This cogent critique of the narrowness and moral blindness of conventional economics, and its distance from any genuine concern for people's lives, is part autobiographical reflection and part summation of a lifetime's work in developing countries. Ladislau Dowbor rejects both old-fashioned statist economics and utopian 'post-economics' ideas of social organization. Instead, he pulls together a rich mixture of detailed and practical conclusions about economic and social policy, drawing on his own work as an economic adviser in countries as diverse as Poland, Portugal, Guinea Bissau, post-Soviet Mongolia, Sandinista Nicaragua, democratic South Africa and President Lula's Brazil.

His approaches and principles are relevant to all developing countries as they seek new policies to replace neoliberal prescriptions that have delivered neither growth, social justice, nor environmental sustainability.