This essay attempts to look beyond the long-standing qualitative-quantitative tug of war in studying society. It takes as an example one approach, the case study, that often acts as a bridge between the positivist and interpretive epistemological positions. Arguing the case for more openness in...

This paper focuses on homebased women workers and discusses the specific issues of their vulnerability as women and as workers, in the framework of their basic citizenship right to economic and social justice and equality. The class of more privileged educated professionals who might be working...

Many NGOs occupy a space between public and private sector organisations, and the papers in this special issue demonstrate that the mechanisms required for effective accountability by these NGOs are usually be different to mechanisms suited to discharging the accountability duties of other forms...

Many popular social programmes have limited coverage among households at the very bottom of the income and wealth distribution. If a programme reaches the poor, but neglects the destitute, the (pre-programme) income distribution of participants and non-participants will cross. We are interested...

This paper argues that poverty originates in the structural injustices of a social order which incapacitates the poor from participating in the growth generating sectors of the economy and leaves them captives in the so called informal sector, characterized by low productivity and low earning...

Research Studies on Rice/Paddy initiated by Hivos in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and The Netherlands looked at several aspects related to ecological/environmental, economic, institutional, social/gender dimensions of rice production, trade and consumption. The sharing of findings from these...

Despite the general consensus that microfinance does not reach the poorest; recent evidence suggests that nearly 15% of microfinance clients in Bangladesh are among the poorest. It is from the realization that even within the existing microfinance membership of BRAC, there is a significant...

A review of the progress and impact of the overall strategy for scaling up the SHG Bank Linkage Programme over the last decade. [Paper presented at the Seminar on SHG-bank Linkage Programme at New Delhi on 25th and 26th November 2002]

This paper examines three software and/or information technology enabled services (ITES) industries—two in the early stages of development (in the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and the Philippines) and one mature one (in India). Being latecomers to offshoring work, the PRC and...

This paper uses a large panel database to investigate the determinants of forest clearing in Indonesian kabupatens since 2005. The study incorporates short-run changes in prices and demand for palm oil and wood products, as well as the exchange rate, the real interest rate, land-use zoning,...