Amid global turmoil and with sharp aid cuts biting around the world, what does development mean anymore? On September 11^th current and former staff and students of development studies at the University of Bath met to explore this question. Their resounding answer is that interrogating what development means to different actors – globally, nationally, locally, personally – is more important than ever.  

The symposium marked 50 years of the University’s Centre for Development Studies (CDS), and opened with reflections from the Vice Chancellor Phil Taylor, co-founder of CDS Geof Wood, and CDS co-director Aurelie Charles. Four alumni – Charlotte Harland-Scott, Sam Nadel, Judith Randel and Robin Guy – then shared ideas on the current state of development practice. A second session chaired by CDS co-director Mihika Chatterjee, shifted to prospects for development studies as an academic discipline with presentations from David Lewis (LSE), Severine Deneulin (Oxford) and Ben Radley (Bath). A full report on their thoughts and ensuing discussion is available here and on the CDS website.

The symposium reaffirmed CDS commitment not only to development studies as an interdisciplinary space for researching contested visions of progress and regress, but also for privileging perspectives from the ‘Global South’ and for seeing beyond global partnerships to global solidarity.