This volume raises an important question: Given the fast-changing global economy and the challenges it presents, what is the role for the university as an institution promoting sustainable human development?

The editors begin by outlining the changes associated with the recent wave of globalization, particularly transformations in the relative power of institutions internationally. They analyze the constraints universities face in industrialized and developing countries in promoting sustainable human development. The authors in Part I point out the need for the university to take a role in meeting the challenges of globalization so they examine the effects of the increased market focus of the world economy on several types of nations - low-income (Jamaica), transitional (Slovenia), peripheral to industrialized nations (Ireland) - and on women, a typically disadvantaged group. Contributors to the second half of the volume provide a variety of perspectives and concrete examples that highlight the roles universities can play in fostering development beneficial to communities and nations. Promising initiatives in Malaysia and India and at a university in the United States are discussed as well as the general lessons each offers. Collectively, the authors suggest that, as an institution, the university can and should play an important role in promoting sustainable human development.

Readers interested in economic development, regional studies, globalization and community development will find this book a unique and important contribution.