This book critically reappraises ideas about learning and economic development advanced by Albert O. Hirschman, one of the great pioneers in the field. The contributors - distinguished economists, development theorists, social scientists, and practitioners - show how Hirschman's innovative ideas bear on the theory, policy, and practice of development in the 1990s.

In a postscript, Albert O. Hirschman, who is now professor emeritus at Princeton University, reflects on the evolution of his ideas, his cognitive style, and his propensity for self-subversion. Two appendixes present a candid MIT faculty discussion of the essays and Hirschman's musings in response to particular chapters and questions raised by the participants.