1. The Roots of Dispossession

‘The Roots of Dispossession’ discusses how our understanding of global accumulation can be furthered by, what may be called, the government-business-media (GBM) complex. Although this concept is normally discussed from a critical theoretical perspective, this book explores how this model can represent the preconditions for development itself. This chapter embeds the GBM within the existing literature on capitalist development. It will begin by discussing some of the main theoretical influences of development and economic theory which intersect with the different schools of development theory. The narrative then follows a chronologically driven analysis of the main schools of development thinking throughout the twentieth century and how they were influenced by changing events in the global political economy. The dominant schools of thinking on development are critiqued from the perspective of the Global South. Our analysis also seeks to identify advances in the development and related literature. The chapter ends by discussing the unique contribution which the GBM complex hopes to make to the literature.