Economic Development and Social Change in Sri Lanka : A Spatial and Policy Analysis/edited by Paul A. Groves. 1996, xviii, 377 p., figs., tables, $40.
Contents: I. Settlement dynamics in Sri Lanka: 1. The development of the Sri Lankan settlement system/B.L. Panditharatna. 2. Urbanization and migration: patterns and processes/Paul A. Groves. 3. Development in Sri Lanka: a model for counter-urbanization policies and planning/Kenneth E. Corey. II. Agriculture in Sri Lanka's development: 4. Agrarian change and agricultural development in Sri Lanka/G.H. Peiris. 5. Meeting the demand for trained agricultural workers in Sri Lanka/James C. Hanson. 6. The contribution of agricultural research centers to Sri Lankan agriculture/Kurt Finsterbusch. III. Communal conflict and Sri Lanka's development: 7. The tyranny of space: a socio-economic analysis of the spatial dimension of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka/Vidyamali Samarasinghe. 8. Ethnic conflict and economic development in Sri Lanka/S.W.R. de A. Samarasinghe. 9. Decentralization and regionalism in the management of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict/K.M. de Silva. 9. On lions, tigers and peacocks: Indo-Lankan ethno-political relations/J.W. Bjorkman. Index.
"This collection of ten original essays by distinguished geographers, historians, sociologists, and political scientists from Sri Lanka and the United States, provides an historical perspective on Sri Lankan economic development focussing on the period between independence from Great Britain (1948) and the late 1980s. They thus provide the necessary background for an understanding of not merely the dramatic economic progress that Sri Lanka has achieved in its nearly half-century of independence but also the historical and institutional roots of the continuing civil strife. The essays can be read as independent and self-contained pieces. Collectively, however, they are organized around three themes: settlement dynamics (settlement systems, urbanization and migration, urban planning); agriculture (agrarian change and the agricultural system, agricultural worker training, and agricultural research centers); and communal conflict (ethnic conflict, political devolution, and Indo-Lankan ethno-political relations)." (jacket)
[Paul A. Groves is on the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland, College Park.]