Anthropologists and others working in the field of development are invited to attend the New Trajectories in the Study of Development workshop at Victoria University of Wellington on 24 May 2016.
Development and development studies are at a turning point. The characteristics of core development problematics around poverty, inequality, marginalization and environmental degradation that many interventions and studies have responded to and tried to understand continue to change rapidly. Old divides and boundaries between rich and poor, north and south and modern and traditional are being rethought and reconfigured under the influence of myriad technological, social, cultural, political economic and other dynamics. At the same time, development itself is changing rapidly. Under political economic pressures, development is increasingly narrowly defined in relation to growth, entrepreneurialism and capital accumulation. Development studies scholars have tried to make sense of these and related dynamics, but after the so-called ‘post-development turn’ there seems to be a hiatus in terms of trying to construct a more overarching critical assessment of where current new trajectories in development are coming from, where they are heading and how they can be made sense of together.
This workshop investigates these concerns from the locations of anthropology, political economy and history. Through a critical interrogation of the meanings, valences, origins, futurities and effects of major contemporary ‘development trajectories’, this workshop convenes a critical space for diverse investigations into the idea and practice of development as well as the fields of study which analyse it.
The workshop is hosted by Religious Studies, Development Studies and Cultural Anthropology, Victoria University of Wellington.
Speakers include:
Bram Büscher, Development and Change, Wageningen University
Marcela Palomino-Schalscha, Geography & Development Studies, VUW
Philip Fountain, Religious Studies, VUW
Regina Scheyvens, Development Studies, Massey University
Glenn Banks, Development Studies, Massey University
Polly Stupples, Geography & Development Studies, VUW
Caroline Bennett, Anthropology, VUW
David Ekbladh, History, Tufts University
Organisers
Philip Fountain
Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Email: philip.fountain@vuw.ac.nz
Bram Büscher
Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University
Email: bram.buscher@wur.nl
Workshop Arrangements
Date: 24 May 2016
Time: 8.30am-5.30pm
Venue: Stout Seminar Room, Stout Research Centre 12 Waiteata Road, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University of Wellington
Lunch, morning and afternoon teas will be provided.
Registration Details
A registration fee of $10 (GST inclusive) is payable on the day. The conference fee helps cover the costs of morning/afternoon teas and lunch.
Please RSVP to Philip Fountain (philip.fountain@vuw.ac.nz) by 17 May 2016.
