Development reconsidered; new directions in development thinking

This paper offers broad and critical perspectives on current development thinking. A brief summary of different meanings of development and a thumbnail sketch of broad trends over the past twenty to thirty years in relation to major development indicators is followed by a discussion of reasons for the emergence of fundamental critiques of conventional development and developmentalism from perspectives known variously as post‐structuralist, post‐development and anti‐development. Connections are made between these and the literatures on post‐modernism, postcolonialism and post‐traditionalism. Finally, the implications of these rapid paradigm shifts and changing realities for future research, teaching and action across the South/North divide are considered.