The 5th Joint Nordev: Call for Working Groups and Panels

The 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research (NorDev)
‘Knowledge Production in North-South Collaboration: Challenges in an Era of New Global Divides’
27-28th June 2019, Copenhagen

Call for working groups and panels

Asymmetric local and global power relations are on the rise. These include deepening divides between North and South. Politically, academically, socially and on a range of other fronts, Northern governments have increasingly returned to a narrow minded, self-oriented development path. Despite official rhetoric such as the SDGs and the Paris Declaration, the spirit and practice of solidarity is more remote than for years. Restrictions on academic movement, prioritization of North-centred issues and lack of interest in addressing key social and environmental challenges in the South are some of the worrying trends. However, divides and imbalances are not only observable between countries and regions, but emerging within societies across the planet. Elite projects and exclusivist populism are a global phenomenon and affect the well-being of people everywhere.

The 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research aspires to address these trends and challenges through a format including keynote presentations, panels and working groups, roundtables and poster presentations, and to enable dialogue and networking between participants from all parts of the world. We welcome especially contributions that analyse and challenge global divides in the thematic areas of knowledge production; institutions of global governance; distribution of resources and wealth but also of risks; migration and climate change policies; or the formulation and implementation of the SDGs, to name but a few.

We invite proposals for working groups and panels. Each working group (section) consists of up to three panels. Each panel is planned for 90 minutes and should consist of 3-4 papers, a chair and a discussant. Working groups can have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 12 papers. It is also possible to propose single panels, consisting of 3-4 paper givers or contributors. Panels may also be organised as roundtables or poster presentations.


We recommend working groups to have two chairs (ideally from two different countries). Working group chairs may propose panels and specify papers, but should also reserve slots for additional papers. All accepted working groups will be listed on the conference website and a call for individual papers will be open during February 2019. Chairs are responsible for accepting and allocating suitable individual papers to panels, and for ensuring gender balance as well as a mixture of senior, mid-level and junior scholars in their working group.

The 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research is hosted by the Copenhagen Business School from 27-28th June 2019. The conference is jointly organised by the associations for development research in Denmark (FAU), Finland (FSDR), Norway (NFU), and a Swedish committee (SDSN). Please submit an abstract for working group or panel of no more than 400 words to fau.msc@cbs.dk by 20. January 2019.

For any questions, please contact the FAU assistant Jeppe Skjaerslund at fau.msc@cbs.dk

More information on the conference will follow soon at the FAU webpage www.fau.dk

Key dates:
6 December 2018 Call for proposal for panels and working groups
20 January 2019 Deadline for proposals for panels and working groups
30 January 2019 Notification of acceptance of panels and working groups
1 February 2019 Call for paper proposals/abstracts
28 February 2019 Deadline for paper proposals/abstracts
15 March 2019 Notification of acceptance of papers
March 2019 Conference registration opens
May 2019 Deadline for submission of papers
Early June 2019 (Draft) Conference program circulated
14 June 2019 Deadline for registration
27-28 June 2019 Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research

Best regards,
Randi Solhjell, NFU (the Norwegian Association for Development Research)
Ilona Steiler, FSDR (the Finnish Society for Development Research)
Henning Melber, NAI & EADI (Nordic Africa Institute & European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes)
Elin Bjarnegaard, (interim SDSN – Swedish Development Studies Network)
Fredrik Söderbaum (Global Studies, Gothenburg)
Sören Jeppesen, FAU (the Association of Development Researchers in Denmark)