International development’s had its time
Often associated with a North-South binary, the term ‘international development’ seems increasingly inappropriate for encompassing the various actors, processes and major challenges with which our world currently engages. In a new paper in Progress in Human Geography, I argue that global development holds potential as an emerging paradigm better fitted to the early 21st century, but critical attention is required as to what that may involve. read more…
GDI Lecture: Agrarian crises, institutional innovation and gender with Bina Agarwal
Listen or watch Professor Bina Agarwal, Global Development Institute, discuss Agrarian crises, institutional innovation and gender: Can group farming provide an answer? read more…
Debating the new geographies of development: the 2019 Development and Change Forum Issue
Dr Rory Horner and Professor David Hulme
Since 1990 the global map of development has shifted from one of “divergence, big time” to “converging divergence”. This involves some converging in development indicators between North and South in aggregate, alongside divergence or growing inequality within many countries. To better capture the nature of contemporary challenges, this means we need to go beyond the traditional notion of ‘international’ development to consider a different form of ‘global’ development in relation to the whole world.
In a nutshell, this was our argument in an article in Development and Change, prompting the editors to commission 8 critical commentaries by a variety of leading thinkers on development. The whole issue is open access, but here’s our summary of the key questions and issues that were raised. read more…
BAPA+40: Learning from the Global South
One word to describe the current state of multilateralism is “contested”. Within existing international institutions, like the United Nations, debates on global governance reform have been politicised to a point of gridlock. New multilateral institutions, like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or the New Development Bank, have been created, but mainly because emerging economies were dissatisfied with their lack of voice in the Bretton Woods institutions. Increased nationalist and populist movements around the world, as well as rivalries among rising powers, have added to these contestations.
Despite these trends, global cooperation has achieved major milestones recently. In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change were launched. Since then, countries have translated these frameworks into concrete policies to benefit their people, often in new forms of collaboration across governments and with non-government actors.
Against this background of “contested cooperation”, the global development community meets for the Second High-Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) from 20-22 March 2019. This is not another UN conference where developing countries gather to present their demands towards richer countries. Instead, the conference is a celebration of solidarity among developing countries. More than 40 years after a landmark UN conference on the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA), developing countries showcase their achievements in cooperating and learning from each other. read more…
Fieldwork in Cape Town South Africa: our experience Development Informatics group 2019
Jody-kay Jackson (ICTs for Development MSc) & Raghav Mutneja (Management and Information Systems: Change and Development MSc)
Fieldwork is an essential part of the Management and Information Systems: Change and Development and ICTs for Development master’s programs and this year, the students got to visit the lovely city of Cape Town in The Republic of South Africa. The 10-day trip was full of excitement, activities, learning, new experiences and of course, a nice opportunity for all of us to get away from the chilling weather in Manchester. And South Africa greeted us all with nice and warm sunshine. read more…
GDI Lecture: Property, institutions, and social stratification in Africa with Franklin Obeng-Odoom
Listen or watch Associate Professor Franklin Obeng-Odoom, University of Helsinki, discuss his upcoming book on property, institutions, and social stratification in Africa.
Listen or watch to the lecture in full below. read more…
GDI Lecture: Blood Bricks: modern slavery & climate change in Cambodia with Katherine Brickell
Listen or watch Professor Katherine Brickell, Royal Holloway, University of London, discuss her ESRC-DFID funded study on the relationship between modern slavery and climate change in Cambodian brick kilns. Find out more about her Blood Bricks project.
Listen or watch to the lecture in full below. read more…
Global Development Institute Merit Awards
The Global Development Institute Merit Awards provide six full scholarships for academically excellent professionals studying a GDI campus-based master’s course commencing in September 2019. The scholarship covers the tuition fees, living expenses, flights to the UK and visa costs.
The Global Development Institute is where critical thinking meets social justice. Researchers at the Global Development Institute are addressing some of the biggest challenges the world faces, from inequality and the politics of development to globalisation. We strive to address specific problems and make an impact in the real world. Cutting-edge insights from our research are incorporated in our postgraduate teaching and many of our 10,000 alumni become development leaders. For the last 60 years, The University of Manchester has been at the forefront of Development Studies and The Global Development Institute continues to drive forward new ideas promoting sustainable development and social justice for all.
For the next academic year we’re able to offer six fully funded scholarships for resident citizens of Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, who have not previously studied outside Africa. read more…
Call for papers: Technologies of Bordering: creating, contesting and resisting borders
Technologies of Bordering: creating, contesting and resisting borders conference
3 – 5 July 2019
Sidney Myer Room, University of Melbourne, Australia
Conference convenors: Elise Klein, University of Melbourne and Uma Kothari, University of Manchester
Borders are pervasive spatial, political and social features in contemporary society. Materially and symbolically manifest, borders are shaped by history, politics and power. They take various forms, have multiple functions and are ceaselessly changing. Through a wide array of material, digital and virtual technologies borders divide, exclude, contain, categorise, control, govern and protect people. For example, the presence or absence of documents such as passports, permits and identity cards control the movement of people across borders as do security and surveillance technologies like gamma ray scanners that can reveal undocumented bodies hiding in trucks that are attempting to cross borders. Such technologies are a material manifestation of bureaucratic systems that are mobilised to assign identities to people and ascertain their associated rights as citizens or non-citizens.
PhD studentship on South-South Migration
Project Description
This full time 3 year PhD studentship, starting in September 2019, is fully funded by The University of Manchester and based at Global Development Institute.
As a doctoral candidate, you will be part of the Migration, Refugees and Asylum research group and the Migration Lab. There will also be opportunities to contribute to current teaching programmes by working as a Teaching Assistant on migration-related modules.
You will be supervised by Dr Tanja Bastia and Dr Oliver Bakewell. read more…