West African trade is highly ethnicised to ensure commercial success in the face of adverse environmental conditions and lack of basic institutions. The maintenance of trust and the enforcement of contracts are, as elsewhere, key elements in the pursuit of sustainable enterprise. Building on core literature that examines both the use of ethnicity in trade and the nature of African clandestine trade, the thesis addresses the ways in which social groups construct solutions to problems that arise in high-risk settings. The work focuses on the Sierra Leone diamond industry and is organised in chapters that describe the major market players and their tactical approaches. There is particular emphasis on how these systems have changed over time, identifying the gambits used to extract diamonds. Beginning with the introduction of the 1956 Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme, the thesis traces the emergence of Lebanese Shi'ite and Maronite competition in the Sierra Leone diamond trade, and extends through the period following the 1991 Revolutionary United Front incursion. In the face of political turmoil and virtual State collapse, industrial participants have been obliged to formulate flexible, locally-specific strategies to ensure commercial success. As diamonds have become scarcer and more dangerous to find, the sectarian Shi'ites have shown greater effectiveness in weathering adversity than their rivals. The thesis then examines the strategies of local-born players in the trade. As Kono, the principal diamond field, has become overworked, the market axis has recently shifted to the more southerly, Mende controlled, Tongo and Zimmi regions. Competition in these areas between a coalition of northern-based soldiery and youth, and the Mende-aligned kamajoisia militia, has been the cause of protracted conflict since mid-1997. Kamajoisia fighters, under social obligation to mine without the prospect of immediate pay, have succeeded in maintaining production for elite groups when investment capital has been non-existent. This militia domination has radically altered the industrial landscape. Lebanese participation has become highly condensed while militaristic multi-nationals have failed to expand to their expected potential. Threats to the present status quo remain from those excluded from both society and from legitimate access to resources. Reconstructed ideologies that address local grievances will continue to attract support as regional imbalances of wealth and poverty increase with time. Politically powerful networks of non-Mende elites will also seek to undermine diamond-related power in the south. Duplicitous in affiliation and seeking their own portion of a global market they are likely to pursue disruption at all levels, condemning Sierra Leone to a foreseeable future of sporadic violence.

The evolution of ideas on socio-economic development is first considered to show that they were theoretical in the beginning, and tended to be generalised and accorded global applicability, but were revised as experiences in the developing countries increased knowledge of the development process. The nature of the construction industry and its role in development are next discussed, and the features of the task of improving it identified. It is observed that the industry faces problems in every country. In reviewing existing studies of the construction industries of developing countries, the similarity between their diagnoses of the problems and prescriptions for improvement are noted. Generally, they suggest that construction can constrain development and therefore it should be improved and expanded to avoid this. Main themes of current proposals for improving construction in developing countries are crystallised and compared with Ghana's experience in developing its industry between 1951 and 1979. After showing that Ghana has attempted to implement most of the current proposals without significant success, it is observed that certain socio-cultural, historical and political factors underlying the industry's problems and hindering their solution are often overlooked, and that the issue of improving construction is complex and variable. Furthermore, despite generally depressing conditions, and contrary to usual calls for new procedures and systems and additional resources, much can be gained by utilising existing institutions, arrangements and resources more effectively. The need for practical approaches is emphasised. A programme for improving Ghana's construction industry is formulated. Suggestions for modification of current ideas on the construction industries of developing countries are made, especially the need for strategies to be country-specific and dynamic, the importance of a time perspective, and the usefulness of according orders of priority to particular measures, and concentrating on those easiest to implement, or with greatest linkage effects.

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China's rapidly growing inward FDI has been initiated in five main ways. These are: moves stemming from family relations; Chinese government initiatives; action by China-based establishments registered abroad; action by local Chinese firms in search of a partner; and action by the foreign investor. Most of China's inward FDI has been made by ethnic Chinese businessmen who are motivated by family and local connections. Joint ventures are the basic organisational form of FDI, and conglomerate integration is an important phenomenon in China. These peculiar features of China's inward investment not only pose a challenge to the currently dominant theories of FDI, but also have important implications for China's FDI policy. As for the theoretical challenge, the data obtained from our fieldwork and library research go beyond the range of possibilities explained by these theories, and therefore, a general analysis is developed, which is believed to extend the range of possibilities to be considered, and is used to incorporate the FDI determinants that appear to be important in China. The need to explain the motives of the local partner as initiator requires some of the questions answered by existing theories to be turned on their heads, and the importance of family and local connections in reducing transaction costs in FDI is probably unique to China. Conclusions reached on policy are that an attempt should be made to achieve greater stability in policy; that discrimination between areas for foreign investment purposes should be removed; that closer approaches to convertibility will enhance the case for removing the residual bias in policy toward exporting and requirements for foreignexchange "balance"; that, though the very large tax discrimination in favour of foreign firms and joint ventures as against local firms will undoubtedly be reduced, it has probably played a valuable role in leading local firms to find foreign partners and should not be removed entirely without careful consideration; and that correspondingly important questions are raised about whether investment from Hong Kong should be treated as domestic or foreign after 1997.

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