Development geography 1

In this report I examine two of the most important trends bearing down on the international development regime in 2015, a landmark year. The first is the consolidation of South–South development cooperation (acknowledging the problematic nature of this designation), materially, ontologically and ideationally. The second is the response of the (so-called) ‘traditional’ donors to the opportunities and challenges provided by the ‘rise of the South’, in the context of the uneven reverberations of the post-2007/8 global financial crisis. Together, these interpolated trends have contributed to an unprecedented rupture in the North–South axis that has dominated post-1945 international development norms and structures – an axis that has also provided the focus for radical and critical approaches to the geographies of development. The resulting development landscape is complex and turbulent, bringing stimulating challenges to theorists of aid and development.