There has been a long overdue revival of interest recently amongst economic and development geographers in questions of geographical uneven development. On the one hand, this can be seen as a reaction to the positive emphasis during the 1990s on the inclusion of firms, workers and regions in global value chains and production networks. On the other hand, there has been a growing awareness of the continuing importance of agriculture and the question of agrarian change, not least after the development industry had rediscovered smallholders and peasants as targets of market-driven policy interventions. It is at the conjuncture of these developments that this virtual issue is situated, tracing these debates in Progress in Human Geography from the late 1970s until today. The 13 articles selected for this virtual issue illustrate that the journal provided an intellectual home to key contributions to this debate. This introduction provides an overview of key themes emerging from the articles and highlights their main scholarly contributions.
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2.
BairJBerndtCBoecklerMWernerM (2013) Dis/articulating producers, markets, and regions: New directions in critical studies of commodity chains. Environment and Planning A45(11): 2544–2552.
3.
BallardR (2013) Geographies of development II: Cash transfers and the reinvention of development for the poor. Progress in Human Geography37(6): 811–821.
4.
BebbingtonA (2004) NGOs and uneven development: Geographies of development intervention. Progress in Human Geography28(6): 725–745.
5.
BerndtC (2015) Behavioural economics, experimentalism and the marketization of development. Economy and Society44(4): 567–591.
6.
BerndtCBoecklerM (2011) Performative regional (dis-)integration: Transnational markets, mobile commodities and bordered north–south differences. Environment and Planning A43(5): 1057–1078.
7.
BerndtCBoecklerM (2017) Economic, experiments, evidence: Poor behavior and the development of market subjects. In: HigginsVLarnerW (eds) Assembling Neoliberalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 283–302.
8.
BoltanskiLThévenotL (2006) On Justification: Economies of Worth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
9.
BradburyJH (1985) Regional and industrial restructuring processes in the new international division of labour. Progress in Geography9(1): 38–63.
10.
BrookfieldH (1978) Third World development. Progress in Human Geography2(1): 121–132.
11.
CardosoCFS (1975) On the colonial modes of production of the Americas. Critique of Anthropology2(4–5): 1–37.
12.
CorbridgeS (1986) Capitalism, industrialization and development. Progress in Human Geography10(1): 48–67.
13.
CorbridgeS (1990) Development studies. Progress in Human Geography14(3): 391–403.
14.
EasterlyW (2006) The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. New York: Penguin.
15.
EdelmanMWolfordW (2017) Introduction: Critical agrarian studies in theory and practice. Antipode49(4): 959–976.
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FigueroaA (1993) Agricultural development in Latin America. In: SunkelO (ed.) Development from Within: Toward a Neostructuralist Approach for Latin America. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 287–314.
17.
Foster-CarterA (1978) The modes of production controversy. New Left ReviewI(107): 47–77.
18.
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19.
Gibson-GrahamJK (2008) Diverse economies: Performative practices for ‘other worlds’. Progress in Human Geography32(5): 613–632.
20.
GidwaniVK (2008) Capital Interrupted: Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
21.
GlassmanJ (2011) Critical geography III: Critical development geography. Progress in Human Geography35(5): 705–711.
22.
GoodmanDWattsM (1994) Reconfiguring the rural or fording the divide? Capitalist restructuring and the global agro-food system. The Journal of Peasant Studies22(1): 1–49.
23.
GrossbergLHallS (1986) On postmodernism and articulation: An interview with Stuart Hall. Journal of Communication Inquiry10(2): 45–60.
24.
HarrissBHarrissJ (1982) Development studies. Progress in Human Geography6(4): 584–592.
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HarrissJHarrissB (1979) Development studies. Progress in Human Geography3(4): 576–584.
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HarrissJHarrissB (1980) Development studies. Progress in Human Geography4(4): 577–588.
27.
HarrissJHarrissB (1981) Development studies. Progress in Human Geography5(4): 572–581.
28.
HartG (2001) Development critiques in the 1990s: Culs de sac and promising paths. Progress in Human Geography25(4): 649–658.
29.
HartG (2002) Geography and development: Development/s beyond neoliberalism? Power, culture, political economy. Progress in Human Geography26(6): 812–822.
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HartG (2004) Geography and development: Critical ethnographies. Progress in Human Geography28(1): 91–100.
31.
HartG (2016) Relational comparison revisited: Marxist postcolonial geographies in practice. Progress in Human Geography. DOI: 10.1177/0309132516681388.
32.
HughesA (2006) Geographies of exchange and circulation: Transnational trade and governance. Progress in Human Geography30(5): 635–643.
33.
Independent Commission on International Development Issues (1980) A Programme for Survival. London: Pan World Affairs.
34.
JaroszL (1996) Working in the global food system: A focus for international comparative analysis. Progress in Human Geography20(1): 41–55.
35.
JenkinsR (1984) Divisions over the international division of labour. Capital & Class8(1): 28–57.
36.
KahnJS (2001) Political economy in anthropology. In: SmelserNJBaltesPB (eds) International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon, 11653–11656.
37.
LaclauE (1979) Feudalism and capitalism in Latin America. In: Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism, Fascism, Populism. London: Verso, 15–50.
38.
MasseyD (2001) Talking of space-time. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers26(2): 257–262.
39.
MawdsleyE (2017) Development geography 1: Cooperation, competition and convergence between ‘North’ and ‘South’. Progress in Human Geography41(1): 108–117.
40.
McGrathS (2017) Dis/articulations and the interrogation of development in GPN research. Progress in Human Geography. DOI: 10.1177/0309132517700981.
41.
MoranWBlundenGGreenwoodJ (1993) The role of family farming in agrarian change. Progress in Human Geography17(1): 22–42.
42.
OumaS (2015) Assembling Export Markets: The Making and Unmaking of Global Food Connections in West Africa. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
43.
PeckJ (2004) Geography and public policy: Constructions of neoliberalism. Progress in Human Geography28(3): 392–405.
44.
PeckJ (2008) Remaking laissez-faire. Progress in Human Geography32(1): 3–43.
45.
PeckJTheodoreN (2007) Variegated capitalism. Progress in Human Geography31(6): 731–772.
46.
PeckJTheodoreN (2015) Fast Policy: Experimental Statecraft at the Thresholds of Neoliberalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
47.
PerronsD (1981) The role of Ireland in the new international division of labor: A proposed framework for regional-analysis. Regional Studies15(2): 81–100.
48.
RiggJ (1998) Rural-urban interactions, agriculture and wealth: A Southeast Asian perspective. Progress in Human Geography22(4): 497–522.
49.
SachsJ (2005) The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime. New York: Penguin.
50.
SanyalKK (2007) Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality, and Post-colonial Capitalism. New Delhi: Routledge.
ScottJC (1985) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
53.
ThriftN (1983) On the determination of social action in space and time. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space1: 23–57.
54.
WainwrightJ (2008) Decolonizing Development: Colonial Power and the Maya. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
55.
WallaceI (1985) Towards a geography of agribusiness. Progress in Human Geography9(4): 491–514.
56.
WarrenB (1980) Imperialism: Pioneer of Capitalism. London: NLB and Verso.
57.
WattsM (1989) The agrarian question in Africa: Debating the crisis. Progress in Human Geography13(1): 1–41.
58.
WattsM (1996) Development III: The global agrofood system and late twentieth-century development (or Kautsky redux). Progress in Human Geography20(2): 230–245.
59.
WernerM (2016) Global Displacements: The Making of Uneven Development in the Caribbean. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.
60.
WernerMBairJFernándezVR (2014) Linking up to development? Global value chains and the making of a post-Washington consensus. Development and Change45(6): 1219–1247.
61.
WilsonGRiggJ (2003) ‘Post-productivist’ agricultural regimes and the South: Discordant concepts?Progress in Human Geography27(6): 681–707.
