Development is a complex process of negotiation over meanings, values and social goals within the sphere of public action and not merely a question of project-based interventions or of quantifiable inputs and outputs. This collection of papers draws on The Open University's path-breaking work in the field of development management and includes in-depth accounts by academics and development managers that range from civil society organisations in Brazil to NGO workers in Egypt, government departments in Tanzania and Poland, donor agencies in Bangladesh and black feminist activists in the UK.