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Development Studies And The Oikos Perspective, Benjamin T. Tolosa Jr

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

This article seeks to contribute to the search for a distinctive "Oikos of Community and Ecology Perspective" by providing an overview of the main theoretical debates in Development Studies. "Development Studies" here is understood in the name sense of the social science "subdiscipline" that emerged to grapple with the phenomenon of the "new nations" and the problem of "underdevelopment" after the Second World War. For purposes of simplification, these diverse and complex debates shall be classified under two broad theoretical traditions: "Liberal" and "Marxist." Under the general "Liberal" heading shall fall the debate between Development Economics and neoclassical Economics. The …