| Towards Effective Social Interventions | ||||||
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TITLE
: Institutional Development in Social Interventions AUTHOR : Vijay Padaki and Manjulika Vaz PUBLISHED BY : Sage Publications YEAR OF PUBLICATION : 2003 PRICE : Rs.295 PAGES : 238 |
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E ffectiveness of a single group or organization in development interventions is no doubt a prerequisite, but a single organization cannot sufficiently provide appropriate conditions for development on its own. Most Social problems have multiple causes and hence need a multi-agency approach to the solution per se. With this backdrop, the latest book of SAGE Publications – Institutional Development in Social Interventions - tries to explore both the concept and application of Institutional Development from multiple perspectives.The book aims to assist institutional development in social interventions with the premise that it is an important but little understood process. The authors observe that a successful development intervention requires sustainability which, in turn, requires local social institutions. A social institution can be regarded as the facility that holds together groups and organizations for collaborative transactions. In other words, it calls for an organization of organizations. A historical tracing of
development programmes in post independence India depicts that the
intervention strategy of most development agencies The authors unfold that development initiatives focus on the obvious and immediate task of achieving the operational target. To achieve this, development programs emphasize and even succeed in introducing a new kind of behaviour and a new organizational entity to support this new behaviour but fail to ensure the sustenance of the new behaviour or new organization, because of the insensitivity regarding the significance of an institutional frame over and above the organization. Development initiatives rarely take cognizance of the need to nurture appropriate social institutions. Overall, the book brings to focus a number of alternative approaches to development interventions, their funding and management. It brings forward a judicious blend of theory and practice. The book argues for the need to embark upon a journey towards the formation of a recognizable body of knowledge to give us a reliable methodology for institutional development. This document is an important work that goes beyond conventional theories of studying development interventions. It brings to focus a new dimension in Institutional Development that is studying the reality of ‘interactivity’ in trans-organizational processes. This book will be widely welcomed by researchers, practitioners and others engaged in development interventions. qReviewed by Amrita Singh |
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Village
Revival The revival of the village is possible only when it is no more exploited. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry is maintained, there would be no objection to village using even the modern machines and tools that they can make and can afford to use. Only they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others. ( Harijan, 29-08-'36 ) M K GANDHI
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has moved away from ‘deliveries’ to ‘community organization’ as an
objective in itself. The methodology employed in community
organization is derived from the field of Organizational
Development. However, the authors maintain that these methods are
not effective at handling a higher system level of the organization
like the inter-group, inter-organization and inter-community level
of social function – where collaborative behaviour is crucial for
the sustainability of the
development process. This, the author emphasizes, requires
structures and processes at higher system level of organization -
the social institution.