PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Defining Social Development
Approaches to Definition
Towards a Definition
2. The History of Social Development
The Idea of Development
The Critique of the Standard Model
The Origins of Social Development Practice
The Role of the International Agencies
Reactions against Statism and the Renewal of Social Development
Reinvigorating and Redefining Social Development
PART TWO: THE THEORY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
3. Theoretical Debates and the Social Development Process
The Original Condition
The Goals of Social Development
Change, Progress and Intervention
Normative Perspectives
4. Theoretical Principles of Social Development Practice
Social Development Practice
Features of Social Development Practice
The Practice Strategies
Agents, Levels and Organisations
Assesing Practice Outcomes
PART THREE: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE
5. Investments in Skills and Knowledge: The Role of Human Capital
Human Capital in Historical Context
Types of Human Capital
Childcare and Early Childhood Interventions
Formal Education: Schools and Universities
Popular Education, Health and Nutrition
Issues of Human Capital and Social Development
6. Social Capital, Communities and Social Development
Historical Dimensions
Social Capital and Community Development
Activism and Community Action
Community Building and Community Development
Community Economic Development
Community Development and Social Development
7. Promoting Decent Work and Employment: Policies and Investments
The History of Employment and Employment Policy
Key Programmes and Policies
The Macroeconomic Policy Framework
Employment Projects and Programmes
Employment Policy and Decent Work
Challenges and Opportunities
8. Microenterprise, Microfinance and Social Development
The Evolution of Microenterprise and Microfinance
Features of Microenterprise and Microfinance
Types of Microenterprise
Grameen Bank II and the Commercialisation of Microfinance
Microenterprise, Poverty and Social Development
9. Assets and Social Development
Asset Building in Historical Context
The Nature of Assets and Asset Building
Financial Assets for Individuals and Households
Community Development and Community-Owned Assets
National Assets, Trusts and the State
The Role of Assets in Social Development
10. Social Protection as a Social Development Strategy
The History of Social Protection
The Features of Social Protection
Varieties of Social Protection
Poverty Alleviation Innnovations
Social Protection and Development: Challenges and Opportunities
11. Social Planning, Rights and Social Development
Social Planning's Historical Evolution
The Nature of Social Planning
Types of Social Planning
Planning, Targets and Rights
Problems and Prospects of Social Planning
PART FOUR: CONCLUSION
12. The Agenda: Achieving Social Development
Social Development: Towards Institutional Structuralism
Theoretical Roots
Implementing Managed Pluralism
Barrier and Challenges
Opportunity, Power and Struggle

Walking through social development's key theoretical principles and practice strategies, this book shows how it promotes peoples' wellbeing not only in the Global South, where it first emerged, but in the Western countries as well. It covers:

• Definitions and an historical evolution of social development
• Key theoretical debates around social well-being, human rights and social justice
• Social development practice such as human capital interventions, community development and cooperatives, asset building, employment creation policies and programmes, microenterprises and social planning among others
• Future challenges; global poverty, international aid and trade, and global inequality, conflict and injustice.

Complete with international examples drawn from around the world, Social Development: Theory and Practice demonstrates how social development theory translates into practical application.

This book is essential reading for students in development studies, social policy, public administration and social work, and for policymakers and development practitioners everywhere.

James Midgley is the Harry and Riva Specht Professor of Public Social Services at the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley.