The application of development economics: general principles and context specificity

The purpose of this paper is to consider the application of development economics at the methodological level. In particular, given the shortcomings of both the modernist and postmodernist approaches to development policy, we consider an alternative approach, drawing on critical realism, which combines the benefits of generality with the benefits of attention to specificity of context. The approach is illustrated by showing how principles in development economics addressing issues of globalisation and peripherality can serve to illuminate some of the causal tendencies at work in a developed economy such as Scotland. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.