Critical Development Studies: An Introduction

First in this series, this book 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.

Development studies is typically used by agencies concerned on improving the living conditions of people across the world by advancing capitalism as the institutional and policy framework of the global development process. Veltmeyer and Delgado Wise, on the contrary, view capitalism as the problem rather than the solution, and provide a critical development perspective on some of the major issues that afflict people and countries across the world.

This introductory volume provides readers with an overview of the key issues of development studies from a critical perspective: the nature of the global capitalist system and an analysis of the dynamics associated with the development process, the agrarian question, the outmigration and urbanization of rural areas, the formation of a global working class and the emergence of powerful resistance movements such as the Zapatistas.

About the Authors

Dr. Veltmeyer lived and worked for six years in south America before coming to Canada to pursue a doctoral program in Political Science and subsequently (in 1976) beginning his academic career in the Sociology Department at St. Mary’s University. He has participated in the university’s Atlantic Canada Studies program and founded the program in International development in 1985. He also served for eight years as Coordinator of this program in addition to eight years as chair of the Sociology Department. Currently he has an academic appointment in the PhD program of Development Studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico and annually engages in an extended program of research and public lectures across Latin America. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of International Development Studies and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Political Economy and a number of international journals in his major field of research-the political economy of international development. Dr. Veltmeyer conducts research, writes and teaches about diverse issues related to the political economy and sociology of development, with a particular focus on issues of Latin American development, globalization processes, government policies, alternative models and approaches and social movements. Since 2000 he has authored/co-authored and edited 13 books and 25 scholarly refereed articles that have been published in Canada, the US, the UK, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador. Several of these books, written in English or Spanish, have received awards and have been translated into other languages - among them Portuguese, Italian, Tugalese and German. In addition to these scholarly books, several of which have achieved international recog-nition and/or special awards and distinctions, 25 of Dr. Veltmeyer’s scholarly articles since 2000 have been published in some of the most prestigious academic journals in his field or by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Places of publication include Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Raúl Delgado Wise is Professor and Director of Development Studies at Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. He is also President and founder of the International Network on Migration and Development, co-Director of the Critical Development Studies Network, Editor of the journal Migración y Desarrollo, UNESCO Chair on Migration, Development and Human Rights. He is the author/editor of twenty-eight books and more than 200 book chapters and refereed articles and a guest lecturer in over forty countries.

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