This book asserts the relevance of mainstream anthropology to development processes and recognizes that contemporary development should be anthropology's principal area of study. It argues for a socio-anthropology of change and development that is a deeply empirical, multidimensional, diachronic study of social groups and their interactions. It provides a thought-provoking examination of the new approaches that have emerged in anthropology since the 1990s. It assesses the complexity of social change and development, and how socio-anthropology can tackle this complexity. It examines some of the key variables in the development process, including relations of production; the logics of social action; the nature of knowledge; forms of mediation; and 'political' strategies. Much of the empirical material is drawn from Africa.