The experience of development, as well as understandings of and responses to it, are uniquely rendered via popular culture generally, and popular music in particular. Music has been a medium of choice through which marginalized populations all over the world convey their (frequently critical)...

This article introduces and explores issues regarding the question of what constitute valid forms of development knowledge, focusing in particular on the relationship between fictional writing on development and more formal academic and policy-oriented representations of development issues. We...

This article explores the ways in which discussions of social capital have emerged within the World Bank, and how they interacted both with project practices and with larger debates in the institution. These debates are understood as a 'battlefield of knowledge', whose form and outcomes are...

This paper focuses on both expanding and refining the analytical scope of the “social†(or non-economic) aspects of chronic poverty, and thereby, to enhance efforts to respond more effectively to it. The argument in this paper proceeds as follows. In recognizing that poverty is...

What are the distinctive skills and attributes that should be expected of Masters (as opposed to undergraduate and doctoral) graduates of international development programmes? Given the diversity of their academic and cultural backgrounds, the inherent uncertainty of their career trajectories,...

Incorporating qualitative methods into the evaluation of development programs has become increasingly popular in recent years, both for the distinctive insights such approaches can bring in their own right and because of their capacity to complement the strengths -- and where necessary correct...

This report examines the role of incentives, trust, and engagement as critical determinants of service delivery performance in MENA countries. Focusing on education and health, the report illustrates how the weak external and internal accountability undermines policy implementation and service...

The chapters in this volume explore the challenges and opportunities raised by this concept for researchers, practitioners and teachers. Social Capital and Economic Development is based upon a consistent, policy-based vision of how social capital affects well-being in developing countries.