Skills, training and development: an introduction to the social life of skills in the global South

Abstract

‘Skills’ and ‘skill development’ feature evermore prominently in international development discourse and in the policies of governments across the global South. Yet, these discourses and policies often proceed with a weak conception of the social circumstances and everyday processes by which skills are acquired, disseminated, and used. This tends to result in approaches to skill development that are simultaneously unrealistic, in the sense that they overlook the multiple social and institutional impediments to remunerative or empowering forms of skill utilisation, and overly restrictive in the sense that they fail to consider the multiple ways in which skills are valued and deployed by indiv..