Social Science Research Council

2009 DPDF Research Field:
Revitalizing Development Studies

The breakdown of the Washington Consensus in favor of market-oriented reform has left the study of economic development in a state of flux and more open to new and alternative approaches.  Scholars and practitioners have increasingly argued against a one-size-fits-all approach to development policymaking.  Instead, they maintain that policies and strategies need to be tailored to specific contexts, which in turn requires the careful analysis of existing institutions, social organization, cultural norms, and political processes.  Representative questions that animate this debate include:  What role does inequality play in fostering or inhibiting growth (reversing the usual question)?  What are the variable roles of ethnicity and identity in promoting collaboration or contention in development?  Why, despite increasing growth, investment, and education (human capital), does productivity stagnate in so many developing countries?  How does “history” (i.e., colonial legacies, path dependence, etc.) influence social and economic development today?  And, more generally, what are the non-economic bases of economic success and failure?  Prominent among the answers are new perspectives that underscore the importance of factors such as institutions, identities, social networks and capital, local knowledge, and learning in promoting or impeding development.  Although these perspectives do not add up to a coherent new consensus, they do share a commitment to looking across disciplines and grounding theory in careful empirical research.

We plan to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in developing a transdisciplinary language and toolkit capable of enhancing our understanding of international development and inequality.  Participants will pursue field research in developing countries (or possibly archival research on the process of development elsewhere); collect and analyze qualitative and/or quantitative data; and pay careful attention to issues of research design, concept formation, hypothesis testing, and theory construction. 

We invite applications from students who are exercised by the puzzle of economic development and committed to transcending—but not abandoning—the boundaries of their current disciplines.  We hope for applications from the full range of social science disciplines and look forward to drawing upon each of their strengths.  Although not required, we also welcome applications that propose utilizing multiple methods, carrying out cross-national or regional comparisons, and/or pursuing policy-relevant research.