This volume offers a critical introduction to the changing geographies of global development. It moves away from the traditional approach of providing descriptive accounts of Third World geographical issues and instead finds alternative geography of development theories and practices, which show that development has been a pain-staking, protracted and fiercely contested process. By examining the progress towards development at the beginning of the 21st century, it raises issues of debt and democracy, but also looks at the recent wave of anti-capitalist protests and global financial summits. It provides a critical history of development geography as a sub-discipline, exploring some of the different historical and geographical settings in which geographers have conducted research about development. At the same time it gives a wide-ranging introduction to contemporary patterns and debates about global development.