By Luqman Ọpẹ́yẹmí Muraina and Aysha Valery
The Development Studies Association (DSA) conference held annually and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) conference held every three-years bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss some of the world’s most pressing challenges – inequality, sustainability, environment, migration, etc.
Continue reading “Why the Next DSA and EADI Conferences Should Be Hosted in the Global South”
By Heiner Janus and Michael Roll
Manchester embodies reinvention like few other places. It built the world’s first industrial economy, watched it rust, and recast itself as the capital of England’s north. When protests turned deadly at the Peterloo massacre, it helped galvanise a tradition of organised labour and democratic reform — one that later produced the suffragettes, founded there by Emmeline Pankhurst. And when the band Joy Division collapsed, the remaining members re-emerged as New Order. That instinct — not to reassemble what broke, but to build something new — was the animating spirit when the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute convened researchers in mid-April to ask: is the era of Development over? And if so, what replaces it?
Continue reading “What to Play Next: Development after the End of Development”
By Devika Dutt
Calls to decolonise Development Studies have gained increasing visibility across universities, research institutes, and policy spaces. Yet despite its growing popularity, decolonisation is often treated as a loosely defined aspiration rather than a substantive intellectual and political project. In many cases, it is reduced to efforts to diversify reading lists or improve representation within existing frameworks. While such initiatives are important in their own right, they do not address the deeper structural and epistemic foundations of the field.
Continue reading “Decolonising Development Studies: Why It Matters”
By Luqman Muraina / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project
I completed my B.Sc. Sociology in Nigeria with little or no knowledge about alternative epistemologies, coloniality, and politics of knowledge. Like many young graduates fed by modernity’s shine, I was just determined to be successful and contribute positively to societal development and transformation.
Continue reading “Decolonial Journey: #RhodesMustFall and ‘Decolonising Development Studies’ in Ghana and Nigeria”
By Lyla Mehta
Since the Brundtland Commission advanced the concept of sustainable development in 1987, a lively strand in Development Studies (DS) has engaged with the linkages between environment, sustainability and development. This remained fairly niche until the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goals mainstreamed sustainable development.
Continue reading “The Challenges of Decolonising Sustainability and the Environment in Development Studies”
