Book review: Simon Goodwin, Comparative Mental Health Policy—From Institutional to Community Care, London: Sage Publications, 1997, ISBN 0-8039-7729-8 (pbk), 183 pages.
✍ Scribed by Pier Maria Furlan
- Book ID
- 101295459
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 52 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0749-6753
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
is one by a woman peasant leader in Sri Lanka suggesting that the promotion of empowerment by NGO is `imposed empowerment' and local people understand more about power and its use than any outsider. There are several articles examining the potential of partnership building between NGOs and local people.
A series of themes emerge from this collection. These themes include that of the impact of globalization, the eect of the market economy on the attempted eradication of poverty, the importance of gender analysis, the experiences and support for participation and, not surprising, the relationship between aid giver and receiver. The themes are clear. The articulation is more muddied. There is little new insight here. Perhaps, it is important for more grist for the mill for those who are framing aid and development in conceptual and practical terms for the future.
Anthony Giddens (1997), the British sociologist and now Director of the London School of Economics, in a series of lectures, has brilliantly reviewed the present age and its confrontation with the values from the European period of the Enlightenment which emphasized rationality and progress based on scienti®c investigation. He describes the present as a `runaway world' in which business culture is prominent, capitalism is rampant and more information from investigation does not necessarily lead to progress or even a rational approach and/or a solution to problems. In this world, he asks, who will take care of the poor? The above writings implicitly ask the same question. At present, no one seems to have an answer.