This volume is the product of a conference on the theme 'Development - the Next Twenty-five Years' which the Institute of Social Studies held in Decem ber 1977 to mark its own twenty-fifth anniversaryas a centre of development studies. We felt it appropriate at that point in time to caU together specialists from all over the world in an attempt to assess the 'state of play' in our field as we move into the last quarter of the twentieth century. 1 For several days, therefore, the Institute's new building house d a remarkable concentration of knowledge and experience concerning the problems of...