Structural Transformation and Late Development in the 21st Century: Is the Lewis Model Still Relevant?
by Mahtab Uddin, PhD candidate, GDI, University of Manchester
In 1954, Arthur Lewis published a paper that set out his famous Dualistic Development Model, arguing that developing economies could foster capitalist growth by employing surplus labour from the subsistence sector. This intervention arrived at a critical juncture in human history. The world was recovering from the Second World War, many countries were emerging out of colonial regimes, achieving their first independence in centuries, and geopolitical dynamics were shaped by the tussles between capitalism vs. communism.
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.
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.