Debt And Development (institute Of British Geographers Studies In Geography S.)

In "Debt and Development" Stuart Corbridge offers an approach to the study of both debt and development, focusing on the international debt crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and its economic and geo-political consequences. Moving far beyond the framework of a narrative account, the author demonstrates that interpretations of this crisis - and attempts to manage it - are themselves reflections of wider assumptions about the dynamics of development and the organization of the global economy. Part One sets out to provide the standard narrative of the debt crisis from the OPEC oil rises onwards, ending with the most recent attempts at crisis management. After establishing the facts of the crisis, the author then provides in Part Two a demonstration of how this crisis might be interpreted from three quite different perspectives: a free-market "system-stability" approach; a Keynesian "system-correction" approach; and a Marxian "system-instability" approach. In conclusion, the author considers how these competing perspectives on debt and development might be judged.