Includes bibliographical references and index.

The alignment of neo-liberal states with MNCs and TNCs have created a new capitalist elite who pay scarce attention to needs of their quest for profits. Land dispossession based on eminent domain has become a common feature in the global South.This has increased the marginalization of vulnerable local communities.
This conflict is highlighted in this book with focus on India taking the case of study of the Odisha. Odisha, despite its mineral wealth and resources continues to be one of the poorest states of India. The state launched heavy industrialization and mining to overcome poverty but many of these projects have been resisted by local communities.

The book therefore argues that these state-centric strategies have failed to accommodate with the local socio-economic needs and are being contested. Rather than building self-reliant socities, new "enclosures of dependency" are now visible. On one hand livelihoods are threatened, on the other hand government schemes of food and employment are creating greater dependency on the state. Many of these schemes are poorly implemented. Therefore, the book argues that, true development comes by increasing freedom of the people by building their capabilities. "Socially embedded" strategies will help create local participation and inclusion and thereby reduce state-society conflicts.