Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Karen Pfeifer

Karen Pfeifer is professor emerita of economics at Smith College and vice chair of MERIP’s board of directors.

MER Article

Bullets, Banks and Bushels

Access to food, and at what price, is a potent political issue in the Middle East today. The question is posed most starkly in conditions of war and armed conflict. The recent blockade of Palestinian camps near Beirut over many months reduced the inhabitants to starvation and compelled Palestinian f

Karen Pfeifer, Joe Stork • 8 min read

MER Article

Gran, Development by People

Guy Gran, Development by People: Citizen Construction of a Just World (New York: Praeger, 1983). This ambitious book seeks to serve as a guide to building new societies in the Third World (and ultimately everywhere else) based on grassroots participatory development and the democratic empowerment o

Karen Pfeifer • 1 min read

MER Article

Brett, International Money and Capitalist Crisis

E. A. Brett, International Money and Capitalist Crisis: The Anatomy of Global Disintegration (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983).

Karen Pfeifer • 1 min read

MER Article

Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis

Berch Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, From State Capitalism to Neocolonialism (London: Zed Press, 1982). This is a useful, concise rendition of Turkish political history and economic development. It is rich in facts and easy-to-use economic data. Its best conceptual contribution is the portrayal of t

Karen Pfeifer • 2 min read

MER Article

Discrete Forms of the Petty Bourgeoisie

Çağlar Keyder, The Definition of a Peripheral Economy: Turkey, 1923-1929 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Gavin Kitching, Class and Economic Change in Kenya (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980.

Karen Pfeifer • 7 min read