The Critical Development Studies Handbook

This handbook provides a clear and accessible introduction to the groundbreaking and interdisciplinary new field of critical development studies. Each short chapter is written by a well-known specialist and provides a succinct discussion of central issues in the field. It provides a critical perspective informed by a belief in the need for substantive change and for genuine, lasting progress in international development. This will be an important resource for all development scholars, teachers, students, researchers, and activists who want to practice Development Studies with a critical edge.

This book provides an overview of the key issues of development studies from a critical perspective: the nature of the global capitalist system and the dynamics associated with the development process, the outmigration and urbanization of rural areas, the formation of a global working class and the emergence of powerful resistance movements.

The Essential Guide to Critical Development Studies provides an up-to-date and authoritative introduction to the field, challenging mainstream development discourse and the assumptions that underlie it. Critical development studies lays bare the economic, political, social, and environmental crises that characterise the current global capitalist system, proposing instead systemic change and different pathways for moving beyond capitalism into a new world of genuine progress where economic and social justice and ecological integrity prevail. In this book, the authors challenge market-driven, neoliberal development agendas, incorporating analyses of class, gender, race, and the dynamics of uneven capitalist development. This thoroughly revised and expanded second edition includes: • 18 new chapters, including on topics such as philanthrocapitalism, race, the energy transition, Indigenous resistance and resilience, and global health • Expanded global coverage, including new chapters on South Africa, North Africa, and the Gulf Arab states • A new section on resistance and alternatives • Additional pedagogical features, including a glossary of key terms, discussion questions, and expanded guides for further reading. This textbook will be essential reading for students of global development, political science, sociology, economics, gender studies, geography, history, anthropology, agrarian studies, international political economy, and area studies. It will also be an important resource for development researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the world’s most pressing global development challenges – including how they may be better understood and addressed through innovative practices and approaches to learning and teaching. Featuring 61 contributions from leading and emerging academics and practitioners, this multidisciplinary volume is organized into five thematic parts exploring: changes in global development financing, ideologies, norms and partnerships; interrelationships between development, natural environments and inequality; shifts in critical development challenges, and; new possibilities for positive change. Collectively, the handbook demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change. The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars across multiple disciplines including Development Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Global Studies, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies, Political Science, and Urban Studies.

The first book in the Critical Development Studies is a searing expose of the whole development industry. It is an introduction to the critical approach to development focusing on the needs of people rather than the pursuit of profit.

Exploring the emerging and vibrant field of critical agrarian studies, this comprehensive Handbook offers interdisciplinary insights from both leading scholars and activists to understand agrarian life, livelihoods, formations and processes of change. It highlights the development of the field, which is characterized by theoretical and methodological pluralism and innovation.

Around the world lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer individuals are subjected to violence and intimidation based on their real or perceived sexuality, gender identity or expression. With those most at risk of human rights violations often living in areas of low economic development, questions of sexuality, gender identity, and expression have become a significant area of research within the field of development studies. The Routledge Handbook of Queer Development Studies is the first full length study of queer development studies, collecting the very best in research from around the world. Topics for discussion include: Queering policy and planning in development Queer development critique and queer critiques of development Global LGBTIQ rights Queer social movements and mobilizations At a time when development and human rights organizations such as the World Bank, Office of the UN Secretary General and Human Rights Watch are placing increasing importance on global LGBT rights, the Routledge Handbook of Queer Development Studies is an essential guide for scholars, upper level students, practitioners and anyone with an interest in global sexualities, gender identities, and expressions.

Revolution in Development uncovers the surprising influence of postrevolutionary Mexico on the twentieth century's most important international economic institutions. Drawing on extensive archival research in Mexico, the United States, and Great Britain, Christy Thornton meticulously traces how Mexican officials repeatedly rallied Third World leaders to campaign for representation in global organizations and redistribution through multilateral institutions. By decentering the United States and Europe in the history of global economic governance, Revolution in Development shows how Mexican economists, diplomats, and politicians fought for more than five decades to reform the rules and institutions of the global capitalist economy. In so doing, the book demonstrates, Mexican officials shaped not only their own domestic economic prospects but also the contours of the project of international development itself.