Overview

The problem of development intertwines with the very emergence of economy as a field of human knowledge. From the founding work, The Wealth of Nations, 1776, written by Adam Smith, the authors, at least until John Stuart Mill, have looked into the matter. More recently, at the end of the first half of the twentieth century, development returned to the forefront of academic and political debate and virtually stopped.

What is striking, however, is that throughout this time the meaning of the concept of development was not the same and this trajectory revealed not only learning and consolidation of scientific knowledge but also the power of rich nations' and traditional economic's theory opposition to opposing the current geoeconomic order.

In view of this, this seminar intends to recover the evolution of dominant theories of development, briefly reviewing them, in order to clarify the changes undergone by the concept. Specifically, the objective is to perceive the evolution of the meaning of development to the economic theories grouped in periods; identify some characteristics of theses produced in these blocks; and, finally, evidence that there was a significant change of objectives between the 1950s and 1960s.