Researcher biography

Heloise Weber's research is animated by an interest in the historical and contemporary politics of inequalities and injustices in the organization of development globally. She approaches questions over development from a critical perspective, which considers 'the international' as a product of development, and the 'development' we experience as advanced crucially also through the 'international'. Her research addresses how knowledge-production and representation shape and justify framings of 'development' at a macro-political level, and what this means for people. A correlate of this is her interest in struggles against such schemes, and for 'development otherwise'. The conceptual and theoretical concerns raised in this context form the basis of her interest in the politics of method and methodological choices, notably with regard to social science staples such as the (formal) comparative method, and its consequences and implications. Her theoretical and analytical approaches are informed by a critical interest in colonialism and its legacies, and post-colonial and decolonial thought and politics. She is also interested in how such insights can contribute to contemporary critical revisions of global public political histories.

Research

  • Critical Development Theory and International Relations
  • Politics of the Comparative Method
  • Colonialism, Post-colonial Relations, and Decolonial Politics
  • Critical Approaches to Human Rights and Inequality
  • Critical Approaches to Security and Development
  • Global Political Economy, Finance, and Development
  • Politics and Political Economy of Microcredit and Microfinance
  • Trade, Development and Inequality
  • The UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

Heloise has been an active member of the Global Development Studies Section(GDS) of the International Studies Association(ISA), has twice served as Section and Program Chair, and serves on the GDS Eminent Scholar Committee. She is a founding member of the GDS/ISA Edward Said Graduate Paper Award.

She is a member of the editorial boards of Contexto Internacional- Journal of Gobal Connections, and of Globalizations.

She has served as Associate Editor of International Political Sociology (2017-2021). IPS is an official journal of the International Studies Association.

Books:

Co-authored

Phillip McMichael & Heloise Weber, Development and Social Change – A Global Perspective – 7thEdition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing, 2021 (copyright 2022).

Mark T. Berger & Heloise Weber,Rethinking the Third World: international development and world politics Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Edited volumes

The politics of development: A survey London, U.K.: Routledge, 2014.

Co-Edited volumes

War, peace and progress in the 21st century: Development, violence and insecurity London United Kingdom: Routledge, 2011. (With Mark T Berger)

Recognition and Redistribution: Beyond International Development London: Routledge, 2009. (With Mark T Berger) *This was originally a Special Issue of Globalizations.*

Book Chapters

Afterword:Imperialism and Global Inequalities. in G. Bhambra & J. McClure Imperial Inequalities: The politics of economic governance across European empires (forthcoming 2022). Manchester, Manchester University Press .

The political significance of Bandung for development: challenges, contradictions and struggles for justice (2016). In Quynh N. Pham and Robbie Shilliam (Ed.), Meanings of Bandung: postcolonial orders and decolonial visions (pp. 153-164) London, United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield.

From land grabs to food sovereignty (2016) In Jan Aart Scholte, Lorenzo Fioramonti and Alfred G. Nhema (Ed.), New rules for global justice: structural redistribution in the global economy (pp. 109-124) London, United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield.

Gender and microfinance/microcredit (2016). In Jill Steans and Daniela Tepe-Belfrage (Ed.), Handbook on gender in world politics (pp. 430-437) Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

Introduction (2014) In Heloise Weber (Ed.), The Politics of Development: A Survey (pp. 3-9) London, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis. doi:10.4324/9780203804919

Global politics of human security (2013) In Mustapha Kamal Pasha (Ed.), Globalization, difference, and human security (pp. 27-37) Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315886923

Global Poverty, Inequality and Development (2012) In Richard Devetak, Anthony Burke and Jim George (Ed.), An introduction to international relations 2nd ed. (pp. 372-385) Port Melbourne Vic., Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Global poverty and inequality. (2007) In Richard Devetak, Anthony Burke and Jim George (Ed.), An introduction to international relations: Australian perspectives (pp. 283-294) Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Microcredit Schemes (2007) In Roland Robertson and Jan Aart Scholte (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Globalization (pp. 780-783) New York, USA: Routledge.

The global political economy of microfinance and poverty reduction: locating local 'livelihoods' in political analysis(2006) In Jude L. Fernando (Ed.), Microfinance: Perils and prospects (pp. 43-63) London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis.

Global governance and poverty reduction: the case of microcredit (2002) In Steve Hughes and Rorden Wilkinson (Ed.), Global governance: critical perspectives (pp. 132-152) Abingdon, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9780203302804_chapter_8

Journal Articles

Poverty is not 'another culture': Against a right of children to work to live. Review of International Studies (published online, Feb 5, 2022). *With Aliya Abasi.

Contribution to the Giucciardini Prize Forum: Racist Origins of IR: Thakur and Vale on South Africa's formative influence on the discipline. Cambridge Review of International Affairs (published online Oct 26, 2021)

Colonialism, genocide and International Relations: the Namibian–German case and struggles for restorative relations, (2020) European Journal of International Relations Vol. 26 (S1): 91-115. DOI: 10.1177/1354066120938833 .*With Martin Weber.

When Means of Implementation meet Ecological Modernization Theory: A critical frame for thinking about the Sustainable Dvelopment Goals initiative. (2020) World Development.*With Martin Weber.

Global development and precarity: a critical political analysis (2019) Globalizations, 16 4: 525-540. doi:10.1080/14747731.2018.1463739 *With Samid Suliman.

Collective discussion: Diagnosing the present (2018) Walker, R. B. J., Shilliam, Robbie, Weber, Heloise and Du Plessis, Gitte (2018) Collective discussion: Diagnosing the present. International Political Sociology, 12 1: 88-107. doi:10.1093/ips/olx022

Politics of 'leaving no one behind': contesting the 2030 sustainable development goals agenda (2017) Globalizations,14 3: 1-16. doi:10.1080/14747731.2016.1275404

The 'Bandung spirit' and solidarist internationalism (2016) Australian Journal of International Affairs, 70 4: 391-406. doi:10.1080/10357718.2016.1167834 *With Poppy Winati*

Is IPE just 'boring', or committed to problematic meta-theoretical assumptions? A critical engagement with the politics of method (2015) Contexto Internacional: Journal of Global Connections, 37 3: 913-943. doi:10.1590/s0102-85292015000300005

Reproducing inequalities through development: the MDGs and the politics of method (2015) Globalizations, 12 4: 660-676. doi:10.1080/14747731.2015.1039250

Global Politics of Microfinancing Poverty in Asia: The Case of Bangladesh Unpacked. (2014) Asian Studies Review,38 4: 544-563. doi:10.1080/10357823.2014.963508

When goals collide: politics of the MDGs and the post-2015 sustainable development goals agenda.(2014) SAIS Review of International Affairs, 34 2: 129-139. doi:10.1353/sais.2014.0026

Politics of global social relations: Organising 'everyday lived experiences' of development and destitution (2010)Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64 1: 105-122. doi:10.1080/10357710903460048

Human (in)security and development in the 21st century (2009) Third World Quarterly, 30 1: 263-270. doi:10.1080/01436590802623001 *With Mark T. Berger*

War, peace and progress: Conflict, development, (in)security and violence in the 21st century (2009) War, peace and progress: Conflict, development, (in)security and violence in the 21st century. Third World Quarterly, 30 1: 1-16. doi:10.1080/01436590802622219 *With Mark T Berger*

A political analysis of the formal comparative method: Historicizing the globalization and development debate (2007)Globalizations, 4 4: 559-572. doi:10.1080/14747730701695828

Conclusion: Towards recognition and redistribution in global politics (2007) Globalizations, 4 4: 603-605. doi:10.1080/14747730701695869 *With Mark T. Berger*

Introduction: Beyond international development (2007) Globalizations, 4 4: 423-428. doi:10.1080/14747730701695612 *With Mark T. Berger*

A political analysis of the PRSP initiative: Social struggles and the organization of persistent relations of inequality(2006) Globalizations, 3 2: 187-206. doi:10.1080/14747730600702998

Beyond state-building: global governance and the crisis of the nation-state system in the 21st century Third World Quarterly, 27 1: 201-208. doi:10.1080/01436590500370095 *With Mark T. Berger*

GATS in context: development, an evolving lex mercatoria and the Doha Agenda (2005) Review of International Political Economy, 12 3: 434-455. doi:10.1080/09692290500170809 *With Richard Higgott*

Beyond US grand strategy?: Critical analysis and world politics (2005). Critical Asian Studies, 37 1: 95-102. doi:10.1080/1467271052000305287 *With Mark T Berger*

The new economy and social risk: Banking on the poor (2004) Review of International Political Economy, 11 2: 356-386. doi:10.1080/09692290420001672859

Reconstituting the 'Third World'? poverty reduction and territoriality in the global politics of development (2004)Third World Quarterly, 25 1: 187-206. doi:10.1080/0143659042000185408

The imposition of a global development architecture: The example of microcredit (2002) Review of International Studies, 28 3: 537-555. doi:10.1017/S0260210502005375