This course will introduce students to the critical ferment and dissent that is present in theorizing and engaging with modern social change and development, drawing on literature that cuts across social spaces, geographies and history. It will provide students with an opportunity to develop and broaden their theoretical understanding of the ‘modern’ world, as well as, of the central problems debated within development studies; such as neo-liberalism and globalization, capitalism and inequality, social justice and freedom. The course will examine the scope offered by these frameworks and ideas for addressing, or speaking to, the entanglements between the social, economic, political and cultural forces which underpin social change, or development, and the form of ‘progress.’