Critical development studies and the study of globalization(s): introduction

ABSTRACT

Critical Development Studies has long engaged with the study of globalization. However, the ways in which it does so and how these interact and fuse with, or diverge from, others working in the broad field of globalization studies remain avenues to explore. In this Introductory essay, we describe how critical development studies emerged and highlight some of its contributions before presenting an overview of the six papers which comprise this Special Issue.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical development studies
• globalization studies
• critical approaches

Acknowledgements

We thank Barbara Harriss-White for her insightful comments on an earlier version of this Introduction.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The intention here is not to provide a chronological or exhaustive review of CDS but to present some illustrations of its application. Many important contributions are therefore omitted.

2 See, for example, CDS contributor Katz’s (2018, p. 446) conclusion that ‘a major lesson that can be drawn from political developments in the 20th century is that both capitalism and socialism require the agency of the nation state’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles is a Professor in the Department of Global and International Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.

Henry Veltmeyer

Henry Veltmeyer is Research Professor in Development Studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico.