Development -- is it a powerful vision of a better life for the half of the world's population who subsist on two dollars a day? Or is it a failed Enlightenment legacy, an oppressive 'master narrative'? Such questions inspire a field newly animated by theories of globalization, modernity, cultural hybridity, and transnationalism. The Anthropology of Development and Globalization is a collection of readings that provides an unprecedented overview of this field that ranges from its classical origins to today's debates about the 'magic' of the free market.


The volume is framed by an encyclopedic introduction that will prove indispensable to students and experts alike. Subsequent readings range from classics by Weber and Marx and Engels to contemporary works on the politics of development knowledge, consumption, environment, gender, international NGO networks, the International Monetary Fund, campaigns to reform the World Bank, the collapse of socialism, and the limits of "post-developmentalism." Explicitly designed for teaching, The Anthropology of Development and Globalization fills a crucial gap; no other available text so richly mingles historical, cultural, political, and economic perspectives on development and globalization, and none captures such a wide variety of theoretical approaches and topics as does this exciting collection.