Suchergebnisse

V. S. Prasad, Higher Education and Open Distance Learning Trajectory in India: Reflections of an Insider. Hyderabad: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University, 2018, 125 pp. (paperback). ISBN: 978-18-938160-0-4.

Governance, as the term came to be used since the 1980s and the 1990s under the influence of the neo-liberals, is about a minimalist state. It seeks a state rollback on the ground that state is inherently inefficient when compared with the markets. Apart from this, since then other versions have developed, which led one commentator to say that so numerous are the definitions of governance that it has become analytically an intractable construct. This article presents its subject matter in three sections. The first section focuses on the semantics; it underlines the need to distinguish between the conventional and the neo-liberal usages of the term governance. The second section, which forms the bulk of the present article, discusses the five strands that collectively form the complex whole we call governance. The third and the concluding section contrasts the positivism of the neoclassical economics and new institutional economics, from which the neo-liberal governance paradigm is shaped, with the normative orientation of the classical school of administrative thoughts that dominated the discipline of public administration during the first fifty years (the 1887–1937 period).

Alka Dhameja and Sweta Mishra (Eds) (2016), Public Administration: Approaches and Applications. Delhi, Chennai: Pearson, 53(liii)+394 pp. ISBN 978-93-325-5507-5.

The present study makes a critical analysis of the poetry of Langston Hughes, one of the most representative African American poets who had been the leader of the most important literary and political movement in America—Harlem Renaissance. Hughes witnessed the racial discrimination, segregation and prejudice, and as a literary crusader, sang his strong voice against injustice and suppression. He longed for freedom from the shackles of prejudice and segregation to attain equality. Throughout his poetry, Langston Hughes faithfully recorded the pathetic predicament of downtrodden African Americans in America— the richest and the most powerful country of the world—and talked about the dream of freedom of African Americans. He talked about harmony and brotherhood between whites and blacks. The closer reading of Hughes' poetry reveals a feeling of estrangement and exploitation of the Negro community in a racially segregated nation, America. The Negroes lived in an environment where they were subjected to tortures and torments. They lived in fear and apprehension. These people were left in the lurch with no security to their lives and existence. They were clueless about the future and hesitant of what lies ahead. Negroes constantly lived in trepidation and uncertainty, pessimism and gloom, at times placing them in severe unpleasant positions in their lives. But their collective effort to attain freedom made them reach their goal; the freedom from slavery, racism and oppression. The present study will examine the pathetic plight of these humans and their realization of freedom through their constant revolts.