Author: Valerinne Hutagalung

“Planning for decolonization? Challenges, transitions, and transformations in global development and planning”

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this conference is now postponed until further notice. More information will follow.

Norwegian research institutions and universities are invited to arrange the biennial NFU conference in fall 2020 (August-November).

Norsk Forening for Utviklingsforskning, the Norwegian Association for Development Research (NFU), arranges the national conference in close cooperation with the host institution. On average, this conference has approximately 150 participants and is a two-days event, including 30-50 presenters. In addition to the national conferences, NFU co-organize Nordic conferences in cooperation with sister institutions in our neighbouring countries. We also have three permanent panels (2019-2021) to ensure dedication and continuation on key topics, please see http://nfu.no/nfu-panels-2019-21/.

We encourage interested research communities and institutions to submit a proposal to host the national NFU conference 2020 and write a short concept note (1-2 pages) on conference topic and potential sub-topics, by 15 December 2019 to the NFU board at styret@nfu.no. The NFU board will respond shortly thereafter. Call for working groups and papers could be circulated in in January-February 2020.

The host institution are encouraged to submit a proposal within their interest field, which may include but are not limited to topics such as decolonization debates, global environment challenges and political ecology, future of development research, the sustainable development goals, and/or (new) actors in international development.

NFU will assist in planning, applying for funding through the Norwegian Research Council and arranging the conference.

For enquiries, please contact styret@nfu.no, or NFU chair Randi Solhjell at randisolhjell@gmail.com.

Continue reading “Open Call For NFU Conference 2020”

The 5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research that NFU co-organized with our sister institutions (Denmark’s FAU, Finland’s FSDR, and Swedish’s SDSN) on 27 and 28 June 2019 has been successfully implemented. The conference was hosted by the Copenhagen Business School and attended by more than 150 participants from across the globe.

The conference titled “Knowledge Production in North-South Collaboration: Challenges in an Era of New Global Divides” had 2 keynote speakers. The first one was delivered by Prof. Gurminder Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex titled “Neoliberal Inequalities and Colonial Histories: Knowledge Production, Borders, and Reparations”. And the second one was delivered by Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex titled “Addressing Global Challenges Through Engaged Excellence: Pathways and Roadblocks”.

Following each of the keynote speeches, 13 interesting panels were held in the span of the two days: “The SDGs in a North-South Comparative Perspective”, “Perspectives on Research Capacity Building and Research Partnerships in and with the South?”, “An Emerging Field of Knowledge: Business and Development Studies?”, “Religion and Development”, “Exploring the Potential of the Civic Space Concept”, “Development Regionalism in the Global South: Return of Sovereignty?”, “Beyond Old and New Divisions: Informal and Precarious Work in the North and South”, “Capacity Development as Knowledge Production for Efficiency, Safety, and Digitalization at Tema Port, Ghana”, “Building Research Partnerships for Quality and Equity in Eritrean Education”, “Challenging Actors in International Development”, “Social and Environmental Challenges in the South”, “Gender Equality and Sustainable Development”, and “Political Ecology: Politics, Power, and Environmental Change”.

In addition to the keynote speeches and panels, there were also a plenary session on “Agency in a Changing World of Development”, a (pre)book launch on “Business and Development”, Danida alumni prize and the launch of their retrospective study, discussion/conversations at the EADI Roundtable: Development Studies in the New Millenium, and last but not least, closing session on “Knowledge Production in North-South Relations: Experiences and Practices from the Perspectives of Nordic Aid Agencies”.

We are very delighted to see very insightful and interesting conference this year and would like to thank all speakers, panels, paper presenters, moderators, and NFU members for this successful turnout of event.

The special issue of Forum for Development Studies on this theme will be published soon.

Here’s a glimpse of it for those of you who unfortunately couldn’t make it this year. 😊

On Thursday 20 and Friday 21 juni
ENABEL Conference Center, Brussels

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to leave no one behind but reaching these global goals is also everyone’s business… or are they some people’s business more than other’s? How can we value our participation in Agenda 2030?

This two day network conference sheds lights on the role of a little exposed player in the SDG agenda: ‘ordinary’ people involved in North-South cooperation, the so-called ‘citizen initiatives for global solidarity’. The conference starts from the finding that many European citizens are involved in cross border partnerships for international solidarity.

From different contexts and disciplines we will question the role of cross border citizen’s initiatives in reaching the sustainable development goals and discover some tools to help them value their activities. Continue reading “Citizen Initiatives: Change Makers for the SDGs?”