Towards New Rhythms of Development, Lisbon, 10-13 July 2023 – Page 2

13/09/202315/09/2023

What Is a “Development” Research Project? Transforming Ideas of Development through Development Research

By Mette Fog Olwig, Jacob Rasmussen, Lone Riisgaard, Christine Noe, Geetika Khanduja, Peter Taylor, Herbert Hambati, Lisa Ann Richey, Chris Büscher and Paola Minoia / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Development Studies has long operated with binaries such as “developed/developing” and “traditional/modern” that foster implicit assumptions of Northern superiority. As a result, research projects taking place in so-called “developing countries” tend to ask different research questions and use different methods leading to types of theories that differ from those concerning so-called “developed countries.”

04/08/202315/09/2023

Global partnerships to prioritise care and the preservation of life

By Christiane Kliemann / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Amid the multitude of current interconnected and mutually reinforcing global crises, the closing panel of our recent #NewDevRhythms conference in Lisbon centred around the question what Development Studies could do to understand and respond to the various facets of these crises, while, as a discipline, facing numerous crises of its own. To consult and bring forward non-European perspectives, EADI president Andy Sumner who chaired the session had invited representatives of Development Studies Associations from different parts of the world.

09/05/2023

International Development Cooperation and LGBTQ+ Rights in Africa

By Stephen Brown / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Sexual and gender minorities are under attack in several African countries. For instance, over the past couple of years, extreme anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been introduced in Ghana and Uganda, where homosexuality was already illegal. Kenya and Tanzania could well be next. International actors are struggling with how to respond to the various bills, whose draconian new penalties include life imprisonment and even capital punishment.

19/04/2023

Contract farming is everywhere, but how does it affect agrarian relations in the Global South?

By Caroline Hambloch, Helena Pérez Niño and Mark Vicol / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Contemporary debates in agrarian studies have been predominantly focused on land and property issues, at times to the detriment of questions about production and exchange. The large and expanding footprint of contract farming is one example of a relatively neglected – yet significant – dimension of contemporary agricultural systems in the Global South. Farming contracts are one of many forms of coordinating production and exchange that seek to avoid the uncertainty for producers and buyers of finding each other more spontaneously in open markets. Contract farming involves a non-transferable agreement between farmers and buyers that specifies the terms of production and marketing, typically relating to the price, quantity, quality and delivery of the product.

27/03/2023

The Global South and the return of geopolitics

By Wil Hout / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Students of international relations are typically familiarised with the work of Alfred Thayer Mahan and Halford Mackinder, who both stressed the relevance of geographical dominance for great power status. Mahan focused on the role of sea power, while Mackinder’s notion of the ‘heartland’ (which referred to Eastern Europe) stressed control of land masses as a central factor for great power status. Mahan and Mackinder’s work is usually discussed to illustrate the popularity of geopolitical thinking at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.