This book expands understandings of how skills are defined, acquired, and utilized in global South contexts. Skills’ and ‘skill development’ are increasingly prominent focal points for governments in the global South and international development bodies. Yet, policymakers and practitioners promoting skill development often overlook the everyday realities of how skills are learned and acquired, and how they are deployed and valued by individuals and communities. Frequently, they ignore the social and institutional barriers that prevent people from using their skills in meaningful or remunerative ways.

By focusing on the ‘the social life of skills’, the chapters in this volume invite a broader conceptualization of skills, their development and their application in global South contexts. They explore four main areas of theorization and practice:

1. The social and political processes by which certain types of work – and people – are labeled as ‘skilled’ or ‘unskilled.’

2. The different ways people acquire skills: formal, informal, and non-formal.

3. The political economy of skills and skill development and their imbrication in forms of exploitation and intersecting inequalities.

4. The role of skills in the expression of aspirations, identities, and agency.

This book will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of development studies, sociology, anthropology, education, and labor studies, particularly those focusing on the global South. It will also appeal to policymakers, practitioners, and development organizations working on skill development and vocational training.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.