Introduction to International Development Approaches, Actors, and Issues

International Development programs at the undergraduate level have burgeoned throughout the world in recent years. Formerly found on the margins of mainstream academic units, and largely confined to graduate studies, these programs pioneered both multidisciplinarity and praxis (the combination of academic analysis and real-world engagement with development issues) in the university and college setting. The appeal and common sense behind this approach, as well as the way developmental studies has connected with students' values, has brought development into the mainstream academy as an identifiable discipline. The Introduction to International Development textbook sets out to respond to the particular needs of undergraduate international development programs - namely their inherent multidisciplinarity and their normative concern with praxis. Previous texts have typically been anchored within specific disciplinary traditions and have generally overlooked contributions from other disciplines to crucial debates in international development. Given that most international development programs of study are multidisciplinary in nature, there is a clear need for a text that is explicitly multidisciplinary in its approach to the key issues.