Critical exploration of the invention, rise, and, current moment of global development projects, aiming to end poverty, improve living standards,, and ensure the freedoms of individuals in the, Global South, drawing largely on scholars from, the region to problematize mainstream, understandings of and solutions to social and, economic development. First, an exploration of, how "development" has been defined, measured, and, understood over the past century, from colonial, conceptions to post-development rejections of the, term. Second, reading of several exemplary, critical analyses of development thinking and, practice, focused on questions of international, aid, microfinance, cash transfers, and the global, economic system.