This volume is the product of a conference on the theme 'Development - the Next Twenty-five Years' which the Institute of Social Studies held in Decem ber 1977 to mark its own twenty-fifth anniversaryas a centre of development studies. We felt it appropriate at that point in time to caU together specialists from all over the world in an attempt to assess the 'state of play' in our field as we move into the last quarter of the twentieth century. 1 For several days, therefore, the Institute's new building house d a remarkable concentration of knowledge and experience concerning the problems of the so-calle d less developed countries, drawn from all over the world. Although it was inevitable that the participants should represent the past (and it was several times re marked that, in that sense, there were too few women present), the earnest and sometimes heated discussions looked to the future as much as to what had happened in the last twenty-five years. As the discussions proceeded, three things became apparent. Firstly , although the papers submitted did not fully reveal it, the ongoing debate between radicals and moderates, those who saw possibilities of change only basically through a direct break with existing structures and those who felt change possibIe within them, is by no means at an end.

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Speeches Given during the Conference.- Opening Speech.- Speech on the occasion of his installation as an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Social Studies.- Speech on the occasion of his installation as an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Social Studies.- Reflections by a Minister on development problems.- Reflections by a Civil Servant on development problems.- Rapporteurs' Comments on Group Discussions.- Group A, Development and Dependence.- Group B, Perspectives and Strategies for the Rural Poor.- Group C, Employment, Mobilization and Participation.- Group D, Restructuring Industrial Societies and the New Economic World Order.- Open Group, The Past and Future of Development Studies.- A Selection of the Papers Presented at the Conference.- Balance Carried Forward a review of twenty five years of development studies at the Institute of Social Studies.- A Reconsideration of Economic Development Theories 195277.- Aid to the Poor or Betting on the Poor.- The Burden of Land Reform: an Asian model land reform re-analysed.- Technology, the System and the Poor the case of the new cereal varieties.- Urban Poverty and Employment in Latin America: guidelines for action.- Redistribution before Growth a Strategy for Developing Countries.- Restructuring the Economies of the Industrialized Countries: a positive sum game?.- The International Crisis: adjustment policies for incomes and employment.- Development and Dependence: the emerging regional division of labour in Latin America.- Perspectives in the Latin American Growth 'Centres'.- Development Cooperation a differentiated and thematic approach.- Structural Aspects of Third World Trade: some trends and some prospects.- Restructuring Industrialized Countries and the New International Order.- Participants atthe Conference.