The Study of Development and the Alleged Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach

One of the first items on the agenda for development studies, as perceived from the vantage point of The Institute of Social Studies, deals with disciplines and interdisciplinarity. The customary reading of this problem is basically simple. Inasmuch as development is total or comprehensive, affecting entire societies and groups of societies, there is no reason to expect that any particular discipline, any particular specialization of the social sciences or of science, is likely to succeed in mastering it.