Douglass C North’s new institutional economics and development is a classic introduction to the field of New Institutional Economics (NIE). NIE is a family of economic theories. In order to understand NIE, we must first consider what constitutes and economic theory.

James D. Sidaway’s essay on post-development included in the the companion to development studies is another challenge to the intellectual pursuit of development studies. In an earlier review I discussed how Shuurman summarizes the various critiques of the paradigms followed in development studies and questions the underlying assumptions behind the...

Schuurman’s essay categorizes the main criticism faced by development studies into three major themes and critically examines each of them elucidating the flaws in the theoretical framework of the field that opened it to each of these criticisms. He refutes some aspects of the criticism and internalizes some, discussing their...

Klaus Dodds’ essay on international development efforts in the shadow of the cold war opens with the observation that words have power. The author describes how the global dynamics during the cold war came to label the different nations of the world as poor vs rich, developed vs developing etc...