Ball and Gready review the development of today's assumptions about human rights and introduce readers to alternative models from history and from today's human rights debate. From the material rights of citizenship to the more abstract rights of the imagination, the authors present a clear overview of today's human rights debate and prompt discussion about alternative models for the future. Splendid series of pocketable guides to issue politics...rigorously clear.' - The Guardian'

How much has life really changed for women during the last decade? Has the womens movement affected women all over the world? Has it changed womens relationships with men? Nikki van der Gaag answers these questions with hard, sometimes disturbing, evidence. Many women have made huge leaps forwardin legal rights, political representation, employment, education, healthbut beneath the surface the statistics are shocking. Vivid testimonies from women and men around the world explain why, especially in this post-feminist age, womens rights are still very much an issue for men and women alike. "She has made a special effort to correct many of the misconceptions and biases related to the feminist movement, to link the liberation of women who constitute half of society to the liberation of men and to the dispossessed majority living on earth." from the introduction by Nawal El Saadawi

"World music" is an awkward phrase. Used to describe the hugely multifaceted nature of a range of typically non-English-language popular music from the world over, it's a tag that throws up as many problems as it does solutions. Louise Gray's The No-Nonsense Guide to World Music attempts to go behind the phrase to explore the reasons for the contemporary interest in world music, who listens to it, and why. Through chapters that focus on specific areas of music, such as rembetika, fado, trance music, and new folk, Gray explores the genres that have emerged from marginalized communities, music in conflict zones, and music as escapism. In this unique guide, which combines the seduction of sound with politics and social issues, the author makes the case for music as a powerful tool able to bring individuals together. Louise Gray is a writer and editor whose work on music and performing arts has appeared in the New Internationalist, The Wire, The Independent on Sunday, the Guardian, and Art Review. She co-edited Sound and the City (British Council, 2007), a book exploring the changing soundworld of China.

“Overseas aid” and “international development” are catch-all terms that cover a multitude of activities—and abuses. This guide explains what “development” actually is—and explores its political and economic roots. It shows what can happen in the name of development and argues for a more organic, social approach with those it seeks to serve as equal partners in the process. Maggie Black has written books for the Oxford University Press, UNICEF, and Oxfam. She has worked as a consultant for UNICEF, Anti-Slavery International, and WaterAid, among others, and has written for the Guardian, The Economist, and BBC World Service.

From coffee farms in Peru and cocoa production in Ghana to jeans manufacture in China and the Banana War of Guatemala and the Caribbean, this fully revised No-Nonsense Guide tells the human story behind the products we consume. Examining the contest between 'free' and 'fair' trade around the world, David Ransom argues that the key question is not whether trade should be regulated or deregulated, but whether it is to be the master or servant of the people.

Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and from economic disaster. He shows how a world food system based on supermarkets and agribusiness corporations is unsustainable and looks at new models of producing healthy food from all over the world.

This is a highly accessible history of terrorism that looks at core examples from the Middle East, instances of state terrorism, and terrorist fringes of political movements. It covers the theories justifying and guiding terrorist acts and the battle of images that accompanies them. Jonathan Barker has taught political science at the universities of Toronto, Arizona, and Dar es Salam. He has researched local politics in Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and India. His other books include Street-Level Democracy and Rural Communities under Stress.

Virtually any commodity can move around the world to satisfy demand, but human beings have far less freedom. Many would-be migrants are forced to risk life and limb traveling illegally. Yet most rich countries are short of workers, have shrinking populations, and need more immigrants. This is a timely guide to a major issue that is never far from the political headlines. Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He has written two books on migration for the International Labor Organization.

This guide questions conventional thinking about wealth and poverty—is the opposite of poverty really wealth, or is it safety and sufficiency? Drawing on experience of poor people all over the world, the author gives voice to those whose views are rarely sought and shows how we all need to live more modestly to make poverty history. Jeremy Seabrook has written more than thirty books (including Travels in the Skin Trade and Children of Other Worlds), and has worked as a teacher, social worker, journalist, lecturer, and playwright. He has contributed to many magazines, including the New Statesman and The Ecologist.

The ending of the Cold War was supposed to increase global security and divert expenditure previously earmarked for arms purchases to more constructive ends. Instead, the arms trade has flourished. Not only conventional arms, but also police and surveillance equipment, have been provided by Western countries seeking to make a profit from conflict in unstable parts of the world. Foreign debt has remained high, development has been held back, and human rights have been systematically abused, all with the connivance of an arms trade prepared to turn a blind eye to the uses to which increasingly sophisticated weaponry is put, so long as hefty profits can be reaped. This disturbing book names the players in the arms trade and charts the impact that it has had on war, human rights, and development. The financial and trade mechanisms that permit the arms trade to continue are revealed, amid sordid tales of bribery and corruption. Gideon Burrows concludes his examination by reviewing the ways in which this trade can be controlled or even abolished.