Migration and development: a theoretical perspective ; paper presented at the conference on ‘Transnationalisation and Development(s): Towards a North-South Perspective’, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany, May 31 - June 01, 2007

Abstract: "This paper aims to put the debate on migration and development in a broader historical perspective of migration theory in particular and social theory in general. The scholarly debate on migration and development has tended to swing back and forth like a pendulum, from developmentalist optimism in the 1950s and 1960s, to structuralist and neo-Marxist pessimism and scepticism over the 1970s and 1980s, to more nuanced views influenced by the new economics of labour migration, "livelihood" approaches and the transnational turn in migration studies as of the 1990s. Such discursive shifts in the scholarly debate on migration and development should be primarily seen as part of more general paradigm shifts in social theory. The shift that occurred over the 1990s was part of a more general shift away from grand structuralist or functionalist theories towards more pluralist, hybrid and structuralist approaches attempting to reconcile structure and actor perspectives. However, attempts to c

Object Details

• Alternative title: Migration und Entwicklung: eine theoretische Perspektive
• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 82 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: COMCAD Working Papers ; Bd. 29

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Bielefeld
• (when): 2007
• Creator: Haas, Hein de
• Contributor: Universität Bielefeld, Fak. für Soziologie, Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD)

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-353904
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:23 AM CEST