This paper examines the recent resurgence of interest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) to provide infrastructure in developing countries. First, the paper demonstrates that there has been a revival of support for private sector participation in infrastructure. Second, the paper argues that this revival differs from earlier attempts to increase the involvement of the private sector in public service provision in a number of respects. In particular, the current support for PPPs is related to an increased availability of global financial capital. Third, the paper considers the implications of this distinct feature of the revival for development.

The World Development Report 2015: Mind Society and Behaviour (World Bank, 2015), seeks a redesign of development policy on the basis of insights emerging from behavioural economics. This article offers a critical assessment of the Report across four dimensions. First, it situates the Report within the broader and evolving knowledge role of the Bank. Second, it locates the Report in the context of the evolution of economics as a discipline and how this informs the shaping of the Bank's development economics. Third, the Report is critically assessed for its narrow take on behavioural economics itself. Finally, the practical significance of the promotion of behavioural economics is considered through reference to its use in interventions in health in general and in response to HIV/AIDS in particular. It is argued that the Report suggests a dramatic and flawed reduction of what development is about, in that it forgoes any analysis of the structural problems facing developing countries and fails to propose major reforms to tackle these.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed multiple structural flaws of global capitalism. These have been reproduced through the intensification of inequalities and reinforced through policy responses that have failed to protect the most vulnerable from the health and socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has also revealed the materiality of human activity and complex geographies of inequality. It has highlighted how inequalities embedded in relations of production, reproduction and global finance continue to perpetuate the divide between the Global North and South. Using an interdisciplinary political economy lens with a focus on the Global South, this Special Issue brings together contributions that explore the dynamics underpinning the intensification of inequalities during the pandemic and that analyse the initial policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. RÉSUMÉLa pandémie de COVID-19 a révélé plusieurs failles structurelles du capitalisme mondial. Celles-ci se sont multipliées du fait de l'intensification des inégalités, et elles ont été renforcées par des interventions politiques qui n'ont pas su protéger les plus vulnérables de l'impact sanitaire et socio-économique de la COVID-19. La pandémie de COVID-19 a également révélé la matérialité de l'activité humaine et la géographie complexe des inégalités. Elle a montré comment les inégalités présentes dans les relations de production, de reproduction, et de finance globale perpétuent la division entre le Nord et le Sud planétaires. Ce numéro spécial concentre son analyse sur le Sud planétaire, appliquant une approche interdisciplinaire à l'économie politique. Y sont réunies des contributions explorant les dynamiques qui sous-tendent l'intensification des inégalités durant la pandémie, et analysant les premières réactions politiques à la crise causée par la COVID-19.