Students of development may use diverse definitions of development and underdevelopment, but invariably these definitions are related to regions or states which are regarded as disadvantaged by comparison with Britain or other rich countries. This focus has produced a neglect of ‘developmental material' on our own doorstep: the existence of pockets of social and regional underdevelopment has long been recognised in Britain and Ireland. Studies of structural attributes, official policies, the institutional apparatus and the consequences of development strategies are relevant to the general corpus of development studies, suggesting the need for a revised definition of development.