Frontiers of development studies

The book is a collection of essays on the problems of development in a world in which rich and poor countries coexist and where the presence and the policies of the rich crucially affect the development efforts and prospects of the poor. Most, but not all, essays have been published previously. Those previously published were revised for this edition.

The book consists of four parts. The first part contains papers concerned mainly with method. The unifying theme is the limitations of the application of concepts, modes of thought and approaches developed in Western industrial societies, to the less developed societies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has been said that the study of history is not a way to help us understand the present, but our knowledge of the present helps us understand history. In studying societies at different stages of development the reverse is true: self-knowledge is not a way to understand societies with different attitudes and institutions, but the study of their structures helps us to understand ourselves. The theme is illustrated by a critique of such concepts as 'capital/ output ratio', 'employment', 'underemployment' and 'returns to investment in human capital'.