6th joint Nordic Development Research Conference

The current global situation requires in-depth examination of diverse spaces of learning. Most often, learning is discussed in relation to formal education, which has been seen as a silver bullet for development. Development research has shown how education contributes to economic growth, increases cultural capital, reduces inequalities, enables democratic society, empowers women, and widens the possibilities to choose. However, even before the recent pandemic the crisis of learning taking place in educational systems all over the world was widely acknowledged. The lockdowns and closures of schools and universities have presumably accelerated the learning crisis accompanied with crystallized inequalities, for instance related to the access to means of distance learning. The puzzles related to commercialization of education and the politics of education in different political regimes are persistent. At the same time education and learning, in many different forms, take place in religious practices, organization of civil society, social movements, small-scale entrepreneurship, and many other societal settings.

The conference welcomes development scholars to reflect on questions related to development, learning and education from multiple and multidisciplinary perspectives. The plenary sessions focus on the conference theme. The working groups coordinated by scholars can cover a wide variety of topics relevant to current development research in order to support mutual learning within development research community.

Call for papers open until April 9. See here for more information

The conference is organized jointly by the Finnish Society for Development Research, the Danish Association of Development Researchers in Denmark, the Norwegian Association For Development Research, and the Swedish Development Research Network.