19th Development Dialogue – Reckoning with the past and imagining the futures of development research and practice

This event is hosted by International Institute of Social Studies. DD19 is partly funded by EADI, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.

The field of development studies is not estranged from critiques of extractive and hegemonizing policies and practices – the power relations that reproduce structural inequalities around the world.

In the age of environmental crises, unprecedented migration and displacement, and questions around justice and equity, we believe that development research and praxis are undergoing a moment of reckoning as scholars and practitioners grapple with the limitations and shortcomings of dominant approaches to development.

The theme of DD19 speaks to the ongoing pertinent issues of the regime we currently live in, where ‘development’ is impacted by past mistakes as well as impacts contemporary attempts for justice.

Climate change, war, human rights violations, unequal resource distribution, and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, caste, class, race, nationality, religion, and numerous other dimensions that characterize our identities – who we are – are all part of the discussion.

People are negatively and unevenly affected by these dimensions in each periphery of the world, with the most marginalized groups suffering the most. These inequalities have only been accentuated and made worse by the COVID-19 outbreak, which demonstrated the reflexive way specific discourses continue to dominate and define contemporary approaches to research and praxis.

This conference is our opportunity to address these shortcomings and add our scholarship to the reckoning.

Call for papers

The conference is dedicated to PhD researchers, practitioners and early career researchers, as well as artists or activists working on development issues. Ideas for artistic contributions for the conference are also invited. Apply here.