Plague, pestilence, and war defeat everything that social development (SD) seeks to strive for, as if coronavirus and its variants (COVID-19) were not enough. The United States suffered a hideously violent insurrection—a political coup—at the hands of an insane POTUS who attacked the cradle of free world on January 6, 2022. On the heels of this surrealist catastrophe, Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The rise of economic and ethnic nationalism has deepened facets of crises around the globe. Not unlike the daily rituals of mass shootings in the United States, communal carnage is not too uncommon in India, the world’s largest democracy. One hopes that a science of transformational change would support to salvage the human condition beyond the perils of ignorance and arrogance.
Social development, as a process, grew out of the ruins of the World War 2. Now that we have entered a new phase of global conflict—the dreaded World War 3?—social development calls for reinvigoration. We have no credible answers. Continued inquiry and analysis are our best hope in the wake of a troubled planet: melting North Pole, post-pandemic paroxysm, and persistence of violence and terror endanger bio-global diversity. A failed society cannot be the vanguard of progress. It’s our hope that Social Development Issues (SDI) and its endeavors would be instrumental to achieving a measure of peace and justice beyond the fog of hubris and despair.
A few articles in this issue shed some light on certain aspects of development with humility. We plan to release a special thematic issue in the near future [SDI, 45(1), 2023]. You are encouraged to contact the editor for further details.
Brij Mohan
Editor, SDI