ABSTRACT
Whether conceived of as a process (development of the forces of production) or as a project (actions or policies designed to improve the social condition), ‘development’ relates to societies composed of social groups and classes; i.e., it has to do not with individuals per se but with the social structure and the position of individuals in the social organisation of production. This chapter reconstructs four basic ways in which class structure is conceived in development discourse and analysis—in terms of an individual’s income, occupation, life chances and social relations of production. It is argued that the latter is the most useful method of class analysis in critical development studies. This is because it allows analysts to capture both the subjective and political dimensions of the social structure as well as its objective and economic conditions. Societies here are viewed and understood as systems of interconnected social groups and classes with shared experiences that are able to act collectively on the basis of these experiences.
