'Development Studies' brings together in a single accessible volume a representative and exciting set of readings on the nature of contemporary development issues. Using as its organizing theme the 'development debate' itself, this reader focuses on six main topic areas: theories and models of development, agricultural change and rural development, survival strategies and the weapons of the weak, industrialization and urbanization, the global political economy, and new directions in development studies, including democratization, environmental sustainability, and citizenship.

The extracts included have been selected to provide a full sense of what development studies are all about. Each section is prefaced by an extensive editorial introduction to contextualize it within wider intellectual, historical and policy-related contexts, and to clarify its main points. Each closes with an extensive guide to further reading.