Development Studies Association

Development and social justice

929 papers submitted resulting in a total of 74 panels and 586 accepted papers under 10 streams and 3 formats; we are really looking forward to seeing you in London – and online – for DSA2024 for a conference on the theme of Social justice and development in a polarising world.

On the theme of justice, we note that academic colleagues at the centre of accusations from Cabinet Minister Michelle Donelan have received an apology and cleared of wrongdoing, but damages will be paid by taxpayers.

This month’s newsletter is another bumper edition with news from our institutional and individual members. If you’re not yet a member, scroll to the end to find out how to join us.

Finally, if you’d like to meet us and hundreds of other colleagues from across disciplines to discuss social justice at DSA2024, do look out for our early bird conference price which is available from 15 March.

Check out the DSA2024 programme

DSA News

DSA Masters Dissertation Prize 2024 winner

Ana Palma Garcia from the Institute of Development Studies is the winner of the DSA’s Masters Dissertation Prize 2024 for her work entitled: Co-constructing notions of inclusion with Deaf women in Colombia throughout cooperative inquiry. Judges praised its beautiful writing as well as her use of the co-inquiry process

Read it for yourself

Unity in Diversity? The Future of Development Studies

Save the date for a workshop on 25 June with DSA and EADI (the European Association of Research and Training Development Institutes). The workshop will reflect on the current state of development studies looking at: framings of development; the universality or not of development; and questions of decolonisation. Registration opens in May.

Find out more

New frontiers of urban informality research: call for papers

Submit papers before 5 April 2024 for a conference on urban informality organised by DSA’s Study Group on Urbanisation and Development.
The conference will take place 12 to 13 September 2024 at the University of Sheffield.

Find out more and submit a paper

Land, Labour and the Politics of Development Study Group webinars

The next events in the open webinar series organised by the newly named Land, Labour and the Politics of Development Study Group:
* Then As Now: African Oceans as Embodiments of Traditions.
13 March 2024, 3.30-5pm with Dr. Ife Sinachi-Yarwood from University of Saint-Andrews.

* Unviable Micro-Property? Petty Production in Indian Agriculture.
26 March 2024 with Professor Barbara Harriss-White, University of Oxford.

* South Africa Zimbabwe’s Command Agriculture: Problems of Planning under Neoliberalism.
4 April 2024 with Dr. Freedom Mazwi, Lecturer, University of Cape Town.

See all events from the group

Save the date for Scotland conference

Friday 6th September at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley will be the date of DSA's Scotland study group.

The theme is “Migration in the Global South”, but two other sessions will be devoted to presentations of a more general nature and to presentations by doctoral research students.

Read more

Institutional Members' news

Poverty and Social Protection Hub engages with policymakers

Dr Keetie Roelen delivered a keynote on cost-effective social protection programmes at a policy engagement workshop with 40 government representatives from across Latin America last month, sharing global evidence on effective social protection schemes to help policymakers reshape their social protection policies.
CSGD are also hosting an event on social protection and social justice in June.

All CSGD news

DPU at UCL

* DPU alumna, Joana Dabaj, has been shortlisted for the W Awards’ Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture.
* UCL Health of the Public launches new academic communities to increase UCL’s cross-disciplinary public health research.
* Dr Paroj Banerjee will lead a new research project bolstering developmental outcomes on urban marginalisation and resilience of street- connected youth in a post-COVID-19 world

See all DPU news

All GDI news

* New research from the African Cities Research Consortium on safety and security; nutrition and wellbeing; informal settlements; participation and action research
* Open webinar on ‘Poverty Dynamics: The Case of Bangladesh’
* New podcast on challenges with forest restoration efforts and debates on carbon offsets

Plus new open access titles on:
* Pathways to Development: From Politics to Power
* Sensing the past along Britain’s A roads
* AI for social good and the corporate capture of global development
* Hierarchical consumption preferences, redistribution, and structural transformation

Read all GDI news

All ODID news

* Should we be seeing climate migrants as potential agents of change?
* New project on formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining rights and protections
* Pakistan’s post-election landscape
* Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative to provide support for multidimensional poverty reduction strategies.
* How ‘wars’ on terror, drugs and irregular migration are exploited to be economically and politically profitable

Read all ODID news

Call for papers: How to write about platformisation from Africa

Submit before 25 April 2024 for an intimate three-day writing workshop, hosted at the University of Cape Town and funded by Edinburgh University.

The workshop will engage in creative and generative ways with platform writing; connect interested scholars with publishing opportunities; strengthen the network of platform scholars working on and in Africa; and fill the gaps in the geographies of knowledge that are currently represented in the scholarly debate.

Find out more and submit

IDD news

Including:
* Creating an oral history archive of women's public service in Pakistan
* Continuities and changes in electoral authoritarianism, Ethiopia
* Pakistan election
* Podcast on political economy of transport, telecommunications and infrastructure in the Philippines and more

Read all IDD news

Masters and PhD ops in Edinburgh

Opportunities to study an MSc in International Development online at the University of Edinburgh, as well as career trajectories for PhD candidates at the Centre for African Studies.

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Speculation on UK development cooperation, 2025-2030

DSA member Andy Sumner of King’s College London looks into his crystal ball and ask what a change of government in the UK might mean for UK development cooperation and policy. He reviews what has changed since 1997 (when DFID was established) and what a new government would inherit.

A second blog turns to the questions of whether a new DFID will rise from the ashes, whether aid funding will return to 0.7% of GNI and what a change of government might mean.

Read the blog

SOAS runs workshop on African economic development

SOAS's Development Leadership Dialogue brings together leading academics and professionals to discuss the challenges in implementing development policies. Find out about its most recent event.

Read More

Mark International Women’s Day 2024

Practical Action Publishing are offering a 15% discount on titles until 15th March. We highlight some of their gender focused titles.

Read More

New titles from OUP Economics

* Pathways to Development: From Politics to Power
Samuel Hickey and Kunal Sen
* Sustaining Tanzania’s Economic Development
Edited by Oliver Morrissey, Joseph Semboja, and Maureen Were
* Immiserizing Growth Fails the Poor
Paul Shaffer

Read More

Scholarships

* The DPU70 Scholarships are now open for two students studying on master’s courses during 2024-2025.

* Applications are open for a fully-funded PhD fellowship through the University of Birmingham’s 125th Anniversary Black British Scholarship program.

* Also at Birmingham, Between “Global Britain” and national health: The role of Parliament in tackling immunisation inequities of minoritized groups’ Apply before 30 April 2024.

* The University of Manchester has created fully-funded scholarships for 20 students who are fleeing war and persecution. Applications close 15 April.

* The University of Manchester is also offering undergraduate and masters awards to international students starting their studies in September 2024, the year of University of Manchester bicentenary.

See details for all scholarships on our Scholarships page.

See all scholarships

Individual member news

Audacious Hope: an archive of how democracy is being saved in India

Professor Indrajit Roy represented the University of York at the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, billed as the "greatest literary show on earth". His latest book Audacious Hope: An archive of how democracy is being saved in India was launched at the festival. You can catch a video of the event at the link above.


Rising power, limited influence: Europe and the Liberal international order

Edited by DSA member Indrajit Roy and Jappe Eckhardt, Dimitrios Stroikos, and Simona Davidescu. This title develops a dynamic framework of the interaction between state-society relations in Europe with state-society relations in China.


University work experiences in international development: expanding locations, spaces and pathways

New open access article by Anke Schwittay


Natural resource degradation and human-nature wellbeing

By Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Tanjila Afrin, Mohammad Saeed Islam. Exploring natural resource governance, market economics, political economy and human-nature well-being, this title offers key learnings for researchers and policymakers.


Decolonize, humxnize

Edited by Kathryn Toure, Roopal Thaker, Rama Salla Dieng and Celestine Wamiru. Perspectives from several continents suggest pathways toward more convivial and equitable relations in society, and each chapter is presented in conversation with an illustration.


Is development dead? far from it: Get Ready For A new era of global development Education

A podcast featuring Anke Schwittay from School of Global Studies, Sussex

Member events

More member events

13 March 2024, 5:30-7:00pm. DPU70 Dialogues in Development. Post Growth: planning after capitalism.

14 March 2024, Open University. CSGD Seminar on Digital-by-default service delivery & the vicious circle of digital poverty.

14 March 2024, IDD Birmingham. Teaching the politics of development when everything about development is political!

26 March 2024. GDI PhD researcher, Isaac López-Moreno Flores, will be delivering a webinar titled ‘Poverty Dynamics: The Case of Bangladesh’

Apply by 5 April 2024 for the OPHI Summer School 2024  on  Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis, taking place 1–12 July in Rabat, Morocco.

See all member events

Become a member of the DSA

DSA membership is open to anybody with an interest in development studies and you may join as an individual, or as an institution. Members can be from around the world, and a fee-waiver is currently in place for those living in and citizens of low- and middle-income countries. Members in the UK may claim tax relief on DSA membership subscriptions they have paid for themselves, via HMRC.