By Markus Loewe and Christoph Strupat
(Image by UNICEF Malawi)
It is common wisdom that social transfer schemes are an important instrument of poverty reduction and human development. But evidence is increasing that fair and generous social transfer schemes are also important for economic growth and political stability. Continue reading “Social Transfers: A Corner-Stone for Human, Economic and Political Development”
EADI President Henning Melber strongly supports the view that science is not neutral and needs to take clear positions. At the recent EADI Directors’ Meeting in October 2018 in Vienna we had the chance to ask him a few questions:
What are, in your view, the most pressing challenges for the global development research community?
Global development? We have reached a cul-de-sac. The signs are obvious that development, as it was promoted since the last several centuries, basically since the era of enlightenment, is nothing that provides a sustainable future. We talk a lot about sustainability in the meantime, even global sustainability, but we are not walking the talk. We are not living up to that. Continue reading ““Global Development? We Have Reached a Cul-De-Sac””
By Christiane Kliemann
It is no secret that in times of digitalisation and information overload, communicating research plays an increasingly important role – research institutes employing larger or smaller communication units in order to make their own voice heard in the cacophony of voices, opinions and media outlets.
“The ability to communicate is the key to being relevant”, Anna-Pia Hudtloff, Head of Communication at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) said at our recent two-day workshop on research communication. Continue reading “Let’s Talk About Communication! Impressions from the EADI Research Communications Workshop”
By Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta
The seductive nature of development rhetoric, sometimes called developmentality or developmentalism, has been internalized across virtually all countries. Decades after the notion of development spread around the world, only a handful of countries that were called ‘underdeveloped’ or ‘developing’, now really qualify as ‘developed’. Others struggle to emulate the North’s economic template, and all at enormous ecological and social cost. The problem lies not in lack of implementation, but in the conception of development as linear, unidirectional, material and financial growth, driven by commodification and capitalist markets. Continue reading “Why We Need Alternatives to Development”
By Susanne von Itter
EADI has published a definition of Development Studies? Why yet another definition? Can such a broad field of studies be defined anyway? EADI finds: Yes!
“Development Studies (also known as ‘international development studies’ or ‘international development’) is a multi- and inter-disciplinary field of study rather than a single discipline. It seeks to understand the interplay between social, economic, political, technological, ecological, cultural and gendered aspects of societal change at the local, national, regional and global levels.”
Continue reading “Development Studies Matter! Framing an Evolving Field of Study in Changing Times”
