New Directions in the Sociology of Development
Sociologists were initially central figures in the interdisciplinary field of development, but the relative impact of their contributions to development policy declined significantly in the 1980s, particularly in Western development institutions. By the 1990s, many sociologists were addressing development-like questions under rubrics other than development. The dispersion of development-like questions to other sociological subfields had deleterious consequences both for development studies and for sociology. Nevertheless, development as a topic in its own right is once again gaining prominence in sociology. This talk analyzes new directions in the sociology of development and offers six sociological contributions that could extend and strengthen current understandings of development—as both process and practice—in today’s world.