The stakes involved in development debates are enormous. While development can use the productive resources of society to improve the living conditions
of the world's most vulnerable people, it can also form the basis of intense manipulative power on behalf of elites. This important new text surveys the
leading theories and models of economic and social development. Chapters examine sociological,economic, neo-Marxist, poststructuralist, feminist, and
radical democratic approaches, as well as an array of development models including modernization, dependency, and neoliberalism. Reaching conclusions
at odds with much of the recent literature, this volume is critical of neoliberal, market-driven economic growth, arguing instead that an alternative,democratic form of development remains a viable possibility.