A l'intersection de l'économie agricole et de l'économie du développement, ce livre a pour ambition de redonner aux décideurs actuels et futurs le goût de la réflexion et la jubilation du doute, ainsi qu'aux étudiants, aux enseignants et aux chercheurs un guide dans ce gigantesque labyrinthe de la littérature économique sur la question de la ruralité dans le changement social. Il aborde, dans une tonalité théorique, les problèmes agricoles et alimentaires mondiaux et propose les outils pour l'analyse de fond des bouleversements à l'oeuvre dans les économies nationales, riches et pauvres, des continents africain, américain, asiatique et européen. Il éclaire la signification des formidables confrontations mondiales qu'il s'agisse du GATT, de la Politique Agricole Commune de l'Europe, ou des relations Nord-Sud. En fournissant en langue française un panorama critique du corpus théorique international disponible sur la croissance agricole, cet ouvrage constitue un instrument de travail efficace pour ceux qui veulent renouveler la pensée sur le développement rural et faire, non d'une posture normative, mais de l'interprétation des mouvements économiques un guide pour l'action.

Robert Boyer and Yves Sailard's Theorie de la Regulation introduces the Francophone public to one of the most important new currents in social science of the past half-century. This long-awaited translation will help broaden its impact still further. Regulation Theory focuses on the structural features of a given model and has helped enliven the examination of core economic concepts.

The conference "Combating Desertification with Plants" was held in Beer Sheva, Israel, from November 2-5, 1999, and was attended by 70 participants from 30 countries and/or international organisations. Desertification - the degradation of soils in drylands - is a phenomenon occurring in scores of countries around the globe. The number of people (in semiarid regions) affected by the steady decline in the productivity of their lands is in the hundred millions. The measures required to halt and reverse the process of desertification fall into many categories - policy, institutional, sociological-anthropological, and technical. Although technical "solutions" are not currently in vogue, the conference organizers felt that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of "participatory approaches." Hence IPALAC - The International Program for Arid Land Crops - whose function is to serve as a catalyst for optimizing the contribution of plant germplasm to sustainable development in desertification-prone regions - felt the time was opportune for providing a platform for projects where the "plant-driven" approach to development finds expression. Some 45 papers were delivered at the conference, falling into the categories of this volume: Overview, Potential Germplasm for Arid Lands, Introduction, Domestication and Dissemination of Arid Land Plants, Land Rehabilitation, and Mechanisms of Plant Transfer. The conference was funded by UNESCO (Division of Ecological Sciences), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and MASHAV, Israel's Center for International Development Cooperation.

Iceland can consider its participation in the European Economic Area (EEA) as an associate membership of the European Union (EU). Under the EEA agreement, Iceland participates in the EU free movement of capital, persons, services and industrial goods, along with cooperation in social policy and related fields. However, Iceland does not participate in the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), or in the EU Customs Union. This dissertation studies the effects of full EU membership on Iceland's Political Economy. It gives an overview of the EU, EEA and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), offering thorough analyses of the EMU, Agricultural Policy and Fisheries Policy. The dissertation also reviews the pros and cons of EU membership. A decision to join the EU is in the end a question of political choice and this dissertation is intended to make such a choice as informed as possible.