World Development today is a contested concept, and one that provokes debate across the board. Culture Wars is bringing together reviews of books and the arts, to engage with everything from globalisation to slum cities, from consumerism to international aid.

Questions dealt with throughout these reviews include: following massive economic growth from China and India, are we seeing a new distribution of power on the world stage? How should we respond to the perceived costs of development such as global warming and the erosion of communities? And what are the best models for growth?

Real dogs

Slumdog Millionaire (2008), directed by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan

CW’s second review of the box office smash Slumdog Millionaire argues it is neither Bollywood nor completely realist, yet holds uncomfortable truths about slum life.

Geregtigheid in a Rainbow Nation

Magenta, by Denis Beckett (University of Natal Press)

Beckett’s characters speak Seffricanese, the language of Josi or Joburg as the locals call their city – an exuberant mix of English peppered with popular phrases and slang words from Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho.

A thirst for the ‘other’

Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery, London

Amar Kanwar’s video installation ‘The Lightning Testimonies’ inhabits its own room, and thus somewhat shifts the viewer away from the hectoring curatorial excess of the exhibition as a whole.

Tout moun se moun?

Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the politics of containment, by Peter Hallward (Verso)

This contrasts the objectives of ‘spreading democracy’ with the basic principle of Aristide’s politics, the slogan, tout moun se moun (every person is a person).

The rural Real and the city dweller

A Londoni férfi [The Man from London] (2007), directed by Béla Tarr / Sátántangó [Satan's Tango] (1994), directed by Béla Tarr

Where we are used to romanticised images of the countryside and are force fed the moral righteousness of returning to serfdom to grow sustainable, organic produce, Tarr’s vision, on the other hand, is horrific. Yet, deep in our consciousness, we know that the rural life is our origin.

Slam-Dunk the Funk - Defending Progress in the Age of Environmentalism

A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008

This essay defends the material basis of progress and the right of developing countries to undergo development, and finally argues that material development offers the only way to avoid the environmental disasters that we are constantly warned are just around the corner.

Capitalism, the financial crisis, and us

A keynote essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008

In order to develop a more incisive critique of contemporary society, it is necessary to consider not only the particular nuances of the financial economy, but also the broader historical context, and the relationship between capitalism and wider social and political forces.

A close-up on poverty

Wendy and Lucy (2008), directed by Kelly Reichardt / Parque vía (2008), directed by Enrique Rivero / A Zona [Uprise] (2008), directed by Sandro Aguilar

What we see is too serene, too un-dramatic at first glance, leading us to ignore the need to understand. The ordinary image, blank and shapeless, haunts us, for we are forced to see desperation deep inside us, rather than the idea of poverty we have in our collective imagination.

Synthetic fallacy - The Clothes on their Backs, Man Booker Shortlist 2008

The Clothes on their Backs, by Linda Grant (Virago Press)

Narrative accoutrements – Vivien’s love interest, for example – don’t entirely convince and, in this case, seem thrown in merely as tools to craft the novel’s climax. Irritating, too, is Grant’s habitual ticking off of London landmarks like a tourist’s itinerary, a common conceit with novels set in the city, but one no less annoying for its frequency.

Mass politics and the decline of free trade

Free Trade Nation: commerce, consumption and civil society in modern Britain, by Frank Trentmann (OUP)

Trentmann argues, somewhat predictably, that the introduction of conscription under Lloyd George, and particularly the management of the allied navies, sounded the death knell for Free Trade.

The illogical end of multiculturalism

Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in conflict, by S Mackey (WW Norton)

Rather than seeing the problems of those countries as a result of their immediate circumstances and in particular their relationship to modernity, many writers go searching for answers in the depths of history. It has become almost obligatory for every book about Middle Eastern politics to recount tales from the early years of Islam and conclude they have an immediate presence in the mind of modern-day Arabs.

The politics of development

How rich countries got rich...and why poor countries stay poor, by Erik Reinert (Constable); Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World, by Ha-Joon Chang (Random House)

Stuart Simpson reviews two books that made a splash last year, in a retrospective of the debate they provoked over free trade versus state-led development, and argues that far from being the exclusive terrain of experts, the issue of economic growth is one to be considered by society as a whole.

Chinese modernity - a very short introduction

Modern China: a very short introduction by Rana Mitter (OUP)

Is China modern? The difficulty is in deciding the criteria. The beginning of the book dealt with a vague mix of secularism, individualism, self-awareness and equality, but Mitter is aware it’s unsatisfactory to equate modernity with ‘the West’.

The Human Rights Olympics? - China’s Great Leap

China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges, edited by Minky Worden (Seven Stories Press)

Crucially, the improvement in information dissemination had nothing to do with the Olympics or human rights campaigners, and all to do with technological advancements. The ownership of mobile phones and access to the internet was made possible through economic gains.

In praise of unsustainability

The Enemies of Progress: Dangers of Sustainability, by Austin Williams (Imprint Academic)

The book uses a wealth of quotes to show that sustainabilism is not a niche political movement, but a mainstream ideology. The woman who recycles her own faeces shares a view of the world with Gordon Brown, David Cameron, the UN, and even the upper ranks of the IMF and the World Bank.