This book brings together leading social development thinkers and articulates their theoretical and practical contributions to social development, enhancing their relevance in the contemporary social and political-economy contexts.

Social development remains relevant and significant within United Nations agencies, multilateral organizations, government ministries, NGOs and local communities, and its trajectory can be traced through major milestones such as the First World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) 1995, MDGs, SDGs and the Second WSSD 2025 and subsequent human development. However, as most social development ideas, conceptualizations, theories, models and approaches were developed from 1970 to 2000, it is not clear how such theoretical knowledge and practice skills are evolving and responding to rapidly changing social conditions in the 21st century. At this crucial juncture, revisiting the work of leading social development thinkers is beneficial for understanding their original conceptualizations and identifying how these ideas might be strengthened to address contemporary challenges. It is equally critical to consider how their social development ideas can be applied to solve specific social problems facing the world today. 

To address this need, the book draws on leading social development thinkers and their consolidated knowledge to critically and reflectively discuss:

• Their early influences and formative experiences that shaped their thoughts/theories/models/approaches;
• The specific social development theory/model/approach they developed or advanced through their writings, publications and teaching;
• The changes, improvements or refinements they consider necessary in light of current social and political-economy conditions;
• The theoretical and practical implications of their ideas for addressing local and global social problems today;
• The main limitations of their social development ideas and suggestions for further building, testing and application.

The book offers a single-volume collection of backgrounds, theories and reflections of leading social development thinkers for readers seeking social development insights that respond to evolving problems in new forms, shapes and spaces in the 21st century. Leading Social Development Thinkers is a valuable and inspiring resource for current and emerging social development students, scholars/researchers, educators/instructors, and practitioners in social work, human services, social welfare, development studies and social policy.

Manohar Pawar, BA, MASW, PhD, is Professor of Social Work, at the School of Social Work and Arts, Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia; Adjunct Professor, Monash University, Australia; Honorary Professor, The University of Edinburgh, UK; and Visiting Honorary Professor, at the Central University of Karnataka, India. He is the founding Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Community and Social Development, published by SAGE, the editor of the Springer Series in Social Development, and past President of the International Consortium for Social Development (July 2017– July 2025). He has more than 40 years of experience in social work and social development education, research and practice in Australia and India. He has received numerous honours and awards; recent ones include: curator and moderator of a solutions focused session on ‘Accelerating Social Development: Solution-Focused Research, Advocacy, and Practice’, at the Second World Summit for Social Development, 4-6 November 2025, Doha, Qatar; curator and moderator of a side event on ‘implementing the Doha Political Declaration: exploring strategies for cross-sector collaborations and integrated approaches’, at the United Nations 64th Commission for Social Development, 2026, New York; 2025 Highly Ranked Scholar – Lifetime in the Speciality of Community Development conferred by ScholarGPS; member of the UNESCAP’s Expert Group Meeting to prepare a report, ‘Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: Eradicating Poverty, Empowering People’; 2024 Highly Ranked Scholar – Prior five Years in the Speciality of Social Change conferred by ScholarGPS; 2023 most productive senior researcher, School of Social Work and Arts, CSU; Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017, conferred by the National Association of Professional Social Workers in India; delivery of the Council on Social Work Education 2017 Hokenstad International Lecture, USA. Professor Pawar’s national and international research projects, including an ARC (Australian Research Council) Discovery Project, focus on social development, social work, and social policy. He has more than 200 publications, including over 20 books/monographs. His recent publications include: Social and Community Development Practice (Atlantic 2024); Enlightening Professional Supervision in Social Work (co-authored, Springer, 2023); Virtue Ethics in Social Work Practice (Routledge, 2021, coauthored); Empowering social workers: Virtuous practitioners (coedited, Springer, 2017); Future Directions in Social development (co-edited, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); Reflective Social Work Practice (co-authored, Cambridge University Press, 2015); and International Social Work: Issues, Strategies and Programmes (2nd edition, SAGE, 2013).