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“Global Development? We Have Reached a Cul-De-Sac”

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””

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Let’s Talk About Communication! Impressions from the EADI Research Communications Workshop

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”

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Why We Need Alternatives to Development

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”

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Development Studies Matter! Framing an Evolving Field of Study in Changing Times

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”

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The SDGs: Transforming our World or Business as Usual?

By Christiane Kliemann

Compared to their predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a step in the right direction: With their global validity, they acknowledge that change not only needs to happen in poor countries, but in rich countries too, see for example Goals 11-15 (Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life below Water and Life on Land). In all these areas the early industrialised countries of the Global North have a lot of homework to do to bring their lifestyles and economies within the planetary boundaries. Continue reading “The SDGs: Transforming our World or Business as Usual?”