The Institute of economic and social development studies aims at training specialists development issues, to produce and to reactivate knowledge, to understand and to act in answer to the evolutions of our complex world.

Development studies are multidisciplinary by definition. Their particularity relies on the capacity to think through all the aspects of processes of economic increase and of social and urban change in a world where nation-states tend to converge or to diversify. It is fundamental to keep a global and prospective approach to social dynamics for the well-being of reflexion and education. This development studies’ characteristic contributes to the understanding of social change, modernity, the future of societies and the meaning that we give them : “there are no under-development countries, there are only under-analysed countries” affirmed already with conviction Jacques Berque in 1962 (Sciences sociales et decolonisation, Tiers Monde, n° 9-10, Paris, PUF, p. 3). The challenge for an independent and productive research in human and social sciences remains crucial for a great number of countries.