Introduction: key issues and directions for the sociology of development

Abstract

The analysis in this special issue on the sociology of development continues the ongoing process of problematizing the development enterprise (see McMichael 2000, Reddock 2000. While the notion of modernization seems out of fashion, and few scholars would juxtapose the so-called "progress and superiority" of modernization with the supposed "stagnation and inferiority" of tradition, the concept of development retains considerable ideological content. Evaluating development theories solely in terms of their relevance for policy both privileges the dominant worldview of the development community and masks the ideological premises of that worldview (see Chowdhry and Menjivar 2002). The conditions pitting the ideology of free-markets against state-led development no longer exist, to be sure. Instead, the intricate connections between the global war on terror and global economic restructuring now serve the hegemonic project of developmentalism -"making the world safe for markets" (