HIV Prevention, Care and Support Among Displaced and War-Affected Populations
by Wendy Holmes
2003, 240 pp., softbound, 28 x 21.5 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-162-9 $29.95

The explosion of the HIV epidemic presents a challenge to relief agencies working with displaced and war-affected communities. Based on work done by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), this book shows how relief agencies, usually present during both the crisis and post-emergency phases, can work with refugees and local people to minimize further spread of HIV and provide care and support to those affected.
The manual is complete with training exercises, activities for engaging the refugee population in HIV prevention work, and references for HIV resources. Protecting the Future is useful not only for humanitarian workers, but for any health professional establishing HIV programs in resource-poor settings.

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Reducing Poverty, Building Peace
by Coralie Bryant and Christina Kappaz
572 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-205-6 $24.95

Poverty and peace, and the relationships between them, are the central challenges for our times. Arguing that reducing poverty is not only possible, but can also build opportunities for peace, Coralie Bryant and Christina Kappaz help form the policy debate on the role of poverty reduction in international society. Oftentimes poverty is looked at only in specific countries, or is focused on developing countries. Reducing Poverty, Building Peace looks at poverty from both sides of the spectrum: domestic and global, rich and poor countries.
The second half of the book focuses on what has been learned about effectiveness, especially through participatory development, and more commitment to implementation in order to gain results. This book combines a discussion of theoretical concepts with attention to policies, programs, and projects and the ways they might be designed and implemented to reduce poverty. Since there has been progress in reducing poverty, the challenge now is to learn from this experience about what works and to build political will to achieve this possible goal.

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Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding
Coming Of Age In Inner Mongolia
by Lisa Schirch
2004, 224 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-194-7 $25.95

Conflict is dramatic. In theater, literature, story telling, and news reporting, it is a powerful mechanism that draws attention, heightens the senses and evokes emotion. Schirch argues that peacebuilding has the potential to do just the same.
Examples of peacebuilding often center on the serious, rational negotiations and formal problem-solving efforts in conflict situations. Schirch argues, though, that what truly bonds adversaries and helps achieve peace are the symbolic, non-verbal ritual acts--shaking hands, sharing a meal, showing a photograph of a loved one. Yet these are often overlooked as deliberate components of peace negotiations.
Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding underscores the importance of incorporating symbolic tools, including ritual, into traditional approaches to conflict. Ritual assists in solving complex, deep-rooted conflicts, and helps to confirm and transform worldviews, identities, and relationships. With theories and language to explain the symbolic dimensions of conflict, this text will be useful to scholars and practitioners active in the diverse field of peacebuilding.

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Southern Exposure:
International Development and the Global South in the Twenty-First Century
by Barbara P. Thomas-Slayter
2003, 384 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-174-2 $25.95

Winner of 2005 CHOICE Award!

In this era of rapid globalization, increasing poverty and inequality are creating fertile fields for anger, despair, and violence. This introductory text addresses key political and economic challenges facing Southern countries as they engage with the global system. Through the eyes of ordinary people in the Global South, such as small farmers in Kenya and garment workers in Bangladesh, Thomas-Slayter identifies critical issues that will shape twenty-first century development.

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Transnational Civil Society
An Introduction
edited by Srilatha Batliwala and L. David Brown
2006 288 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-210-2 $25.95

Launched at the ISTR 7th International Conference; "Civil Society and Human Security: Raum Jai", Bangkok, Thailand, July 2006.

The growing impact of cross-border civil society networks and campaigns on global policy has made transnational civil society an increasingly important phenomenon. Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction provides a clear and accessible introduction to the history, characteristics, and achievements of influential transnational civil society networks, coalitions, and movements.
Editors Srilatha Batliwala and L. David Brown provide an in-depth analysis of the forces that have shaped transnational activism: globalism, economic and political power structures, and cross-border organization by non-state actors. Important transnational movements that have shaped our world-labor, environment, human rights, women's rights, peace, and economic justice-are also described and analyzed. The contributors are globally experienced activist-scholars and reflective practitioners discussing both developing and industrialized countries.
For students, practitioners, and activists alike, Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction offers comprehensible descriptions of transnational initiatives working toward effective and sustainable solutions to some of the critical challenges facing our world.

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War's Offensive on Women:
The Humanitarian Challenge in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan
by Nury Vittachi
2000, 176 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-117-3 $19.95

War's Offensive on Women contends that humanitarian groups' attempts to provide assistance and protection for women will fall short unless they make women major actors in such efforts. Mertus shows how human rights laws are beginning to address gender-based violence, and how agencies can respond to women's needs in conflict and post-conflict settings. The book is of wide interest to humanitarian and human rights practitioners, policymakers, and students alike.

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Women and the Politics of Place
by Wendy Harcourt and Arturo Escobar
2005, 232 pp., softbound, 23 x 15 cm.
ISBN 1-56549-207-2 $24.95

Launched at the AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development, Bangkok, Thailand, October 2005.

In Women and the Politics of Place, Wendy Harcourt and Arturo Escobar analyze women's economic and social justice movements by challenging traditional views. The authors reveal how an interrelated set of transformations around body, environment, and the economy factors into place-based practices of women and how these provide alternative ways of advancement in these mobilizations.
The book develops a conceptual framework based on the most current debates in anthropology, geography, ecology, feminist, and development studies. This guides academics, activists, and policymakers toward an understanding of how women are politically negotiating globalization.
Also featured are the experiences of women working to defend their homelands on isses such as reproductive rights, land and community, rural and urban environments, and global capital. Written for wide use by academics, students, and practitioners, Women and the Politics of Place bridges the division between academic and activist knowledge with an original analysis of global feminist issues.

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World Disasters Report 2005:
Focus on Information in Disasters
edited by Jonathan Walte
2005, 246 pp., softbound, 24.5 x 18.5 cm.
ISBN 92-9139-109-3 $30.00

People need information as much as water, food, medicine or shelter. Information can save lives, livelihoods and resources. It may be the only form of disaster preparedness that the most vulnerable can afford. The right kind of information leads to a deeper understanding of needs and ways to respond. The wrong information can lead to inappropriate, even dangerous interventions.
Information bestows power. Lack of information can make people victims of disaster. Do aid organizations use information to accumulate power for themselves or to empower others? The report calls on agencies to focus less on gathering information for their own needs and more on exchanging information with the people they seek to support.
Published annually since 1993, the World Disasters Report brings together the latest trends, facts and analysis of contemporary crises-whether "natural" or human-made, quick-onset or chronic.