This course aims to provide students with a clear and all-round introduction to the complex debates around how development has been understood and achieved in a shifting global economic and political landscape. Drawing mainly upon the practices, experiences, lessons and challenges of economic and social development in China, this course will engage students in a critical thinking of and reflection on the evolution and change of development concepts, theories, approaches and policies as they are put into practice in the real world and are entwined with such issues as state and economy, globalization, welfare regime, poverty and inequality, environment and sustainability and so on at local, national and global scales. The objective is to assist students to develop analytical skills and global perspectives essential for evaluating the multifaceted dimensions of development on people’s lives and environments in different historical, geographical and institutional contexts.