The Inequity of Development

How can we understand the recent work on inequality by major development institutions, in contrast to their previous focus on only economic growth? How can we make sense of these powerful institutions suddenly taking up the issue of inequality after decades of ignoring it? What kind of shift does this represent and what real-world difference, if any, might it make? Can methods of close reading reveal something useful about this question?

This is a chapter written by Shane Chalmers and Sundhya Pahuja for a Handbook on the scholarship and methods of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). Access the full text on our publications page.