ABSTRACT
The development of development studies as an academic subject that can be studied at university dates from the 1960s. In a review of the history of the f ield, Harriss (2005) puts its origins in a number of mainly British economists and other social scientists who were unhappy with the insights that were being provided at that time by existing social science subjects, notably traditional or classical economics. These traditional approaches basically emphasised the importance of quantitative paths to the study of societies and economies. These approaches were seen as ref lecting a logical positivist orthodoxy that dominated the social sciences at that time, and which stressed the importance of hypothesis testing and statistical verif ication as the paramount sources for knowledge and advancement.
