Development in Turbulent Times

Abstract

How individuals and societies develop over time is a key question for global citizens. Too many people in the world still live in extreme poverty. About one billion people live on less than $1.25 a day (the World Bank’sdefinition of extreme or absolute poverty) while about 2.2 billion people live on less than $2 per day. What can be done about this? Development Studies as an academic discipline is relatively new, but the ques- tions being asked are not—philosophers have puzzled over them for millennia. There are many definitions of development and the concept itself has evolved rapidly over recent decades. To develop is to grow, which many economists and policy- makers have taken to mean economic growth. Yet development is not confined to economic growth. Development is no longer the preserve of economists and the subject itself has enjoyed rapid evolution to become the subject of interdisciplinary scholarship drawing on politics, sociology, psychology, history, geography, anthro- pology, medicine and many other disciplines.