Studies In Critical Social Sciences314 and against Development

In this sixth volume, the World Bank’s scholarship as Knowledge Bank is critically assessed, alongside alternative perspectives, in relations to its ideology and policy in practice. The account is framed across the phases of neoliberalism, and corresponding phases of economics imperialism and development economics/studies. Long self-proclaimed as “Knowledge Bank”, the World Bank is as active as criticised in its endeavours across scholarship, ideology and policy in practice, serving US interests in the age of globalisation, neoliberalism and financialisation. This Volume focuses on the Bank’s scholarship, meticulously criticising it and assessing alternatives. Its analytical framing draws upon economics imperialism in general, and its evolution through three phases. Corresponding phases of new, newer and newest development economics are identified, with the World Bank taking a leading role in each, with implications for the expanding scope of development economics and its contestations with development studies.