ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by evaluating the relation between children and development in terms of the relationship ‘between two debts’, so drawing upon but transposing Lacan’s (195960/1992) description of the position of the subject as being ‘between two deaths’. This seems appropriate given the ways that the economic disparities between richer and poorer countries are expressed, and intensified, by relations of debt and debt repayments in part precisely through so-called ‘development aid’. This dramatically affects the conditions of, and for, children’s lives through Structural Adjustment Programmes (for example). This motif of ‘between two debts’ is used to evaluate current debates in development studies and children’s lives in ‘developing’ countries to highlight key ethical challenges posed by the linking of children and economic development.
