CALL FOR PAPERS
Making Alternatives Visible:
Resisting and Reshaping the Mainstream

Development Day Conference 2016
11 – 12 February 2016, University of Helsinki, Finland

Organizers: Finnish Society for Development Research, in cooperation
with the Department of Political and Economic Studies (Development
Studies), University of Helsinki and UniPID

Development discourse of the past twenty years has encouraged new and
alternative visions of development. In particular, the
unsustainability of mainstream development and increasing inequality
have forcefully underscored the need to re-think development and
re-orient mainstream development strategies. But what kinds of
alternatives get conceptualized, and how does alternative development
thinking inform practice? In what ways do such alternatives connect to
mainstream development policies now and in the future?
Development Day 2016 provides a forum for researchers, students and
development professionals to picture and discuss alternatives towards
more sustainable and equitable development. It invites research from a
variety of perspectives, both theoretical and policy-oriented, to
engage with alternatives as they emerge in diverse areas such as
knowledge production, governance, management, natural resource
conservation or new forms of civil society organization. Relatedly,
Development Day encourages papers which critically investigate the
potential and limitations of alternatives offered by labour,
indigenous, peasant, environmental or women’s movements as well as of
changes induced by development institutions and the media.

The keynote speaker for this event is Professor Neera Chandhoke,
Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. Professor
Chandhoke has published widely on social justice, civil society
participation, globalization and comparative politics. Her keynote
speech is entitled "Realising Justice".
Preceding Development Day, on February 10, UniPID will launch a new
nationwide initiative to support the training and networking of
doctoral students in Development Research. The Finnish Development
Research doctoral network – UniPID DocNet will bring together both
doctoral candidates and their supervisors. The UniPID DocNet launch
includes a workshop on “What kind of supervision is needed?” and a
cocktail event.
In addition, the annual meeting of the Finnish Society for Development
Research (FSDR) will take place after the working group sessions on 11
February at the House of Science and Letters (Tieteiden Talo,
Kirkkokatu 6) at 5.30 pm.  New members are welcome.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Development Day 2016 is aimed at both senior and early-stage
researchers. The call for papers is targeted at PhDs and PhD students,
based on the thematic working group sessions taking place on the first
day of the conference (see below for session descriptions). The second
day of the conference is dedicated to Master’s students, where they
will have the opportunity to present their research and obtain
feedback from senior scholars in a workshop setting. The theme of the
Master’s workshop is open. Master's students are strongly encouraged
to participate in the conference plenary and working group sessions.
Those interested in presenting their research are invited to submit an
abstract of 250 words (maximum) in English by 4 December 2015 to the
chairs of the thematic working group session in which they wish to
present. Master’s students may submit their abstracts directly to the
organizing committee ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>).
Acceptance of abstracts will be announced in mid-December. Conference
papers of 9,000 words (maximum) and Master’s contributions of 5,000
words (maximum) should be completed and sent to the thematic working
group session coordinators or to the Master’s workshop organizing
committee by 2 February 2016.

REGISTRATION

You may register from 20 December 2015 onwards on:
www.kehitystutkimus.fi/conference/registration<http://www.kehitystutkimus.fi/conference/registration>
  The conference is free of charge to all Finnish Society for
Development Research members. For non-members, the conference fee is
€20 for researchers and €10 for Master’s students. By paying the fee,
you also become a member of the Finnish Society for Development
Research. For further details, visit,
www.kehitystutkimus.fi/?page_id=31<http://www.kehitystutkimus.fi/?page_id=31>
Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation
arrangements and costs.

WORKING GROUPS

1. Deliberative and responsive alternatives in natural resources governance
Chair: Dr. Irmeli Mustalahti, University of Eastern Finland
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)

Deliberative and responsive alternatives in natural resources
governance aim to empower local citizens to influence the developments
in their immediate environment. The goal of deliberative and
responsive natural resources governance is to include various actors
and differing visions in local and regional environment management and
conservation. The deliberative and responsive approach argues for
development and social change that is primarily driven by the local
population in interaction with authorities or other relevant actors.
In this working group, we would like to discuss further possibilities
and constrains of this type of approach in natural resources
governance. This working group seeks to bring together research that
engages with questions related to deliberative and responsive
governance of natural resources management and conservation as well as
research studying various alternatives such as bio-economy,
environmental movements and various environmental planning!
   interventions in relation to natural resources governance: We aim
to discuss various cases where the deliberation over rights and
responsibilities in natural resources governance take place and where
various actors in the exercise of public authority and responsive
governance emerge.

2. Labour, peasant and social movement resistance in the global south
Chairs: Professor Barry Gills, University of Helsinki
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) & Professor
Neera Chandhoke, University of Delhi
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)

Development, understood as a set of complex processes of social
transformation, entails processes of appropriation, whether of land,
property, labor, or the social product. The tendency to greatly
intensify globalization of production, trade, and finance over the
past three decades has been advocated as a comprehensive historical
solution to underlying structural problems in the global political
economy, including growth, productivity, and profitability. Such
(hyper)globalization policies have philosophically rested upon faith
in linear technical progress and its presumed capacity to create
unlimited increases in production and consumption. However, this
paradigm of globalized development has left unresolved severe
distributional, socio-political, and ecological problems that
accompany these processes. Elites and citizens struggle to manage the
tension between global capital expansion, global market competition,
competing legal and political orders, and the protection of the!
   rights and welfare of the local people. In this context, myriad
forms of militant social contestation have arisen amongst labour,
peasant, and social movements of the Global South, in response to
global and domestic appropriation and capital accumulation. In some
instances, these militant contestations are confined within peaceful
norms of civic order, and in others they transgress these norms in
insurrectionary or revolutionary contestation. The papers in this WG
will seek to explore the common conditions generating such widespread
social resistance in the Global South as well as the specific
characteristics of particular struggles. Comparative analyses are also
included in the call.

3. Towards Indigenized Paradigms of Wellbeing? Decolonizing
Alternatives to Development in the Global South
Chair: Dr. Eija Ranta, University of Helsinki ([log in to unmask])

The attempt by colonized peoples to create their own indigenized
conceptualizations and practices of development has a long history.
New formulations of indigenized alternatives to the dominant paradigm
of development have again been emerging in response to global
governance and as reflections on the degrading economic,
environmental, and social conditions. There is an increasing search
for alternatives to OECD/DAC development cooperation, which is
reflected in a variety of anti-Western political discourses and new
forms of South-South cooperation. Furthermore, there has emerged
locally rooted conceptualizations into state politics and development
policy making, including Buen Vivir in Latin America, uBuntu in
Southern Africa, Buddhist happiness in Asia and Swaraj in India. This
working group aims at discussing histories, discourses and practices
of indigenized alternatives to development in the Global South. It
seeks to bring together scholars who critically engage with suc!
  h themes as development critique, post-development, indigenized
paradigms of wellbeing, decolonization discourses, indigenous peoples’
worldviews, the role of “local culture” in policy alternatives,
anti-Western political discourses, South-South cooperation, among
others.

4. What are the alternatives to and for civil society organizations?
Chairs: Dr. Tiina Kontinen, University of Jyväskylä
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>), Dr. Niko
Humalisto, University of Turku ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) &
Auli Starck, KEPA ([log in to unmask])

This working group seeks contributions that address the drastic change
in civil society development both in Finland and other contexts. We
invite papers from both researchers and civil society activists in
order to promote dialogue between different experiences and points of
view. As background, the 1990s was a peak period for NGO and civil
society organizations in international development when there was
significant growth in their numbers in different locations around the
world, a steady increase in funding, and professionalization. In
Finland, as well, development NGOs received a considerable share of
the state’s development aid budget and appreciation as significant
development aid contributors. Nevertheless, at the start of the 2000s
there was a gradual loss of interest, culminating in governmental
donor aid cutbacks of over 40% for partnership organizations in 2015.
This has resulted in a funding freeze for small and middle-sized
organizations. Such a rapid change in!
   the organizational resource environment has led to different kinds
of accommodative mechanisms, such as sudden cuts in activities and
staff, prioritization of themes and partner countries, and to
increased importance of organizations' own fund-raising strategies and
activities. The guiding questions of this workshop are: what are the
consequences of the changing institutional environment and aid
regimes? What are the reactions of CSOs? What alternatives are being
sought? How can "alternatives to civil society development
cooperation" be visualized for the future?

5. People-centred modes of development: local knowledges and empowerments
Chair: Dr. Paola Minoia, University of Helsinki
([log in to unmask]) & Dr. Mark Griffiths, University of Oulu
([log in to unmask])
For too many, poor access to basic services and livelihoods in the
Global South is a condition of poverty. The provision of services and
meeting basic needs, through the mechanisms of the state and
international development actors is a key question that sits at the
centre of development studies. A large amount of academic inquiry has
so far focused on powerful corporate and state actors, drawing on both
Marxist and post-structuralist perspectives to flesh out the
mechanisms and governmentalities that sustain uneven and
discriminatory patterns of access to basic services (eg. Escobar 1993,
2015; Heynen et al. 2007, Swyngedow 2009). The “micro”, in this
research is figured, albeit most often implicitly, as subordinate or
consequential to the “macro” of the State and Market. In this working
group, we seek to complement and further the insights from such
perspectives by focusing sharply on processes we might consider as
emergent “from below”. Thus, this collection of!
   research experiences shall document, debate and, ultimately, apply
“local culture”, or specifically: local and hybrid knowledges,
epistemologies, embodiments, power relations, self-organizing and
resistance.
We ask for contributions that focus on various themes (this is not an
exhaustive list) in the Global South:
- access to water;
- natural resource management;
- sanitation;
- land rights;
- political participation;
- health education;
- female health;
- access to information;
- organization, unionization, mobilization

6. Alternatives for sustainable food system
Chair: Tiina Huvio, Finnish Agri-Agency for Food and Forest
Development ([log in to unmask])

The deliberative and responsive alternatives to strengthen sustainable
food system aim at empowering farmers and their organisations to
influence development both policy environment and conditions for
sustainable food production. The goal of sustainable food chain
management is to strengthen sustainable management of food system both
at the local and global level. Changes required in present food system
include different aspects, including: i) better management of land,
water, inputs and nutrients; ii) definition of different actors along
the food chain and their bargaining power; iii) identifying a future
producer and his/hers vision and how to arrive to it iv) deeper
understanding of food and nutrient security. In this working group, we
would like to discuss challenges in promoting changes in these areas
bringing together research dealing with both agro-ecological, social
and commercial aspects on food systems. We aim to trigger debate on
potential trade-offs between these!
   aspects and how to deal with them by brokering between different
interest groups.

7.  The private is political is academic - situating the observing,
reflecting, opinionated and vulnerable self in qualitative development
research
Chair: Professor Elina Oinas, University of Helsinki ([log in to unmask])

Positionality and reflexivity are key issues in any qualitative
research methodology but they acquire special meanings in Development
Studies. First, the legacy of post-colonial theory complicates the
issues that a development researcher deals with, compared to
mainstream social scientists in the North. Second, we very seldom
study our “own” cultures or everyday life settings and therefore have
to discuss the questions of proximity, ownership and distance in a
different manner than that presented in social science textbooks. Yet,
we seldom spend a long enough time doing fieldwork to be able to fully
follow the guidance of Anthropology either. Third, fieldwork in
Development Studies is emotionally demanding. More often than not the
researcher experiences dangerous situations. Notwithstanding, the self
remains the only analytical tool the scholar has; his/her own skills
and emotional awareness when observing and interpreting is the key
element in a study. This working grou!
  p wishes to explore the distinct ways qualitative development
research is special and to discuss ways in which its methodological
uniqueness can be theorized.

8. Breaking the bubbles: How to foster responsible media and informed
public understanding of development?
Chairs: Assistant Professor Minna Aslama Horowitz, St. John's
University/ University of Helsinki ([log in to unmask]) &
Johanna Kivimäki, UniPID ( [log in to unmask])

Perhaps no other topic related to communication and development is
currently as under-researched, yet as frequently referenced, as the
role of the media. Sen (2009, 335-337) notes that there are five
functions central to development that the traditional role of the
media fulfils: free speech, fulfilment of information needs,
protection of the disadvantaged, formation of social values, and
fostering of informed debates. It could be argued that digital media
platforms have diversified these functions. Scott (2014) reformulates
them as participatory communication providing educational and business
opportunities as well as enabling political engagement. The media can
also be seen as an institution, promoting transparency and good
governance. To ensure this function, media development is called for,
ranging from media literacy to promoting professional journalism and
other capacity building. In addition, the media can disseminate
information about crucial issues such as health, f!
  ood security, disasters, and elections. Yet, equally important, is
the media’s role as a window into the world, informing us about our
relationships, connections, and responsibilities to other nations and
cultures.
The latter two functions— media informing us about development issues
as well as connecting us with the rest of the world— are especially
crucial to development scholars. The infinite diversity of online
media environments is still not translating diversity in dialogue and
exposure to viewpoints. In our current, fragmented media landscape the
access and “filter bubbles” (Pariser 2011) tend to guide and limit
people’s information choices. This potentially applies to the
stakeholders development researchers work with, from policy-makers to
research partners to the general public. In today’s polarized opinion
environment about development, the concept of the social
responsibility of the media (e.g., McQuail 2010) becomes ever more
important.
The goal of this working group is to map out and define core issues
for researchers (media in the service of disseminating information
about development and development research). We are inviting both
full-fledged research papers, as well as, empirically informed
position papers that focus on:
●       How are development issues (related to our fields of research)
discussed in the media? What are the areas that remain invisible? What
are some possible biases?
●       How can we, as researchers, contribute to a more nuanced and
evidence-based understanding of development questions via the media?
●       How can we and other stakeholders hold the media accountable
and responsible when it comes to reporting about development questions
and issues?



*****************************************

-- 
Paola Minoia, Adj Professor, Senior Lecturer
Development and Tourism Geography
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/

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