Quite simply, a book which will transform how one sees the world.

North and South

Esteva and Prakash courageously and clear-sightedly take on some of the most entrenched of modern certainties, such as the universality of human rights, the individual self and global thinking. In their efforts to remove the lenses of modernity that education has bequeathed them, they dig deep into their own encounters with what they call the "social majorities" in their native Mexico and India. There they see not an enthralment with the seductions of modernity but evidence of a will to live in their own worlds according to their own lights. Esteva's and Prakash's reflections on the imperialism of the universality of human rights avoids the twin pitfalls of relativism and romanticism. Their alternative is demanding and novel, and deserves our most serious consideration. Grassroots Post-modernism is a much-needed and most welcome counterpoint both to the nihilism of much post-modern thinking as well as to those who view the spread of the global market and of global thinking too triumphantly.

Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, professor emeritus, Smith College

Do you look for a book which is both subversive and common sense? Reach for Grassroots Post-modernism, a compelling account of how western civilization is being transformed from below.

Wolfgang Sachs, Wuppertal Institute

Beyond its definite "no" to the global project, this book takes a stimulating glance at the renewed life of social majorities and offers good reasons for a common hope.' Gilbert Rist, author of The History of Development

Gilbert Rist, author of The History of Development