Towards a New Poverty Agenda in Asia: Social Policies and Economic Transformation

This book describes the role of social policy in the context of globalization and rapidly changing economies and societies in Asia. It compares the social policy experience of a number of countries with a focus on comparing East Asian (China, Indonesia, Vietnam), and South Asian (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) models and experiences. Over the last decade, particularly since the Asian financial crisis, and globalization, extension of social protection to people affected by crisis has been the main theme in national and international policy alike. In comparing the way social policy has evolved and studying its effects in various countries of Asia, the author provides a wide canvas and succeeds in bringing out similarities as well as differences in the individual experiences, while simultaneously providing explanations. His research brings together three separate streams of study in its scope-politics, sociology and economics-to analyse the ground reality of Asian experiences.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction PART ONE: SOCIAL POLICY IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Why Social Policy Matters Globalization: All Boats Rising or Growing Divides? Demise of the State? International Development and Social Policy PART TWO: SOCIAL POLICY REGIMES Latin America: From Corporatism to Liberalism The Short Era of the Developmental State in Africa East Asia: Social Policy′s Role in Economic Success South Asian Welfarism PART THREE: CONCLUSION A Normative Framework for Social Policy Annexure: Selected Data on Well-Being and Government Spending References Index

About the Author :
Arjan de Haan is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Hague, where he is the Convenor of the MA specialization in Population, Poverty and Social Development. Before joining the ISS in 2009 he worked for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), including three years in India and most recently three years in China. His publications include Reclaiming Social Policy (2007), How the Aid Industry Works (2009), and edited volumes with Ben Rogaly on Labour Mobility and Rural Society (2002) and with Xiaobo Zhang and Shenggen Fan on Narratives of Chinese Economic Reforms (2010).

Review :
A noteworthy publication and a timely need …. This book is rich in data and comprehensive analysis, and should be of interest to academics, policy-makers, researchers, students and anyone interested in social policies and economic transformation in Asia. While providing deep analyses of the subject areas, the book also provides a good basis for those who are new to the subject, giving them the required background information on the role of social policy in enhancing well-being and social inclusion, and in shaping the conditions for market forces and economic growth in this modernizing and globalizing world.This is an excellent publication which should be read by all interested in the subject. Haan’s book qualifies as a thoughtful addition to development research because it provides us with a rights based frame to assess the social policy space, provides some answers but more importantly, makes us engage with the issues and ask more questions. ′Towards A New Poverty Agenda in Asia′ focuses on the need for developing a newer approach towards poverty reduction through transformations in social and economic policies.