Development Studies Association Conference 2025 – Call for Papers Open
The Development Studies Association (DSA) is currently accepting paper proposals for its upcoming annual conference. Taking place at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath as a hybrid event between 25th and 27th June 2025, this year’s conference theme is “Navigating crisis: Dangers and opportunities in development” – providing an excellent opportunity for scholars to grapple with our unstable and unsettling times.
As ever, a number of academics within GDI have co-convened or helped with organising panels and workshops for the event (listed below). If you’re interested in submitting a paper to present at this year’s conference, you can view the full list of panels here. You’ll also find more information about DSA2025, including key dates and practical information, on the DSA’s website.
Panels convened or attended by at least one GDI academic include:
Protecting the poor and marginalized: State (in)capacity, healthcare disparities and socio-economic inequalities in LMICs
Convenors: Sandra Obiri-Yeboah (University of Ghana), Vidhya Unnikrishnan (GDI), Ruby Kodom (University of South Africa)
Abstract: The panel seeks to understand how the growing health burden in LMICs in the context of weakened state capacity and limited health provision services affects the poor and marginalized.
Reimagining and fostering rural development in an era of polycrisis across the tropics
Convenors: Sandy Nofyanza (GDI), Michaela Guo Ying Lo (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent)
Abstract: This panel explores how rural development and transformation are being (re)imagined, experienced, and enacted in the tropics — a region acutely affected by overlapping global crises. Our goal is to unpack the complex realities these communities face and explore pathways to meaningful change.
The role of non-state actors in political crises
Convenors: Muez Ali (UCL), Hamid Khalafallah (GDI), Raga Makawi (ZED/Africa International African Institute)
Abstract: This panel explores the role of non-state actors in political crises and how that challenges concepts of statehood. We invite scholars to examine how these actors gain legitimacy, provide public goods and humanitarian aid, and the impacts on traditional frameworks of aid and citizen-state relations.
Urban informality and the polycrisis [Urbanisation and development]
Convenors: Martina Manara (UCL), Graeme Young (University of Glasgow), Alice Sverdlik (University of Manchester)
Abstract: The DSA’s Urbanisation and Development Study Group calls for papers discussing urban informality as a site where we can possibly find the most acute manifestations of and the most disruptive responses to the current ‘polycrisis’.
Digital agriculture in crisis
Convenors: Ebenezer Ngissah (Wageningen University and Research), Tonny Kukeera (Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester), Nana Afranaa Kwapong (University of Lincoln)
Chair: Katarzyna Cieslik (GDI)
Discussant: Matthew Ayamga
Abstract: This panel explores why digital agriculture often fails smallholder farmers, focusing on systemic barriers like unreliable energy, inequity, and top-down approaches. It seeks solutions through inclusive innovation, local knowledge, and equitable governance for impactful, sustainable outcomes.
Challenging the crisis of migration: Rethinking the interface between development and migration
Convenors: Oliver Bakewell (GDI), Tanja Bastia (GDI)
Abstract: This panel invites papers that explore the everyday mobility that underpins so many people’s lives in the Global South; analyses of the impacts of development interventions on the mobility practices; how the concepts and practices of development can better engage with mobility.
Youth in urban social movements: New solidarities and intergenerational collaborations
Convenors: Daniela C Beltrame (GDI), Mercy Sande (Dialogue on Shelter)
Chairs: Teurai Nyamangara (Dialogue on Shelter Trust), Michelle Koyaro Matengo (Shack Dwellers International Kenya (SDI-K))
Abstract: This panel explores the pivotal role of youth engagement in social movements, centering on the challenges and opportunities for new solidarities and intergenerational collaboration. It is structured as a horizontal learning exchange and welcomes submissions in varied mediums.
Development studies in the turbulent 2020s: Reflecting on the past, looking to the future – EADI 50th anniversary roundtable and launch of special issue of EJDR [PPE SG]
Convenors: Andy Sumner (King’s College London), Pritish Behuria (GDI)
Chair: Andy Sumner (King’s College London)
Discussants: Laura Camfield (Kings College London), Pritish Behuria (GDI), Brendan Howe (Ewha Womans University), Arief Yusuf (Padjadjaran University)
Abstract: The European Association of Development Research and Training (EADI), celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024/25. This roundtable reflects on the current state of Development Studies and discusses and launches a special issue of papers. The panel is hybrid.
Breaking the mould: Seeking equity through reforging mechanisms for ‘North-South’ research collaborations
Convenors: Mohammed Ibrahim (GDI), Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai (University of Ghana Business School)
Chair: Sam Hickey (GDI)
Discussants: Eyob Balcha Gebremariam (University of Bristol), Peter Taylor (Institute of Development Studies), Katarzyna Cieslik (GDI), Justice Bawole (University of Ghana Business School)
Abstract: The complex and interwoven crises of today’s world demand evidence-based policies rooted in genuine research collaboration. This roundtable will facilitate a critical and constructive dialogue on the rhetoric and reality of designing and using mechanisms to promote equity in North-South partnerships.
Photo by Isaac Taylor
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GDI Digest: Conceptualising and Defending the Future
By Louisa Hann
It’s the beginning of a new year – a time when many of us are looking to the future. Whether you’re trying to stick to a resolution or counting down the days until spring, January is often charged with a combination of renewal, resolve, and trepidation.
If you’re leaning more towards anxiety than optimism this year, you’re not alone. The early 2020s have proved distinctly rocky at a global scale thanks to rising authoritarianism, new and emerging health crises, escalating geopolitical rivalries, and – perhaps most worryingly – intensifying climate breakdown. As Gindo Tampubolon explains in a recent blog, trust in climate science can have a detrimental effect on our mental health, with those in highly vulnerable countries feeling especially anxious.
Evidence and Experience: UN Decade of Healthy Ageing around the World
by Dr Gindo Tampubolon (Reader in Global Health, GDI) and Dr Elia Maggang (Honorary Fellow, Lincoln Theological Institute)
This year marks the mid-point of the decade and the global health initiative known as the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing. Led by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with other UN organisations, the Decade aims to improve the lives of older people, their families, and the communities in which they live. At the end of 2024, the WHO invited the University of Manchester’s Gindo Tampubolon and Elia Maggang to join a meeting of experts in life course and healthy ageing to examine progress towards such aims and advise on whether a mid-course correction is necessary.
The occasion prompted both academics to reflect on current evidence and the experiences of ageing in both high-income and developing countries.
Lessons from Africa – for Manchester
By Diana Mitlin
A recent conference on African Urbanism has provided a useful space for me to reflect on what the African experience has brought to my work and that of my colleagues. This has included academic scholarship, professional and policy engagement and activism. Given their potential to improve development in Manchester and the role the University plays in this, two lessons are immediately worth sharing.
Leadership for development as a catalyst for transformations
By academic staff members of the Manchester- Melbourne Masters in Leadership in Development
The role of self-leadership in navigating crises
By Mengistu Weldemariam
Master’s in Leadership for Development Alumnus and Programme Manager for Mortgage Stress Victoria in Melbourne, Australia
How does the way we think about ourselves affect our propensity to lead others? How can development practitioners harness their self-awareness and self-knowledge to reach ambitious goals? In this blog, I explore how our perceptions of ourselves can help us build resilience and shape our abilities to manage crises in the development space.
The Role of Knowledge in Social Protection Policies in Latin America
By Lina Arenas
University of Manchester GDI Alumna and Former Deputy Minister of Vulnerable Populations of the Peruvian Government
PhD candidate in Social Policy from The University of Edinburgh, UK
What role does knowledge really play in the making of social protection policies? Is it required more intensively at some stages of the policy-making process? Is more robust evidence or broader types of knowledge more legitimate than others? To what extent does all the time, money, and effort devoted by governments and policy communities actually influence their design, implementation, and ultimately their budget allocation?
New research project explores Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey in wake of 2023 earthquake
Update: Rethinking Economics Report and Student Reflections
A few months ago, the University of Manchester’s Post-Crash Economics Society and Rethinking Economics launched a report examining whether the economics curriculum is capable of tackling the world’s mounting crises. Global Development undergraduate and report contributor Sammi Dé wrote a blog about the report’s conception and his views surrounding the limitations of mainstream economic pedagogies.
Recently, Rethinking Economics published another scaled-up report examining the state of economics courses across UK universities. Now in his second year, Sammi reflects on some of the findings in the following blog, as well as the state of economics more generally.
Dams, Power and the Politics of Ethiopia’s Renaissance
by Dr Tom Lavers, Reader in Politics, Global Development Institute
More than 13 years after Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi laid its foundation stone, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is finally nearing completion. A new open access book, Dams, Power and the Politics of Ethiopia’s Renaissance, examines the domestic and international political economy drivers of Ethiopia’s dam building programme and the role of electricity within Ethiopia’s project of state-led development.