In Conversation: Stefan Dercon
In the latest episode of the GDI podcast Professor Stefan Dercon talks to Dr Sophie van Huellen. They discuss Stefan’s new book, “Gambling on Development: why some countries win and others lose”, his recent departure from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and his advice to academics wanting to work with civil servants and policymakers.
Listen to the podcast or read the transcript in full below. read more…
Researching the everyday of transnational citizenship: Arts-based participatory methodologies and feminist ethics of care
Dr Josephine Biglin explores a recent workshop on ‘Researching the everyday of transnational citizenship: Arts-based participatory methodologies and feminist ethics of care.’ The workshop ran from 16-20th May 2022 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Transnational lived citizenship is a valuable framework to explore how precarious migrant lives transform and are transformed by the urban settings in which they reside, whilst and through, maintaining translation linkages. However, academic researchers working with populations whose language, culture and experiences we do not always share is a complex ethical process. It is necessary to consider our position in the representation of participants’ voices and stories, especially when working with groups that are marginalised, socially excluded and potentially vulnerable. The social sciences have developed many ways to do this, for example, writing a reflexivity section. Other significant ways to do this is to carry out research using participatory methods and to frame our research with a feminist ethics of care.
SEED PGR Conference 2022 – Broadening Perspectives: Meeting Complexity Through Interdisciplinary Research
Anna Thurlbeck, Postgraduate Researcher, Global Development Institute
Taking place on the 5th and 6th of May, this year’s PGR Conference centred around the theme of multidiscipliniarity, chosen to put a spotlight on the extensive breadth of research being undertaken in the School of Environment, Education and Development. In an increasingly complex world, with challenges manifesting themselves on a global scale, it is more important than ever that our solutions to those challenges embrace a wide range of ideas, philosophies and perspectives.
Mini conference – Migration and inequalities in the Global South: Neglected intersections of oppression and privilege
A one day conference on three underexplored areas of migration in the Global South: disability, sexuality and skilled migration.
21st June 2022, 9.30am – 4.30pm.
The conference will be held in person at The University of Manchester. read more…
New Open Access Book – Political Settlements and Development: Theory, Evidence, Implications
Based upon a decade of ground-breaking research within the Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) research centre, Political Settlements and Development: Theory, Evidence, Implications, has been just been published by Oxford University Press. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of political settlements study and is available in Open Access. read more…
Urban metabolism, water scarcity and seawater desalination in Chile under a neoliberal paradigm
GDI’s Resources, Environment, and Development research group have recently organised a series of talks on ‘Red Talks: on the Politics of Resources, Environment and Development’ read more…
Data-Powered Positive Deviance: Learning from Outliers
Dr Basma Albanna recently gave a lecture at Africa in Science exploring her research into Data-Powered Positive Deviance.
In the lecture she introduces the new method that combines traditional (e.g. surveys & interviews) and non-traditional data (e.g. from remote sensing and mobile phones) to identify and understand development-related outperformers, and urges development and data science professionals to apply this structured, data-powered method to a range of development challenges and in a wider set of development domains, thereby enabling more effective use of the non-traditional digital datasets that are increasingly available. read more…
The Politics of Distributing Social Transfers: State Capacity and Political Contestation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Dr Tom Lavers, Senior Lecturer in Politics & Development, Global Development Institute
Social transfers are increasingly seen within the development industry as the go-to response to poverty, inequality, and economic crises, a trend that has only been reinforced by the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This spread and expansion of social transfer programmes have been accompanied by a growing body of academic research, which has increasingly focused on the political drivers of policy adoption. read more…
Development Economics & Public Policy event series
A new series hosted by Development Economics & Public Policy welcomes back previous graduates to speak to current GDI students.
To book onto any of the events, please email gdi@manchester.ac.uk. read more…
Colin Fuller – Obituary
It is with great sadness that the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester reports the passing of Colin Fuller on Wednesday 6 April at the age of 89. Colin was a Senior Lecturer at the Institute’s original structures: the Department of Administrative Studies (DAS) and Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), for almost 30 years. He was one of the earliest appointments of DAS’s founder, Professor Arthur Livingstone, in the late 1960s and he taught at DAS and IDPM until his retirement in the late 1990s. We, David and Jayne, both met Colin who was Acting Head of DAS, when we joined the Department in 1985. read more…