UNRISD: Publications

Text Size:

UNRISD pursues an active and varied publications programme, which includes in-house and commercially published books, special reports, programme and occasional papers, as well as newsletters on specific events and the Institute’s work in general.

This section provides a catalogue of our publications, and free online access to many of them. We encourage you to subscribe to our free email alerts service to be informed when new publications are posted on this Web site.

Unpublished papers may be accessed via the Research section of the site.

Highlights...

December 2008
The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards "Embedded Liberalism"?
Author: Shahra Razavi

In the last two decades public policies have reflected a drive for accelerated global economic integration ("globalization), associated with greater economic liberalization. The outcomes have been largely disappointing, even in the estimate of their designers. Rural livelihoods have become more insecure, and the expected growth has rarely materialized. Insecurity is also etched into the growth of informal economies across the world. Yet the economic policy agenda that has been so adverse to many people around the world has also provided new opportunities to some social groups, including some low-income women. In response to widespread discontent with the liberalization agenda, more attention is now being given to social policies and governance issues, viewed as necessary if globalization is to be "tamed" and "embedded". The contributors to this volume address key issues and questions such as whether states have the capacity to remedy the social distress unleashed by liberalization in the absence of any major revision of their macroeconomic policies and whether the proposed social reforms can redress gender-based inequalities in access to resource and power.

Read more
September 2008
El movimiento antiglobalización en Bolivia: Procesos globales e iniciativas locales en tiempo de crisis y cambio
Author: Fernando Mayorga, Edurardo Córdova

El propósito de los autores era indagar la articulación de estos temas globales y campañas internacionales en el discurso y acción de movimientos sociales, organizaciones y redes de la sociedad civil boliviana en un proceso de intensos cambios sociales y políticos que se inaugura a principios de esta década, con la denominada guerra del agua en Cochabamba, y adquiere un sesgo peculiar con el arribo de Evo Morales a la Presidencia de la República porque, en su primer año de gestión gubernamental, asumió decisiones que se enlazan con algunas propuestas del movimiento antiglobalización.

Read more
December 2008
Governing Women: Women's Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform
Author: Anne Marie Goetz

Though the proportion of women in national assemblies still barely scrapes 16% on average, the striking outliers-Rwanda with 49% of its assembly female, Argentina with 35%, Liberia and Chile with new women presidents this year-have raised expectations that there is an upward trend in women's representation from which we may expect big changes in the quality of governance. But getting into public office is just the first step in the challenge of creating governance and accountability systems that respond to women's needs and protect the rights. Using case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume, edited by Anne Marie Goetz, consider the conditions for effective connections between women in civil society and women in politics, for the evolution of political party platforms responsive to women's interests, for local government arrangements that enable women to engage effectively, and for accountability mechanisms that answer to women. The book's argument is that good governance from a gender perspective requires more than women in politics. It requires fundamental incentive changes to orient public action and policy to support gender equality.

Read more
August 2008
Conflictos globales, voces locales: Movilización y activismo en clave transnacional
Author: Alejandro Grimson, Sebastián Pereyra

Recent years have witnessed a surge in the number of contestations, networks and transnational organizations collectively referred to as the anti-globalization movement, the alter-globalization movement or the Global Solidarity Movement. They share a common rejection of the processes and consequences associated with neoliberal globalization. This book, edited by Alejandro Grimson and Sebastián Pereyra, begins with a review of the issues around which five contemporary global civil society movements were formed: debt relief; international trade rules and barriers; global taxation; the fight against corruption; and fair trade. With this starting point, the authors present the findings of their research in Argentina: the national-level impacts of the movements’ activities; and the features adopted by these global movements in Argentina to take context-specific developments and history into account.

Read more
April 2008
Social Policies and Private Sector Participation in Water Supply: Beyond Regulation
Author: Naren Prasad

This book, edited by Naren Prasad, demonstrates that when reforming the water sector, policy makers should put in place appropriate social policies in order to mitigate the negative impact of such reform. It does so through an in-depth analysis of the current issues from a historical perspective. It then uses a variety of country studies (Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Great Britain, France, Hungary and Malaysia) to demonstrate how social policies are vital in increasing affordable access to water supply.

Read more