Progress in Development Studies 6, 1 (2006) pp. 1–7 © 2006 Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd 10.1191/1464993406ps123ed I ‘Race’ in development Forms of racism and expressions that articu- late ideas about ‘race’ are fluid and multiple, contingent and contextual, ranging from overt to covert and unreflexive. Historically and geographically rooted, such expressions have become increasingly variegated, even detached from their originary impulses, and can travel far and wide. It is in this spirit of critical enquiry that the papers in this special issue aim to reveal some of the tenacious strands of racialized forms of knowing and representing in development discourse and practice. This is a realm that has remained curiously untouched by the post- colonial critiques and debates about ‘race’ in other social science disciplines (see Biccum, 2002). Together, the papers attempt to dis- rupt these ‘disturbing silences, banalisations and erasures’ (Grovogui, 2001: 437) and, focusing on a diverse range of issues from varying perspectives, question the absence of discussions around ‘race’. They suggest how understanding development in terms of ‘race’ can spotlight inadequacies, contradictions and misrepresentations in development ideolo- gies, policies and practices, as well as relations of power. Escobar (1995) argues that discourses of (western) development discursively produce the third world as different and inferior, and accordingly as its object of study and inter- vention. These articles explore how racialized forms of power and inequality build upon this foundational distinction between the ‘devel- oped’ and ‘developing’ and draw attention to the various, unspoken assumptions about ‘race’ that underpin some of the key ideological bases of development thought and practice. Additionally, they identify the need for further exploration of the subtle manifestations of racism within international development. Postcolonial, postdevelopment and anti- development critics have provincialized the supposed universality of western notions of development and have critiqued the inability of the west to theorize non-western experi- ences. However, while these accounts have alluded to ‘race’, they have largely focused on challenging eurocentrism (Escobar, 1995; Pieterse and Parekh, 1995). This does not mean that ideas about ‘race’ have been completely absent in accounts about devel- opment. Other research and writing, largely within geography, have explored the relation- ship between gender/feminism, postcolo- nialism and development (Robinson, 1994; Parpart, 1995; Midgely, 1998; McEwan, 2001), uncovered continuities between colonial histories of development and con- temporary representations of the third world (Crush, 1995; Cowen and Shenton, 1996; Editorial Critiquing ‘race’ and racism in development discourse and practice Uma Kothari Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9QH, UK