Poverty and Progress : An Ecological Model of Economic Development book cover
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Poverty and Progress
An Ecological Model of Economic Development



ISBN 9781032307039
Published July 1, 2022 by Routledge
254 Pages

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Book Description

Originally published in 1973 and now reissued with a new Preface, this striking book challenges the whole structure of our thinking on how societies develop – why some are primitive and others advanced. It demonstrates that the pursuit of progress is not the real driving force behind change. Economic development, it argues, is simply the escape route of societies caught in the ecological pincers of population growth and scarce resources. The author explains the processes by which industrialization is forced upon societies by the progressive scarcity of all land-based resources. The things we think of as the fruits of man's search for progress including increasingly sophisticated technology, labour-saving machinery and the rest - are in fact part of the struggle to keep up with the growing productive task created by ecological pressures. ln this light primitive societies appear less poor than we imagine, and advanced ones less rich.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Cultural Evolution 3. Ecological Equilibrium 4. Disequilibrium and the Stimulus to Development 5. The Structure of Development 6. The English Industrial Revolution 7. Innovation and Technical Consistency 8. American Economic Development 9. Industrial Societies: Production and Consumption.

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Author(s)

Biography

Richard G. Wilkinson

Reviews

‘The work is rich in new perceptions and marked by a capacity for seeing things in their organic interrelations. It is also refreshingly free of jargon…’ The Times Educational Supplement

‘…a highly original thesis on economic development…I do not hesitate to call this book brilliant.’ Journal of Agricultural Economics