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This paper uses Leon Trotsky’s theory of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD) in order to transcend both globalising and methodologically nationalist theories of the global political economy. While uneven development theorists working in economic geography have demonstrated the logical corollary of capitalist development and the completion of the world market in the persistence of geographic unevenness, they fail to specify or problematise the role of states in this process. This leads to an ambiguity about why the states system has persisted under conditions of deep economic integration across states. State theorists, meanwhile, tend to exclude the world market and system of states as conditioning factors in state (trans)formation. For this reason, much state theory offers only a contingent account of the relationship between patterns of capital accumulation and states’ institutional forms. Geopolitical economy, with its focus on the competitive interrelations between states as constitutive of capitalist value relations, is well placed to transcend the pitfalls of these twin perspectives by closely engaging with the theory of UCD. UCD provides a nonreductionist means of integrating global processes of capital accumulation with their distinctive and peculiar national mediations. A research programme is developed to operationalise UCD for purposes of concrete research – something lacking from recent development in the field.

Recent decades have witnessed great interest in Leon Trotsky’s idea of uneven and combined development (UCD) by Marxist scholars of International Relations (IR). A burgeoning literature has argued that one interpretation, Justin Rosenberg’s U&CD, resolves the question of ‘the international’ by offering a single, non-Realist theory capable of uniting both sociological and geopolitical factors in the explanation of social change across history. Evaluating this claim, this paper argues that the transhistorical ways in which U&CD has been developed reproduce, reaffirm and reinforce some of the more important shortcomings of Realist IR. I develop my argument through an internal critique of Rosenberg’s conception of U&CD, which, I argue, is illustrative of larger shortcomings within the literature. I conclude that the political and geopolitical economy of UCD and their dynamics must be grasped through the specific social and historical relations in which they are immersed.

This piece takes issue with the deployment of Trotsky’s idea of uneven and combined development (UCD) in the Anglophone discipline of International Relations (IR). It argues that this strand of thought makes a theory out of what is really a theorem (a deduction from an axiom), whilst forgetting about the original, actual theory of which it was part, Leon Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. IR U&CD, marketed in the discipline as International Historical Sociology (IHS), posits ‘the international’ as the field to which ‘the theory’ must be applied in order to open it up to social theorisation. This is analogous to the late-19th-century subjective turn in social science in which reality is presented as unfathomable, and rationality is merely subjective, an attribute of individual ‘actors’. ‘The international’ in this sense may be compared to ‘the market’ in neoclassical economics. Although it presents itself as Marxist, the U&CD/IHS project was part of a regressive conjuncture in Anglo-American, mainstream IR, as transpires from its attempt to position itself close to the ‘English School’ in IR. I conclude with a variation on Trotsky’s original theory, applying it to the ‘permanent counterrevolution’, of which the current war on terror is the latest stage.

The purpose of this paper is to test the existing theoretical argument that the Indian software industry is a case of uneven and combined development by examining the workforce.

The paper is based on a survey conducted in two software organizations located in Bangalore. Data were collected through a combination of quantitative (114 questionnaires) and qualitative methods (62 semi‐structured interviews). Respondents were selected randomly from the work floor.

The paper observes that the workforce is uneven in nature and directly integrated with the global market. The workforce appears homogeneous. A typical software worker in India is a young male; hails from an urban and a semi‐urban locality; follows Hinduism, and belongs to the upper socio‐economic stratum of Indian society. He holds an undergraduate engineering degree, not necessarily in computer science, from a second‐grade educational institution. He is trained by the employers as per the needs of the Western market, and works for longer hours than required. He earns more than his counterparts in the other industries, and is promoted periodically based on work experience.

The paper suggests that Indian future policy initiatives should recognize the need for inclusion of the disadvantaged in this growing sector. Also, conclusions drawn from the study are useful for the developing countries that imitate Indian software industry to develop inclusive development policies.

From the existing literature, it is not known whether the employment‐related benefits are reaching all the social groups, or uneven and combined development is reflected at the workforce as well. The paper fills the gap using triangulation of methods.

To examine “universal service” as a policy objective in post‐WTO accession Chinese telecommunications and analyze the challenges of the Chinese telecommunications system in defining and promoting public service ethos in a country that is marked by staggering disparities.

A range of media, academic, industry, and policy discourses on “universal service” and a broader notion of “public service,” together with recent government efforts in promoting “universal service,” are examined and assessed to develop an analysis of the uneven nature of China's telecommunications development and reveal the dynamics of “universal service” policy formation, as well as the impetuses and impediments in developing any notion of public service telecommunications in China.

Public service issues in China need to be situated within a continuing process of uneven development which comprises dimensions other than residential telephone access. Although the ultimate policy goal appears to develop a nationally accessible telecommunications infrastructure as the basis of a unified national economy, this overall objective is beset by conflicts and contingent on the dynamics of elite and popular struggles over and beyond telecommunications development. Despite the spectacular expansion in telephone access, pragmatic concessions to dominant power groups, rather than a principled commitment to “universal service,” let alone efforts to define the social functions of telecommunications in more democratic ways, have shaped the development of China's telecommunications.

The development of China's telecommunications infrastructure offers lessons both as to the likelihood of successfully establishing an integrated national economy, and the role of public service in that context. However, the Chinese telecommunications policy field remains extremely fluid.

The paper aims to review the emergence and nature of entrepreneurship education in China. This paper considers the variability of developments in practices despite policy. In turn, this allows one to consider the implications of this uneven distribution of expertise and resources.

The paper is primarily empirically descriptive, but it draws upon different literatures to examine entrepreneurship education in the uniqueness of its Chinese context. The authors offer two comparative cases to illustrate the arguments.

Substantial differences were found by region and by the status of the institution. The region aspect is paradoxical because the largest number of new businesses exists in those regions with the best provision of enterprise education. The channelling of resources to elite resources compounds the problem. Less prestigious universities make do with what they have, and this may be detrimental for the quality and effectiveness of enterprise education.

There may be some regional differences that have been overlooked, but the thrust is clear. Different resource allocations have shaped entrepreneurship education in the regions.

Applied policy may have detrimental effects on less well-endowed universities and thus neglect less entrepreneurial places.

If entrepreneurship is to deliver its promise of opportunity, innovation and job creation, it needs to be taught by experienced and informed faculty. The uneven distribution of entrepreneurship pedagogy and expertise indicates that this may be more difficult to deliver in some places.

Although entrepreneurship education in China is now pervasive, little work has been done in comparing policies with practices.

This paper seeks to evaluate how some of the core general principles of heterodox political economy (HPE) can be applied to the issue of how HPE has managed to undergo resurgence and development over recent decades.

Four major principles of heterodoxy are applied successively to this issue: historical specificity; contradiction; heterogeneous agents and groups; and circular and cumulative causation.

These principles assist in comprehending how HPE is able to develop its own concepts, networks, publications, academic departments, teaching and policy‐relevant material.

HPE has had considerable success in developing a conceptual apparatus, which helps to explain the emergence of much of its edifice being developed in academic and policy circles. The performance of HPE has been impressive.

The conceptual apparatus of heterodoxy can be applied to real world situations; specifically a component of world history over especially the past 40 years.

This is the first time such a theme has been explored in the literature.

In the 1980s, the Chinese government undertook a major structural reform in education by which upper secondary education was converted from predominantly general education to an equal mix of general education and vocational/technical education. A critical examination is provided of the rationale for and implementation strategies of the reform, framed in a broader context of the development of secondary education in the past four decades. It points out that, although the reform was justified in largely economic terms, there is actually little empirical support for the economic assumptions; the development of vocational/technical education is prompted more by a desire to reduce the social demand for higher education and to use education as a social stratification device. The reform reflects changing perspectives of the Chinese leadership on the role of education in national development; and it can be seen as the outcome of the most recent episode of continuing social and political conflicts in the Chinese state that began in the 1950s.

Explores the economic implications of the single European market (SEM). Alternative economic explanations of key issues are put forward beginning with the SEM. The SEM will deliver lower prices and greater efficiency if it stimulates competition and allows the realisation of economies of scale. Continues by exploring how EU competition policy must be applied to prevent governments and firms from frustrating the realisation of greater competition or further economies of scale. Questions of regional policy, such as will the SEM minimise or accentuate regional differences, are considered, as is the matter of whether the SEM will enhance the EU’s long‐term growth prospects. Questions of macroeconomic policy, such as should the EU prioritise the fight against inflation above all other macroeconomic policy objectives are also considered.

Purpose – This conceptual chapter explores the effects of neoliberal development practices for people with disabilities in developing countries with special reference to postcolonial India. I examine the governmental strategy that operates through and on communities, analyzing how global political economy tends to localize disability and development responses. Deconstructing the assemblage of neoliberal development practices, this chapter problematizes this development orthodoxy from a disability lens in the context of a disability self-help group (SHG) project in rural south India.

Findings – In promoting government through community, SHG projects not only overlook structural, material, intersectional, and political processes of disablement but also attempt to reconfigure the cultural notions of community and personhood in the interest of market. The case of disability SHGs elucidates how emancipatory pedagogies and frameworks, when depoliticized and co-opted, can have detrimental effects for people with disabilities in the global south. Simultaneously, highlighting the counter politics and disability agency illuminates the modes of disabled people's resistance in the everyday and the institution.

Practical and social implications – Advancing philosophical and practical insights on inclusion, my hope is that this exercise will inform disability scholars, policy makers, educators, and allies of disability rights movements with a critical lens to question and find alternatives to the neoliberal world order.

Originality/value of the chapter – It contributes a Southern epistemological and empirical perspective to disability studies, which is currently dominated by Northern frameworks. It offers a multilayered understanding of rural disability and development in the context of neoliberalism, the knowledge of which is nonexistent.