What does it mean to speak of 'national development' in the 1990s? As a result of the tumultuous changes in global economic and political structures, scholars and policymakers specializing in the study of national development must reassess the interpretive models they have relied upon in the past. This book brings together essays by a distinguished group of social scientists that address the dilemmas facing development theory today. These essays, grounded in sociological research, reclaim the important role once played by sociological theory in development studies. The collection provides an overview of traditional theories of development, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and identifies the new actors, issues, and processes that future analysis must address.

The essays discuss the impact of technological innovations in production and commerce, the changing relations of states and markets, regional development inequalities, and the emergence of new social groups as participants in development processes. from the book Contents: 'Sociology and Development in the 1990s: Critical Challenges and Empirical Trends,' by A. Douglas Kincaid and Alejandro Portes 'Rethinking Development Theory: Insights from East Asia and Latin America,' by Gary Gereffi 'The New Dependency: Technological Change and Socioeconomic Restructuring in Latin America,' by Manuel Castells and Roberto Laserna 'Predatory, Developmental, and Other Apparatuses: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on the Third World State,' by Peter B. Evans 'Regional Development Theory and the Subordination of Extractive Peripheries,' by Stephen G. Bunker 'Broadening the Scope: Gender and International Economic Development,' by M. Patricia Fernandez Kelly 'Path Dependence and Privatization Strategies in East Central Europe,' by David Stark 'Urbanization, Development, and the Household,' by Bryan R. Roberts.