Development Studies

Development Studies is concerned with political, economic, social, environmental, and technological processes of change, primarily, though not exclusively, relevant to the Global South. While Development Studies is a broader interdisciplinary field, a variety of concerns that are central to it and which inform the study of development include such issues as poverty, inequality, colonialism, growth, redistribution, human- and socio-economic development, race, indigeneity, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, state-building, social movements, activism, environmental issues, urbanization, trade, foreign aid, migration and the diaspora. In turn, viewing these topics through a political science lens centrally highlights issues such as power, marginalization, inequality, discrimination, representation, solidarity, and collective action. While the bulk of the literature in Development Studies focuses on the Global South, the field is not geographically restricted; several key strands of research such as those related to diasporic communities in the Global North, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups in the Global North, and North-South interactions are prominent in this field of study.

Development Studies has both an empirical and theoretical focus. The field highlights the tremendous importance of context and history, and believes that both are critical to nuanced understanding of various processes, issues, and outcomes. Normative concerns also typically foreground most analyses in the subfield.

The field engages with other subfields of political science such as comparative politics and international relations but is distinct from them in several ways. The core literature in Development Studies differs from these other subfields. In particular, critical and non-western sources constitute a greater part of the core literature and are valued to a greater degree than other streams of political science. It is a field that is sensitive to the historic inequities of knowledge production as well as the ethical implications of research. Development Studies employs a diverse and eclectic array of research methods from quantitative methods to ethnographic work and participant observation. In doing so, it eschews methodological rigidity. Development Studies often shares scholarly networks and avenues of publication with other fields of political science but research is also frequently published in subfield-specific journals.