Rethinking Development
About the Book Series
Rethinking Development offers accessible and thought-provoking overviews of contemporary topics in international development and aid. Providing original empirical and analytical insights, the books in this series push thinking in new directions by challenging current conceptualizations and developing new ones.
This is a dynamic and inspiring series for all those engaged with today’s debates surrounding development issues, whether they be students, scholars, policy makers and practitioners internationally. These interdisciplinary books provide an invaluable resource for discussion in advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses in development studies as well as in anthropology, economics, politics, geography, media studies and sociology.
To submit proposals, please contact the Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd ([email protected]).
The Decentralization Delusion: Challenging the Underlying Assumptions of Development
1st Edition
By Ruby Dagher, Nana Afia Aku Ofori-Yentumi
June 04, 2026
The Decentralization Delusion challenges the narrative that decentralisation leads to enhanced democratic practices and higher levels of economic and social development. Instead, the book argues that decentralisation theory tends to rely on assumptions which are idealistic and mostly inappropriate ...
Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World: An Emancipatory Manifesto
1st Edition
By Tim Unwin
April 28, 2026
Why do so many attempts to use digital tech to help the world’s poor ultimately end in failure? Digital Inclusion in an Unequal World provides a detailed critique of previous theory and practice, while also proposing practical and realistic suggestions for good practice. This book ...
Poverty in Polycrisis: Dynamic Pathways for Lasting Change
1st Edition
By Vidya Diwakar
April 24, 2026
We are living in a period of global volatility in which intersecting crises are combining with devastating impacts for people already living in and near poverty. This book carefully examines the dynamics of these crises and challenges us to find new ways forward for policies and programming that ...
Post-Development from the Global South: Radical Alternatives or Ambivalent Engagements?
1st Edition
Edited
By Sally Matthews, Alba Castellsagué
April 25, 2025
Post-development advocates and decolonial thinkers are calling for radical alternatives to development, but how do these ideals sit with the day-to-day reality of marginalised communities struggling with poverty, precarity, and the deprivation of human rights? This book investigates how ...
Community-Led Development in Practice: We Power Our Own Change
1st Edition
Edited
By Elene Cloete, Gunjan Veda
December 13, 2024
In the last decade, the international development sector has been re-examining its ways of thinking, being, and doing, and we have seen a growing consensus around the need to centre communities in development. However, there is little clarity on what such centring entails and how it can be achieved...
Young People in the Global South: Voice, Agency and Citizenship
1st Edition
Edited
By Kate Pincock, Nicola Jones, Lorraine van Blerk, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
January 24, 2024
Young People in the Global South: Voice, Agency and Citizenship explores the spatial, relational, affective and material dimensions of adolescents’ and young people’s civic engagement and political participation in lower- and middle-income contexts. This textbook questions how the ‘everyday ...
Reformers in International Development: Five Remarkable Lives
1st Edition
By David de Ferranti
December 22, 2023
This book brings to life the remarkable stories of five exceptional international development leaders and influencers: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Domingo Cavallo, Ela Bhatt, Dzingai Mutumbuka, and Adolfo Figueroa. Together, their experiences and accomplishments challenge us to rethink conventional ...
ICT and Rural Development in the Global South
1st Edition
By Willem van Eekelen
December 01, 2023
This book dives into the achievements, opportunities, risks and dangers of ICT in the rural Global South, and takes a look at the likely future. Drawing on years of experience across 45 counties, as well as extensive original academic research, Willem van Eekelen situates the evolving role of ICT ...
Foreign Aid and Its Unintended Consequences
1st Edition
By Dirk-Jan Koch
September 27, 2023
Foreign aid and international development frequently bring with it a range of unintended consequences, both negative and positive. This book delves into these consequences, providing a fresh and comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing them. The book starts by laying out a theoretical ...
Dear Development Practitioner: Advice for the Next Generation
1st Edition
Edited
By Simon Milligan, Lee Wilson
September 01, 2023
In this book, influential development practitioners reflect on their careers by writing letters of advice to their younger selves. Sharing their successes and failures, the challenges and barriers they have encountered, and the changes and continuities within their work, these deeply personal ...
South-North Dialogues on Democracy, Development and Sustainability
1st Edition
Edited
By Cristina Fróes de Borja Reis, Tatiana Berringer
May 31, 2023
This book shows how bringing together experts from the Global South and the Global North can help us to understand and combat global economic, political, and social inequalities. For too long, the world’s problems have been viewed through the narrow conceptual lenses of the Global North. This book ...
Researching Development NGOs: Global and Grassroots Perspectives
1st Edition
Edited
By Susannah Pickering-Saqqa
April 28, 2023
This book offers a critical insight into how the study of NGOs can be more theoretically grounded and methodologically creative. The role of NGOs in global development has been the focus of considerable research and scholarship for the last four decades. More recently, scholars and NGO ...