Zimbabwe's severe crisis - and a possible way out of it with a transitional government, and the new era for which it prepares the ground - demands a coherent scholarly response. 'Progress' can be employed as an organising theme across many disciplinary approaches to Zimbabwe's societal devastation. At wider levels too, the concept of progress is fitting. It underpins 'modern', 'liberal' and 'radical' perspectives of development pervading the social sciences and humanities. Yet perceptions of 'progress' are subject increasingly to intensive critical inquiry. Their gruesome end is signified in the political projects of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF. John Gray's Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia indicates this. It is expected that participants will engage directly in debates about how the idea of 'progress' has informed their disciplines - from political science and history to labour and agrarian studies, and then relate these arguments to the Zimbabwean case in general and their research in particular. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

The exact implications of implementing structural adjustment in the social sector in Africa have been hotly disputed and have polarized researchers. Using an empirically-grounded longitudinal study of urban and rural households in Zimbabwe, this report examines the consequences of market-based economic reforms. It focuses on observed changes in the household economy in urban and rural Zimbabwe. The study offers extensive documentation and analysis of shifts in the health status and behavior of the people, as well as changes in health outcomes, especially as they relate to nutritional status and child mortality. The authors make the case for policy reforms that could safeguard the health and well-being of people at a time of continuing economic decline.

Zimbabwe @ 40 is a celebration of the country's four decades of independence and statehood. Forty years is a relatively short period in a nation's life, but it is a formative period: what lessons can be learnt from the successes and failures, challenges and opportunities of the last 40 years? What should be avoided in the next 40? Lloyd Sachikonye and David Kaulemu have assembled a distinguished team of scholars to address these questions, and the book focuses on issues that characterise the country's development trajectory: the linkage between values and institutions; defects in its democracy; the 'curse' of mineral and agricultural endowment; the impact of migration; and the social exclusion of women and young people. The book is written from a depth of commitment to a just, peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe, and represents a 'work in progress', reflecting the continuing research, evaluation and dialogue that each of the authors is engaged in, and signalling the nature and direction of future such work. As the editors conclude: 'None of the chapters are pessimistic, nor are they negative about the country. They are realistic about the gravity of the historical moment the nation faces and the high moral, political and economic mountains we must climb before we can see the Promised Land. Yet they are full of hope - they are convinced that we have not come to the end of history.'

New thinking about the management of public health services has stimulated a widespread movement for health sector reform across the world. This book examines the feasibility and desirability of common reforms in low income countries, based on in-depth case studies in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, and asks whether governments possess or can develop the capacities needed for these new and often complex roles. The book challenges conventional reform wisdom, and argues that reform approaches are needed that are more sensitive to the institutional characteristics of individual countries.

Medicine Across Borders provides an interdisciplinary space to discuss the issue of substandard and falsified medical products. Scholars from social and medical sciences collaboratively contribute insight to improving safe medicine access. The circulation of medicines and medical products on the informal market is well-known. Stakeholders, including governmental agencies and biotechnic enterprises, invest much effort in designing and implementing macrolevel interventions to limit the spread of such products. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of how informal markets function in everyday medicine access and use. This applies to professionals within and beyond academia, state governments, as well as the general public. This book takes an international perspective, examining the issue of substandard and falsified medical products cross nationally. Falsified and poor-quality medicines are prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, but this book also includes research from high-income countries arguing that they too have vulnerabilities, and emphasising the need for vigilance even in well-resourced and well-regulated regimes. Medicine Across Borders: Exploration of Grey Zones provides an interdisciplinary space for a depth and diversity of material that spotlights some contemporary themes hindering access to essential medicines and driving the penetration of substandard and falsified medical products. The authors are drawn from a range of academic disciplines across the social and medical sciences presenting findings from data collected using an eclectic mix of methods and analysis. Surveys, ethnography, narrative case studies, statistical, and thematic analysis are all deployed.

This collection showcases perspectives from established and emerging scholars on the contemporary landscape of multilingualism in Southern Africa. The book explores the broader impact of colonialism and neocolonialism on language policies and practices, drawing on case studies from such countries as Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The volume is organised thematically around four different sections, looking at issues around linguistic diversity across different sectors including contemporary debates on African languages, language education, youth languages and language documentation. Taken together, the collection seeks to offer readers with a more nuanced understanding of fundamental issues in the development of multilingualism across different countries in Southern Africa today and encourage future research on multilingualism in Africa more broadly. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, sociolinguistics, language policies, language education and African studies.