Having recently read a second hand copy of Paul Harrison’s ‘The Third World Tomorrow’ (1980) I was struck by how relevant much of the discussion still seems today, thirty years on. . .

"Meanwhile, the atmosphere had changed in the supposedly advanced countries. In the late sixties and early seventies, with rising unemployment, crime, drugs, terrorism and youth revolt against materialism, the West was losing its arrogant self-confidence. The ecology movement gained ground. The impending oil shortage brought into question the philosophy of eternal growth. For all their increased wealth, people were plainly not getting any happier; indeed in many countries the point seemed to have been reached where further increases in material wealth brought an actual decline in human welfare. The Western model no longer seemed such a desirable goal to aim for. At the same time, as Western growth rates slowed, concern for social justice came to the fore, as the poorer groups aimed to get from redistribution the extra income they could no longer hope for from growth. Trade unions and neighbourhood groups increasingly sought improvements in the quality of life and work as well as purely material advances. Community activists rebelled against the entrenched authority of experts, bureaucrats and ‘representatives’." (Harrison 1980:25)

Harrison’s study was based on 4 years of research between 1974 and 1978 and covers ten countries including India, Sri Lanka, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Ivory Coast, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Bangladesh.

The book covers a period that coincided with the Second Development Decade. Harrison highlights how a new strategy of development began to emerge based not on Western models, but on egalitarian and participatory approaches which seemed to offer a quicker way of eradicating poverty.

There are a number of excellent case studies (some will be familiar, others perhaps less well known) that illustrate the range of social, political and economic development strategies introduced during this period. For those interested in the development of Fair Trade, this book documents some of the broader challenges and opportunities faced by practitioners and campaigners during this period.

Paul Harrison, ‘Third World Tomorrow: A Report from the battlefront in the war against poverty’ (Penguin 1980).