DSA Annual Conference 2010: Values, Ethics and Morality. Friday 5th November 2010 CALL FOR PAPERS

This one day conference provides an opportunity for colleagues to reflect critically upon fundamental concepts of development in terms of both objectives and processes. The past twelve months have led many in our community to critically reflect on the values, beliefs, behaviours, ideas and relationships that we hold as we undertake research intended to support the progress of societies. But what is progress ? The constructive challenging of deep-seated assumptions about development often get submerged in the minutiae of policy driven which distort the complexity of development.

This conference aims to provide a platform for the exposition of plural standpoints reflecting a diversity of values, ethics and moral positions. The conference will focus on four key questions:

• What is the ethical basis for creating better futures for the lives and worlds of others?
• To what extent are essentially relativist positions presented as universal; and are fundamental principles, such as rights, justice and freedoms, ethnocentric in how they are defined and applied?
• Are any new universals emerging?
• What alternative values, ethics and moralities could usefully inform development theory and practice?

In policy terms we all have to reassess our place in a rapidly changing world. In Development Studies, we have a duty to retain a degree of critical independence in order to address global problems and plural standpoints rather than only be confined to OECD rationales (ethical or pragmatic) for being concerned about other parts of the world. In a world of relativisms alongside possible new emerging universals, how should we reflect upon our own ethical basis for development practice?

Can the West only buy a ‘hearing' for its ideas within resource poor societies (for example, through the aid relationship and other forms of leverage)? Elsewhere in the post, post colonialist world, are we likely to have declining purchase if we do not demonstrate an understanding for the sovereign values of others and a willingness to change our own values, priorities and behaviour as part of the engagement with others? Nowhere is this question more obviously appropriate than for climate change. But do other lesser examples of Western behaviour (whether it is high divorce rates, excessive drinking and drugs use, racism, or just plain individualistic selfishness and consumer indulgence) undermine any ethical basis to advise and guide others? In November 2010 we want to take stock and listen to accounts of what different people around the world think, value and strive for.

We might hear about :
• preferences for family and immediate relationships rather than individual success through acquisitiveness
• philanthropy and caring, alongside intolerance and othering
• happiness and its expressions through rituals and festivities
• the rationale for marriage systems other than monogamy
• the rationales for differentially allocating nutrition within families and communities
• the boundaries between childhood and adulthood, and what that means
• who and what roles are valued in local communities
• the challenges for global collective action

We could hear about :
• sophisticated systems of sustainable natural resource management as well as continuing ideas about cargo
• how local movements articulate their values and preferences over their resources, identity, ownership and autonomy over their definitions of development
• concepts of health, who is entitled to it, organic remedies
• more about how urban adaptations are emerging, and the consequences of cultures bumping into each other
• how the coming together of different cultures and ethnicities moulds and transforms communities, attitudes and moralities

We may hear about :
• complex moral universes, distributing justice by gradations of intimacy
• anger: cause and consequence
• poor and desperate people coping with shame and indignity through intense belief and identity values
• a range of standpoints about what justice is, and how it occurs
• how diasporas are becoming more important than nation states for identity and the obligations and responsibilities that accompany identity

We envisage that the longer conference in 2011, which the DSA will be hosting in the UK for EADI (The European Association for Development Training Institutes), will continue some of these themes-and what they might mean for new behaviours, alliances and relationships-- under the working theme of 'In Search of New Universals and Narratives in a Fragmented World' - details of which will be available Summer 2010.

Parallel Sessions-‘Ground rules'
• We will have up to 21 slots for panels/study groups (hereafter ‘panels'): 7 parallels across 3 x 1.5 hour sessions.
• As far as possible, we would like panels to relate to the main 3 plenary themes.
• No more than 3 presenters per 1.5 hour panel session to include Q&A, to enable depth of presentation and discussion. Presentations to take up no more than half of the 1.5 hours.
• We would encourage Study Groups and individual panel convenors to bid for 2-3 sessions in their concept notes-thus having 6 - 9 presenters per theme across 2-3 sessions. In this way, we hope to encourage more in depth intellectual debate and knowledge progress.
• 3 papers per slot = 63 papers. Abstracts for this category of papers will be required to be quality reviewed by the panel leaders and one other panel member.
• Candidates whose papers are accepted (at all levels) will need to prepare a presentation based on their paper (no more than 15 minutes) to be with the Conference organisers no later than Friday October 22nd 2010.

Themed Panels

Those panels that have been chosen will be notified by Monday April 19th 2010 and be given a number. Panel convenors will then need to issue their individual Calls for Papers very shortly after this.

We suggest that any panel's Call for Abstracts have a deadline no later than Monday 17th May 2010 and would welcome Convenors' views as to which papers they would consider putting forward for a PhD bursary (please see criteria below - and it will also be up to each individual submitting to each panel to indicate that they wish to be considered for the bursary award).

When issuing individual Calls for Abstracts under the Panels, convenors will need to use the form under Annex I and request that participants adhere to the file naming protocol of their Word documents as follows:
"DSAconf2010-panelnumber-abs-yourname-papertitle", keeping the paper title very brief.

Some prompting suggestions for panels have been given above but these are not limiting in any way.

Individual and Jointly Authored Papers

In addition to ‘themed' panel sessions, there will be 1 or 2 ‘open' parallel streams (3 or 6 slots, 4.5 or 9 hours, 1 or 2 rooms, depending on demand) for up to 4 presentations per parallel session (i.e. an additional 12 - 24 papers). These may be ‘orphan' papers, i.e. not panel/theme related and within each session the presentations may not be related to each other. We will, however, attempt to group for a best thematic fit as possible. Abstracts for this category of papers will be quality reviewed by the conference steering group.

Assessment Criteria And Process

1. PANELS

To be arranged by an individual, a Study Group, or a group of Panel Convenors. There are 21 slots available and we will give preference to those Panel Concepts that cover more than one slot with no more than three presenters per slot.

Key dates are:

o Deadline for Panel Concepts: Monday 5th April 2010
o Selected panels will be notified by Monday 19th April 2010 and a list of selected open panels will be sent out in a further call for abstracts no later than w/c 26th April 2010
o It is therefore important that each panel concept indicates whether it is closed or open to more papers. Panels that do not state they are closed, will be taken as open to other panels and included in the general call for abstracts issued on 26th April 2010.

Panels will then need to issue their own call for papers, to be publicised also through the DSA website and bulletin, and coordinate a review process where each paper submitted must be subjected to a minimum of two peer reviews.

o Panel details must be finalised at the latest by Friday 10th September 2010 with all papers ready for uploading onto the website (where there is no copyright conflict).
o We therefore suggest that panels put a deadline for receipt of papers no later than Friday 3rd September 2010
o Deadline for Presentations to the DSA by 22nd October 2010 (especially important for those awardees attending the Presentation Skills Masterclass)

Papers submitted under the standalone category that appear to fit within a Themed Panel will be forwarded to the relevant panel convenor for consideration

2. INDIVIDUAL AND JOINTLY AUTHORED PAPERS

Written by individuals or more than one person, relevant to one of the panels selected or standalone.

o If you are submitting a paper under one of the panels, you will need to submit your abstract to Panel Convenors by their stated deadline - please look at the website for the details when they become available .
o If you wish to have a standalone paper considered(ie: not for any of the themed panels), please send an abstract to the DSA by Friday 14th May 2010
o Authors of standalone papers will be notified no later than Monday 1st June 2010
o Final Deadline for full papers Friday 3rd September 2010
o Deadline for presentations 22nd October 2010 (especially important for those awardees attending the Presentation Skills Masterclass)

Additional Information

• All Submissions must adhere to the format given in Annex 1
• Please submit electronically via email with DSAConf2010 Submission in the Subject line of the email, and save your abstract in a Word document as follows):
o For Panel Concepts: DSAconf2010-PC-yourname-brieftitle
o For standalone paper abstracts: DSAconf2010-abs-yourname-brieftitle
• Given the volume of submissions expected, failure to adhere to the above could result in your submission being mislaid
• Panel Convenors will be expected to take ownership of their Panels in terms of quality and post conference publication. The latter could take several forms.
• Individual papers will be eligible for publication in a Special Edition of the Journal of International Development.
• In some cases, a panel convenor and contributors may wish to write a joint thematic review paper following the conference, for consideration in the Special Issue of JID
• In addition, certain panel topics may be suitable for groups of papers to be published as ‘Policy Fora' in JID or other journals.
• The organising committee will arrange a post-conference editorial system prior to any publication.