On Tuesday 27 July the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and the Department of International Development hosted a panel discussion on ‘Decolonising development studies: Practical steps in course designing, reading selections and classroom discussions’. The event was chaired by ID’s Dr Eyob Balcha Gebremariam and featured panellists Dr Rosalba Icaza, Associate Professor, Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University; Dr Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Curtin University, Centre for Human Rights Education; Dr. Althea-Maria Rivas, Department of Development Studies, SOAS.

The discussion covered many complex questions around how to decolonise development studies, considering the various layers of this debate which address epistemological questions, methodological issues, diversity of authors, curriculum designing, and classroom discussions with and among students. The event built on the lessons and challenges of teaching African Development using decolonial perspectives in the current academic year at the LSE, International Development Department, and what this may mean for other disciplines.

You can watch the lecture back on YouTube here.
You can listen to the podcast recording of the lecture here. 

Joana Naritomi elected BREAD Affiliate. Dr Joana Naritomi has been elected as a BREAD Affiliate by BREAD Fellows. BREAD is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002, dedicated to encouraging research and scholarship in development economics. BREAD fellows are leading researchers in development economics, and their main activities are conferences and a working paper series. 

David Lewis on music and inequality. Professor David Lewis spoke to LSE Research about his recent paper on the power of music in social change. You can read the full article here, as well as listen to a playlist, compiled by Professor Lewis, that features songs that highlight the interface between development and music.

Catherine Boone elected Fellow at The British Academy.  Professor Catherine Boone has been elected a Fellow at The British Academy in recognition for her contribution to the social sciences. Professor Boone’s work focuses on comparative political economy with an emphasis on African and other late-developing countries; property rights institutions and land politics; political effects of uneven economic geography and spatial inequality.

Professor Ken Shadlen has chapter of book translated to Spanish and Portuguese. With funding from the ID Research Committee, Professor Ken Shadlen hired translators in Brazil and Mexico to translate a chapter he had published (in an edited volume) on the political economy of patents in Latin America into Portuguese and Spanish. He did this so they could be used more easily for teaching, and also to contribute to establishing a norm that academics make their work available in local languages. Here are links to the Portuguese and Spanish versions.

Faguet, J.P. and Z. Ali. 2021. “Making Reform Work: Institutions, Dispositions and the Improving Health of Bangladesh.” Chapter 9 inK.A.S. Murshid, M. Mahmud and K. Iqbal (Eds.). Readings in Bangladesh Development. Dhaka: Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.

Forsyth, Tim and Springate-Baginski, Oliver (2021) Are landscape approaches possible under authoritarianism? Multi-stakeholder governance and social transformation in Myanmar. Environmental Science and Policy, 124. 359 – 369.

Chiweshe, Malvern, Fetters, Tamara and Coast, Ernestina (2021) Whose bodies are they? Conceptualizing reproductive violence against adolescents in Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia. Agenda.

Forsyth, Tim (2021) Time to change? Technologies of futuring and transformative change in Nepal’s climate change policy. Globalizations, 18 (6). 966 – 980.

Howell, Jude, Enjuto Martinez, Regina and Qu, Yuanyuan (2021) Technologies of authoritarian statecraft in welfare provision: contracting services to social organizations. Development and Change.

Coast, Ernestina, Merci Mwali, Marie, Isimbi, Roberte, Ngabonzima, Ernest, Pereznieto, Paola, Buzby, Serafina, Dutton, Rebecca and Baird, Sarah (2021) If she’s pregnant, then that means that her dreams fade away: exploring experiences of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood in Rwanda. European Journal of Development Research.

Hanrieder, Tine (2021) Die Sorge um die Sorgewirtschaft im Globalen Britannien. Merkur – Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken, 75 (867). 67 – 74.

Boone, Catherine, Lukalo, Fibian and Joireman, Sandra (2021) Promised land: settlement schemes in Kenya, 1962 to 2016. Political Geography, 89.

Hochstetler, Kathryn (2021) Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity. Environmental Politics.

Mann, Laura and Iazzolino, Gianluca (2021) From development state to corporate leviathan: historicizing the infrastructural performativity of digital platforms within Kenyan agriculture. Development and Change, 52 (4). pp. 829-854.

Tyler, Emily and Hochstetler, Kathryn (2021) Institutionalising decarbonisation in South Africa: navigating climate mitigation and socio-economic transformation. Environmental Politics.

Massard da Fonseca, Elize, Shadlen, Kenneth C. and Inácio Bastos, Francisco (2021) The politics of COVID-19 vaccination in middle-income countries: lessons from Brazil. Social Science and Medicine, 281.

Stys, Pat, Kirk, Thomas, Muhindo, Samuel, Balume, Bauma, Mazuri, Papy, Tchumisi, Ishara, N’simire, Sandrine and Green, Duncan (2021) An experimental methodology for studying household financial governance and coping mechanisms in Goma, DRC. Working paper (1/21).