Global Development Institute Blog

The Global Development Institute is helping to convene seven panels at the annual DSA conference in September.  The focus of the conference is politics in development.

For full details of each session and to proposed a paper, click on the title.

 Power, politics and digital development [Information, Technology and Development Study Group]

Convenors: Richard Heeks (University of Manchester), Mark Graham (University of Oxford), Ben Ramalingam (Institute of Development Studies)

The panel will cover the broad intersection of power, politics and digital development including both directionalities – the impact of power and politics on design, diffusion, implementation and outcomes of ICT application; and the impact of ICT application on power and politics – and their mutual interaction.

Challenging media representations of refugees and exploring new forms of solidarity

Convenors: Tanja Müller (University of Manchester), Uma Kothari (University of Manchester)

This panel explores the diverse representations of the current movement of refugees into Europe. Through an examination of the politics of representations the panel explores the extent to which representations have the potential to create spaces of resistance and forge new forms of solidarity.

The politics of public sector transformations

Convenor: Pablo Yanguas (University of Manchester)

The public sector remains an inescapable component of development. Moving beyond the limited agenda of public sector reform, this interdisciplinary panel addresses public sector transformation as a contentious and transnational process of organisational and political change.

China and the rising powers as development actors: looking across, looking back, looking forward [Rising Powers Study Group]

Convenors: Khalid Nadvi (University of Manchester), Alex Shankland (Institute of Development Studies), Jennifer Hsu (University of Alberta)

The emergence of China and fellow ‘rising powers’, such as Brazil, India, South Africa and Russia, is having a profound impact on international development. This panel examines the multiple interrelated ways in which rising powers are (re-)shaping international development trajectories.

The politics of the migration-development nexus: re-centring South to South migrations [Migration, Development and Social Change Study Group]

Convenors: Tanja Bastia (University of Manchester), Kavita Datta (Queen Mary)

This panel aims to re-frame the migration-development nexus from the perspectives of regional South-South migrations and interrogate the potential for a more expansive migration-development nexus which extends beyond financial and economic priorities to consider wider political concerns.

Global production networks and the politics and policies of development

Convenors: Rory Horner (University of Manchester), Matthew Alford (University of Manchester), Fabiola Mieres (Durham University)

Global value chains and production networks constitute the backbone of global trade and are subject to attention by both policymakers and political contestation. This 2 session panel explores the economic, social and environmental challenges of GPNs and their developmental policy ramifications.

Beyond the ‘new’ new institutionalism: debating the real comparative politics of development

Convenors, Kunal Sen (University of Manchester), Sam Hickey (University of Manchester)

The panel addresses how politics shapes economic/social development through a focus on the findings of the Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre. The presentation of the findings will be followed by a discussion of their implications for rethinking the politics of development.