Foreword, Kay Hoffman
Part I: Background Information
Chapter 1: Introduction: Chathapuram S. Ramanathan and Srilatha
Juvva
Chapter 2: Religious, Spiritual Perspectives, and Development, Pius
V Thomas, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, and Pravina Ramanathan
Part II: Poverty and Hunger
Chapter 3: Ending Poverty and Hunger: The Global Pursuit of Human
Dignity, Neil Renwick
Part III: Empowering Women
Chapter 4: Advancing Social Commitment towards Advancing Women in
India and Globally, Subhabrata Dutta, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan,
and Srilatha Juvva
Chapter 5: Domestic Violence in the Asian American Community and
Islamic Women, Shreya Bhandari and Khadija Khaja
Part IV: Health Issues
Chapter 6: Challenges Confronting Sustainable Development Goals:
Learnings from Millennium Development Goals, Ruchi Sinha
Chapter 7: People and Disability: Strengths and Challenges,
Srilatha Juvva, Prerna Sharma, and Pravina Ramanathan
Part V: Disaster Management
Chapter 8: Culture and its Relevance in Provision of Psychosocial
Support for Survivors of Disasters, Kasi Sekar, Elangovan Aravind
Raj, Srilatha Juvva, and Chathapuram S. Ramanathan
Chapter 9: Public-Private-NGO partnership and Tsunami Relief,
Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, Srilatha Juvva, and Mizanur Miah
Part VI: Education
Chapter 10: Universal Education and Development, Rosemary J.
Link
Part VII: Future Considerations
Chapter 11: Concluding Remarks and Futuristic Considerations:
Progress, Development, and Peace, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan and
Subhabrata Dutta
Chathapuram S. Ramanathan is chief executive of Human Service
Enterprises.
Srilatha Juvva is professor of social work at the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences.
Subhabrata Dutta is professor and head of the Department of Social
Work and dean of students’ welfare at Assam University.
Khadija Khaja is associate professor at Indiana University's School
of Social Work.
This book goes far in presenting wide-ranging political, economic,
social, cultural, and religious differences among nations for
social work readers around the world. The authors assert that the
wisdom or truth of the individual—and therefore motivating factor
for social justice—is often a spiritual one. “Spirituality” is
writ large here, from organized religions to a mindful connection
with self, others, and the world. The book is equally valuable to
global western and northern social workers in that it challenges
not only the terms “first-world” and “third-world,” but also the
idea of degree of a country’s “development.” The authors argue that
countries are continuously creating their states, economies and
civil societies within their cultures and histories and there is no
single desired “developed” endpoint. In fact, the typical
development measures of Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) rely heavily on measures of the market.
These minimize the value of civil society and progressive state
policies evident in the Social Progress Index (SPI) such as
ecosystem sustainability, access to healthcare and education,
gender equality, attitudes toward immigrants and minorities,
religious freedom, and nutrition measures. Understanding
“development” in this way would provide a rather different
assessment of the global stage. This book is ambitious and creates
an important theoretical foundation on which to build the next
installment regarding global development and its relation to
spirituality.
*Jessica Toft, University of St. Thomas*
The editors and contributors to this path-breaking book offer new
and refreshing insights into the complex relationship between
spirituality, culture and development. Social workers everywhere
will benefit from the book’s insightful analysis. It deserves to be
widely read.
*James Midgley, University of California, Berkeley*
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