Development Studies

Abstract

This contribution identifies development as an emergent and contested key concept in the social and environmental sciences. Development studies describes a field that includes multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approaches to economic growth, basic needs, inequality, human development, rights, resources, livelihoods, and sustainability, focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on developing countries. The scope and content of development studies is described and the main schools of thought, theoretical debates, concepts, and indicators are discussed in historical context, ranging from the colonial appropriation of natural resources to modernization and its critiques, to current agendas for sustainable and rights-based human development.