IKD seminar series: Quo Vadis Development Studies? Changing dynamics in a contested field

Online via Microsoft Teams

Abstract

The field of Development Studies has always been contested by different visions ranging from those that conceive it as project of the global North developing the South to those that view it as a project of Southern emancipation from colonial subordination and a means to structural transformation. The COVID-19 pandemic once again motivated calls for the field of development studies to be recast.

Drawing from recent publications below, the seminar explores the role of critical development policies, and emergent theoretical paradigms.

• What are the Global South origins of development and what can we gain from bringing global South theories and lenses to examine the world economy and majority world.
• What are the implications of global development frameworks that erode the traditional North‒South framework at the core of the discipline?
• How does a Global Development paradigm relate to the policy and funding objectives of the UK and the International Development preceding paradigm?

The Open University Economics Seminar Series will host Pritish Behuria (University of Manchester) and Lebohang Liepollo Pheko (Trade Collective), co-authors of the aforementioned publications, and will be introduced and chaired by Giles Mohun (Professor of International Development at The Open University)c

Register for this event via Microsoft Teams

Relevant Publications:

• Research Article: Wiegratz, J. et al (2023) ‘Common Challenges for All? A Critical Engagement with the Emerging Vision for Post-pandemic Development Studies’, (open access)
• Press: Stevano, S. et al (2023) ‘Letter: Global South is expression of uneven power relations’
• Blog: Wiegratz, J. et al (2023) ‘Common Challenges for All?’

Speakers

Lebohang Liepollo Pheko

Lebohang is an activist scholar who is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Trade Collective, Johannesburg, South Africa. She has taught at the University of South Africa, University of Johannesburg, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute for Technology and Linköping University. Her key scholarly interests are international trade, international development, decolonial feminism, feminist economics and globalization. Her work uses an intersectional approach to explore race, gender and class oppressions, and is rooted in social movement struggles.

Jennifer Larbie

Jennifer is Head of Campaigns and UK Advocacy at Christian Aid. Jennifer is responsible for campaigns on climate and economic justice and for involving supporters, the church and the public to make change happen. Jennifer joined Christian Aid in October 2020. Previously, Jennifer was Head of Foreign, Defence and International Development policy at the Labour Party, where she also directed the Party’s international democracy building programmes. Jennifer holds a master’s degree in development studies from the London School of Economics, specialising in economic development policy in Africa. She has previously held roles in Parliament and the National Education Union.

Chair

Giles Mohan

Giles is Professor of International Development at the Open University. He has held various UK academic posts over the past 30 years and has an area specialism in West Africa. Giles is a human geography who works on international development. Recent work has addressed China’s engagement with Africa supported by a series of large grants from the ESRC and GCRF. His current ERC-funded REDEFINE project builds on this China-Africa work to track the implications for Chinese investment in Europe and is so doing questions the nature of global development. Giles has designed and managed a range of distance learning courses aimed at undergraduate and Masters students, and latterly extended this to short, CPD courses for international development professionals (DFID, UNICEF, Christian Aid, Save the Children, Oxfam, World Vision). He has also worked on a range of media projects with the BBC around international development including Comic Relief documentaries, the Reith Lectures and a World Service series on the SDGs.