GDI Lecture Series: How lives change: a study of Palanpur, India with Nick Stern & Himanshu
Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, LSE and Professor Himanshu, Jawaharlal Nehru University gave a lecture entitled: ‘How Lives Change: Palanpur, India and Development Economics’. The lecture draws on a 7-decade detailed data collection in a single village. The study of Palanpur, India illuminates the drivers of change, why some people do better or worse than others, and what influences mobility and inequality.
Listen to the lecture in full below.
In Conversation: Jonathan Glennie & Pablo Yanguas
On the latest episode of the Global Development Institute podcast researchers, Jonathan Glennie and Pablo Yanguas discuss how and why we need to rethink aid.
GDI Lecture Series: How the west got China wrong with Yuen Yuen Ang
Professor Yuen Yuen Ang gave the Adrian Leftwich Memorial lecture entitled ‘Autocracy with democratic characteristics: How the West got China wrong’. You can listen to the podcast, or watch the lecture below.
Good life never comes like dreams: a discussion of young people in cities
Global Development Institute hosted a special screening of the Ugandan film Boda Boda Thieves at the Millennium Powerhouse in Moss Side, as part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Sciences.
A group of young people from Hulme and Moss Side, youth workers and those working in or from East Africa, as well as members of the public, attended the open event which also formed part of our ongoing commitment to public engagement around global inequalities – one of our five research beacons at The University of Manchester.
Water, language and inclusion
Professor Diana Mitlin, Managing Director, Global Development Institute
After some years away from the water literature I’ve been struck by extent to which a language of neoliberalism has permeated the sector.
There are significant costs to this use of language. Language which obfuscates has contributed to a shift away from addressing the water needs of citizens who are disadvantaged and on the lowest incomes. Particular concepts are equipping the sector to behave like a market, even when that is neither the stated objectives nor the desired culture.
Three specific terms demonstrate how this shift in language opens up some research questions and closes down others.
read more…
Putting the needs of young people at the centre of national policy
Nicola Banks, Lecturer in Urban Development, Global Development Institute
As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, we’ll be holding a film screening followed by a learning exchange and discussion with youth groups in Manchester to see what can be learnt across these geographies about youth vulnerability and disenfranchisement. Wht is this important? Tanzania has one of the youngest populations in the world. With half of the population aged 25 and under, the median age is 17 years old. One-fifth of the population is between the ages of 15 and 24 and therefore classified as ‘young’ by the United Nations definition. This constitutes around 10 million Tanzanians, with this number expected to double in the next two decades.
Understanding and addressing the problems facing young people is therefore critical, and this will be increasingly central to broader developmental outcomes in Tanzania. What happens if these aren’t put front and centre of policy and programmes? In their Next Generation Tanzania report, the British Council sparks our imagination with the phrase “[embrace the democratic] dividend or disaster”, emphasising the centrality of the issue to Tanzania’s development and potential. read more…
Civil Society: Who are the voices that are rebuilding South Sudan?
Rajab Mohandis, alumnus of the Global Development Institute
Civil society organisations (CSOs) play a constructive role in public affairs in South Sudan. They contribute to the search for peace and stability, public policy formulation and implementation, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, information dissemination and delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to needy populations in the country. Besides this massive public presence however, the concept of civil society appears to be confusing in the public domain. This article attempts to provide some level of clarity on the identity of CSOs, focusing on South Sudan. read more…
Open Access Week at Global Development Institute
Open Access week for 2018 runs from 22-28th of October. To celebrate you can find a selection of our Open Access publications from the last academic year below.
Open Access is a core value at the Global Development Institute, as Diana Mitlin, Managing Director of Global Development Institute, explains:
“The majority of research at GDI is made available either Green or Gold Open Access, and our GDI Working Paper Series is always free to download. Open Access is key in supporting the core values that GDI holds as an Institute: inclusivity, responsibility, equity and sustainability. read more…
Poverty and social injustice: why are people advocating a ‘relational’ approach? (and what does that mean anyway?)
Dr Chris Lyon, Research Associate, Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre
‘Global inequalities’ is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons. How can academic research into inequalities improve our understanding; how can it help to inform policy and activism; and how can it be critical and morally engaged, while also being rigorous and high quality? That last question has particularly been on my mind recently in light of a rising tide of sceptical critiques of academic work on social justice. read more…
Organisational Change: Science, Art or Alchemy?
On the 7 and 8 September 2018, two second year PhD students from the Development Policy and Management Programme, Kunkanit Sutamchai and Xi Xi, presented papers at the “12th Colloquium on Organisational Change and Development”. This annual colloquium is organised by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) and is chaired by Dr Chris Rees of GDI. This year the conference was held in Wroclaw, Poland and was co-chaired by Professor Grzegorz Belz from Wroclaw University of Economics.
The colloquium brought together international scholars and practitioners with a view to exploring a broad range of perspectives and insights. The theme of this year’s event was “Organisational Change and Development: Science, Art or Alchemy?” During his keynote address, Dr Rees discussed the extent to which organisational change should be seen mainly as “an art” (encapsulating approaches to organisational change, which are more interpretivist, emotionally grounded and dialogic in nature); mainly as “a science” (involving more diagnostically and deterministically focused approaches to organisational change); or even as “alchemy” (with few pre-determined principles and often involving almost magical transformations, which are difficult to predict, explain and manage).