DSAA Inaugural Conference – Development Studies: Research, Debates & Trajectories

ALSO PhD/ECR Workshop: Wed 5th Feb 2020, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Development Studies Association of Australia (DSAA) was officially registered in March 2019, to represent Development Studies researchers, scholars and practitioners engaged in research, teaching and training across Australia. This inaugural conference seeks to re-examine debates in light of the contested nature of Development Studies, explore trajectories in the field in light of the formation of the association, and consider new research from around Australia and beyond. Papers/panels/roundtables/practice workshops are welcome on any aspect of Development Studies. https://www.developmentstudies.asn.au 

What is Development Studies? What are the emerging directions, trends, trajectories? What is its contemporary relevance in light ongoing decolonisation, funding cuts and the rise of the global south? Is Development Studies even still relevant, or should part of our purpose be to make ourselves, our courses and even our agencies redundant? How does Development Studies relate to Indigenous and community development? Where are the boundaries and relationships with anthropology, politics, economics, geography, and so on?  Is there a unique contribution for Australia to make to Development Studies? This conference will explore these big questions about the field as a whole, as well as profiling the diverse work of individual researchers and teams doing new things across the field.

What we do know is that Development Studies is a diverse, interdisciplinary field that takes ‘development’ as its central concern. It addresses processes of social, cultural, ecological, economic and political change, and also the people, organisations, practices and knowledges that engage in related processes. It focuses not only on contemporary human well-being, but also animals, the environment and intergenerational concerns.