Call for Papers: Africa Journal of Management
Towards understanding the African entrepreneurs and their cultural context: Economic rationality and African value system. read more…
Inflation: how financial speculation is making the global food price crisis worse
Sophie van Huellen, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester
UK households, like those in many other countries, are struggling to make ends meet. More than half of households have only £2.66 per week left after paying for bills and essentials, according to figures from the supermarket chain Asda.
The extreme spikes in the cost of energy and food that we have seen this year are mostly to blame for this shift. Basic grocery prices have increased by 17% on average from last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, while some products such as pasta have increased by as much as 60%. This is because the cost of staple food crops, such as wheat, have increased by more than 30% since the beginning of 2021. read more…
‘One nation in two countries’ and anything in between: Transnational lived citizenship and the complex answers to the question ‘where do I belong?’
Tanja Müller, Professor of Political Sociology, Global Development Institute
Reflections from the first emerging findings workshop of the ESRC-funded project: Transnational lived citizenship: practices of citizenship as political belonging among emerging diasporas in the Horn of Africa, held in Khartoum, 9-10 November 2022. read more…
Global Development Institute Merit Awards
The Global Development Institute Merit Awards provide three full scholarships for academically excellent professionals studying a GDI campus-based master’s course commencing in September 2023. The scholarship covers 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 three fully funded scholarships for resident citizens of Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda and have not previously studied outside Africa. read more…
In Conversation: Amani Abou-Zeid
In the latest Global Development Institute podcast Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner in charge of infrastructure, energy and ICT, talks to Seth Schindler about energy security and infrastructural development in Africa.
Ahead of COP27 in Egypt, they reflect on Africa’s energy “evolution” in relation to climate change, why integration is key to bridging the continent’s infrastructure gap, the impact of rising interest rates on foreign and local investment, and the regional innovation and cooperation that has emerged in response to multiple crises, including Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.
Call for papers: The Politics of Development Studies Conference
DSA Politics and Political Economy Study Group
Sponsored by the Journal of Development Studies Conference fund and The Development Studies Association
Organised by Pritish Behuria (Manchester) and Tom Goodfellow (Sheffield)
Development studies – as a field – has been the subject of consistent criticism from neighbouring disciplines (political science, geography, economics and anthropology) and other interdisciplinary fields (global studies, international relations, urban studies). Not unlike other disciplines, development studies was rooted in colonial experiences. Fundamentally, the task of development studies was to understand the future trajectories of post-colonial societies. Given its close association with foreign aid-led development and particularly, the Truman project, this has made it an easy target for critics. However, it must be noted that this version of development studies is just one interpretation of the past of development studies and ignores other potentially more progressive versions like Bandung-oriented development studies (Mkandawire, 2011; Helleiner, 2014). Sumner (2022) goes further, highlighting four distinct ‘development studies’ that are currently envisioned by scholars working in the field. Development studies has also been criticised for lacking a specific canon or being too inter-disciplinary in an era where other social sciences (political science, economics) have become increasingly narrow and mathematised. read more…
GDI Lecture Series: FutureDAMS
Following the completion of the interdisciplinary FutureDAMS project in early 2022, this lecture delivered by the project leads reflects on what they have learned through their research, capacity development and policy engagement over the last four and a half years. Are there any over-arching conclusions about major water/energy/food/ environment initiatives that can be agreed upon on, or does everything depend on ‘context’? And importantly, what does the future hold for these major nexus programmes? read more…
In Conversation: Basma Albanna and Richard Heeks
Development studies often focuses on the negative: constraints, challenges, negative impacts, etc. But what if we could use new digital datasets to identify positive deviants: outlier individuals, households, districts and others that outperform their peers in achievement of development goals?
In this episode, Basma Albanna and Richard Heeks discuss the “Data-Powered Positive Deviance” (DPPD) programme. The programme built on an original idea by GDI researcher, Basma Albanna, that was fleshed out in a paper co-authored with Richard Heeks, GDI’s Professor of Digital Development. It argued that traditional methods of identifying positive deviants relied on costly and time-consuming primary data-gathering from the field. Instead, it might be possible to identify outliers in the growing number of digital datasets already available.
GDI Lecture Series – Autumn 22
The GDI Lecture Series is back, and after the last three years, we are finally In-Person.
As previously, the Global Development Institute Lecture Series provides space for leading development thinkers to discuss their latest research and ideas. Lectures are free and open to all. read more…
The issue of ‘skills’ and the importance of qualitative migration research
Juno Ellison, Wellcome EDI Research Placement intern
The outcomes for migrants are often determined by how states define and value their skill sets. Defining such skills has become increasingly controversial in migration research as there are a variety of contemporary criticisms on the nature of skills themselves: why they are socially constructed, how this translates into policy and legislation, and the consequent implications for our understanding of skilled migration. read more…