CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Finnish National Graduate Programme in Development Studies (DEVESTU)

is calling for applications for a three-day international research  
workshop around the theme of POSTDEVELOPMENT AS PARADIGM?

When?
June 8 – 10, 2015

Where?
University of Helsinki, Finland

Who for?
Doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers and senior scholars in  
Development Studies

Speakers
Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Wendy Harcourt, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL
Olivia Rutazibwa, University of Portsmouth, UK
Farhana Sultana, University of Syracuse, USA

Application deadline
March 31, 2015
(application details below and more info in  
http://www.kehitystutkimus.fi/Postdevelopment_as_paradigm_CFA.pdf)

Background

As our planet’s governments engage with the definition of a ‘post-2015  
development agenda’, and as the Finnish National Graduate Programme in  
Development Studies (DEVESTU) approaches the end of its career, time  
feels ripe for an assessment of the impact of post-developmental  
critique (eg. Escobar 1992, 2000; Latouche 1993) on the perceptions,  
politics and practices of development (and development studies).

Such an assessment takes place in a context defined by a number of  
striking factors. These include widespread recognition that

	the modernization project that has provided the normative  
scaffolding to the global development industry is complicit in  
deepening social polarization on a global scale, as well as in  
irreversible changes in our planet’s bio-physical and ecological  
conditions.

	the accelerated unravelling of Northern hegemony in the wake of the  
2008 global fiscal crisis which catalyzed the emergence of several  
Southern powers (the BRICS, in general and China most prominently),  
has spearheaded an assertive challenge to the legitimacy of a  
Eurocentric understanding of development; and

	the political trends in international development are evidenced by  
such contradictory elements as the proliferation of corporate claims  
to ‘social responsibility,’ and the accession to state power of  
political entities which question the legitimacy, not only of ‘Western  
hegemony’, but of capitalist modernity itself.

These trends form the backdrop for a concerted attempt, involving a  
broad spectrum of governmental, private and civil society  
organizations, to formulate a new global agenda for the development  
industry which simultaneously seeks to embrace the principles of  
universality and pluralism.

Post-developmental critique anticipated some of these shifts and  
transitions in the global political economy. At the same time many of  
the precepts of earlier post-developmental critiques have resurfaced  
within the ideological mainstream within which public policy debates  
about the contours of international development agendas are taking  
shape. As Tariq Banuri (2013) notes, “it is remarkable how … seemingly  
radical ideas have now become the new orthodoxy.” The patchy success  
of the MDGs - or better, their decided lack of success in addressing  
the key structural ills of growing inequality and deteriorating  
environmental justice – has (again) raised demands for a radical  
rethinking of ‘development’.

One might then ask what ‘post-development’ has provided for a new  
generation of development thinking (both academic and pragmatic). To  
the extent that aspects of post-developmentalism are indeed implicated  
in some approaches to post-2015 thinking, one might be moved to  
inquire not only about the radical potential of post-developmental  
ideas today, but also as to their political currency. To what extent  
have post-developmental principles found political resonance among  
actors at various levels of resolution: grassroots activists, national  
political platforms, global social movements?

Arturo Escobar, in a new preface (2012) to his post-developmental  
classic Encountering development (orig. 1995) offers a rich  
problematization of the contemporary scope and validity of the  
post-development debates. Escobar notes that profound shifts in the  
global landscape necessitate a rethinking of post-developmentalism as  
an intellectual project. He nevertheless reaffirms the validity of  
post-development critique, and indeed suggests that deepening  
environmental crisis and the ongoing reconfiguration of international  
relations render it timelier than ever. Escobar gives particular  
weight to the political ascendency of Latin American indigenous  
movements whose ‘relational ontologies’ and ‘alternative cosmovisions’  
- encapsulated in the Andean notion of Bien Vivir, or Living Well -  
create real political space for ‘an ethics of development that  
subordinates economic objectives to ecological criteria, human  
dignity, and social justice’ (Escobar 2012: xxvi).
Left and indigenous political shifts in Latin America may well herald  
the beginnings of a revolutionary transition in both the theory and  
practice of development. But revolutionary upheavals, as Hannah Arendt  
(1963) has shown, seldom beget self-perpetuating revolutionary  
institutions. As radical transitions settle into everyday arts of  
government, pre-existing conventions and arrangements often reassert  
themselves. Is this the fate of post-developmental values? Can and  
will the ‘pluriversal’ logics of post-development find the momentum,  
appeal and political leverage points that might, over time, convert an  
itinerant ethics of development into social, political and economic  
practices genuinely aligned with diversity, dignity and justice?
There are, then, quite fundamental questions at stake when considering  
the status of the post-developmental project as a new development  
paradigm. Indeed, such an inquiry obliges us to ask: If and when  
radical ideas of the past are incorporated into a new orthodoxy, what  
happens to the space of critique, the possibility for critical  
imaginaries?


The workshop

The workshop will bring together PhD students as well as more  
established scholars, supervisors, and guests associated with the  
evolution of critical development studies concerned with the state of  
international development and its critical analysis.

The programme features keynote talks and breakout group debates. Talks  
will be presented by a stellar group of post-development scholars,  
including Arturo Escobar, whose seminal work Encountering development  
(1995) is widely regarded as the foundation text of the  
post-developmental movement; Wendy Harcourt, instrumental in  
championing many progressive debates in international development  
circles as the long-term editor of the journal Development; Olivia  
Rutazibwa, a vocal critic of racialized injustice; and Farhana  
Sultana, a critical geographer strongly engaged with revitalizing  
development studies.

Discussions in small breakout groups will be based on background  
readings and the keynote talks. These debates will deepen the debates  
and provide an opportunity for more intensive engagement with the  
workshop theme and with co-participants in the workshop.

Participation is by invitation on the basis of a written application.  
The number of participants will be limited to 30 to enable fruitful  
and inclusive discussions throughout the workshop. To apply, please  
send a file in pdf format to Ms. Karen Heikkilä at  
<kfheikki(at)mappi.helsinki.fi> by March 31, 2015.

The application should include

	applicant’s name and status (e.g., doctoral student, post-doc…)

	applicant’s institutional affiliation

	a brief (max 250 word) motivational letter

	a brief (max 50 word) summary of the applicant’s main research interests

	doctoral students and post-docs should substitute the previous item  
with a brief (max 500 word) summary of their current research project.

Please address inquiries to Karen Heikkilä <kfheikki(at)mappi.helsinki.fi>.


-- 
Paola Minoia, PhD in Human Geography
Adj Prof in Development Geography
Senior Lecturer in Development and Tourism Geography
Geography Unit, Department of Geosciences and Geography
University of Helsinki, Finland
ph +358 (0)294151638
cell +358 (0)503175576

Chief Editor: Fennia - International Journal of Geography
http://www.helsinki.fi/maantiede/geofi/fennia/