ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to development as a contested concept, highlighting how and why development definitions and measurements vary over time and space. It places development debates within the context of colonialism and globalization, stressing the ongoing importance of historical relationships on development theories and practices. The role of historical and present-day power relations at global, national and local scales is stressed in a discussion of development actors, and in approaches to development, including postcolonialism and post-development, which challenge Eurocentric assumptions.
