The global financial crisis of 2008-2009: an opportunity for development studies?

This paper draws upon the five other papers presented in this volume, along with other presentations made at the 2009 Development Studies Association Conference, to reflect on the relationship between development studies and the 2008–2009 global financial crisis. It first analyses antecedents to the crisis by relating the papers presented by Gore (on long waves of capitalism) and Fischer (on China's integration into the world economy) to a Polanyian analysis. It then considers immediate policy responses with particular reference to India (based on the conference presentation by Mehrotra), China (based on the paper by de Haan) and the 2009 DFID White Paper. Third, it considers two possible additional sources of finance for developing countries: South Korean aid (discussed by Chun et al.) and new forms of international money (discussed by Hudson). The paper concludes that while the crisis is a reminder of structural global economic interconnectedness a challenge for development studies is to combine this fact with analysis that is also interdisciplinary, multi-tiered and policy relevant