THIRD-WORLD STUDIES, DEVELOPMENT STUDIES AND POSTCOMMUNIST STUDIES - DEFINITIONS, DISTANCE AND DYNAMISM

The collapse of state socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s has had contrary impacts on Third World stu dies and development studies. On the one hand, the disintegration of t he former Soviet bloc has made the spirit of 'non-alignment' of the Th ird World no longer relevant. On the other hand, the nature of post-co mmunist transformation has led many scholars to study transition in te rms of development. This article will examine the recent trend of decl ine in Third World studies and the penetration of development studies into post-communist studies. It will argue that the employment of deve lopment perspectives in transitology will widen our field of vision of post-communist transformation.