Development Studies Association Conference September 2009

Contemporary Crises and New Opportunities
University of Ulster, Coleraine Campus
2nd – 4th September 2009

Background to the Conference theme

The year 2009 may well be viewed in future as a ‘turning point’ in the historical evolution of the world economy. Perhaps the last such ‘turning point’ occurred in the 1970s with the demise of the original version of the Bretton Woods system. Living through what many feel are momentous events and historically significant changes there is much to preoccupy us in trying to understand three co-variant sets of crises and their implication for international development.

These 3 sets of crises comprise the organising themes of the conference, each one having its own plenary session:
Climate Change and Energy (1)
Global Economic Crisis (2)
Clashing Values and Lifestyles (3)

The interdisciplinary pursuit of development studies can lay claim to a perspective on these contemporary crises precisely because we have a long established familiarity with the interconnections between them. The forms of globalisation over the last four decades have brought these themes closer together causally. The critique of the limitations of capitalism has to involve resource scarcity, environmental mismanagement and cultural differences about wellbeing and the good life, alongside the delinquency of banks as well as market and regulatory failure.

If we are at some kind of crossroads, then this conference provides an opportunity for a wide range of disciplinary contributions to analysis and understanding. It will be exciting to participate in the exchanges between economic historians, financial analysts, climate change experts and cultural anthropologists and psychologists. The conference can contribute to national and international debates, and lay the basis for future research agendas that combine fresh thinking with prospects for innovative policy.

Parallel Sessions—‘Ground rules’
We will have 40 slots for panels/study groups (hereafter ‘panels’): 8 parallels across 5x 1.5 hour sessions.

As far as possible, we would like panels to relate to the main 3 plenary themes.
We have decided to have no more than 2 presenters per 1.5 hour panel session plus Q&A, to enable depth of presentation and discussion.

We would encourage Study Groups and individual panel convenors to bid for 2-3 sessions in their concept notes—thus having 4-6 presenters per theme across 2-3 sessions. In this way, we hope to encourage more in depth intellectual debate and knowledge progress.
2 papers per slot = 80 papers. Abstracts for this category of papers will be required to be quality reviewed by the panel leaders and one other panel member.

Candidates whose papers are accepted (at all levels) will need to prepare a presentation based on their paper to be with the Conference organisers no later than Friday 21st August 2009

Themed Panels

Those panels that have been chosen will be notified by 27th March and be given a number. Panel convenors will then need to issue their individual Calls for Papers very shortly after this.

The Conference Organisers will need to notify bursary awardees by 1st May to allow them time to organise visa applications and travel arrangements. We therefore suggest that the Call for Abstracts have a deadline no later than Monday 27th April and would welcome Convenors’ views as to which papers they would consider putting forward for either bursary (please see criteria below – and it will be up to each individual submitting to each panel to indicate that they wish to be considered for the bursary awards).

When issuing individual Calls for Abstracts under the Panels, convenors will need to use the form under Annex I and request that participants adhere to the file naming protocol of their Word documents as follows:

“DSAconf09-panelnumber-abs-yourname-papertitle”, keeping the paper title very brief.
Some prompting suggestions (grouped by plenary theme) for Themed Panel Titles might be, but not limited to:

Climate Change and Energy:
Can the Science be Disputed?
Sustaining Behaviours
Gender and Energy
Oil and Water (Wars?)
Green Keynesianism
Intergenerational Transfers
Obama’s Environmental New Deal
Economic Crisis:
Future of the Collier Thesis: adding to the billion?
What must America do?
Can the BRICS regenerate capitalism?
Is a global recession good for long term development, despite short term poverty?
A New Bretton Woods?
The answer: Marx, Polanyi or Keynes?
Moral Hazards and Market Failures
Clashing Values:
Recessions and Social Cohesion
Faith and Millenarianism
Rise of Fascism: migration and xenophobia?
The Politics of Identity
Conflict Contagion and Domino Effects?
State Society Relations: Secularism and the Ummah
Wellbeing: Relative or Universal?
Combined and Exclusionary Development: the alienation problem

Individual and Jointly Authored Papers
We recognise the above process means fewer papers than usual, with several implications:
The theme/quality hurdle for acceptance of abstracts for papers will be more selective:
Attendees often only get funded from their HEI if presenting a paper;
Early career researchers (PhD, post-Doc, or early staff) need conference opportunities;
Bursary supported attendees will need presentation outlets.

Thus, in addition to ‘themed’ panel sessions, there will be 5 or 10 ‘open’ parallels (i.e. 7.5 or 15 hours, 1 or 2 rooms, depending on demand) for up to 4 presentations per parallel session (i.e. an additional 20-40 papers). These may be ‘orphan’ papers, i.e. not panel/theme related and within each session, the presentations may not be related to each other. Abstracts for this category of papers will be quality reviewed by the conference steering group and we would attempt to place papers on similar themes together.

We would also hope to provide a Poster Exhibition facility, either in one of the ‘open’ session rooms, or alongside the publishers’ exhibition space. Therefore, colleagues who do not want to submit a standalone paper are invited to submit a poster with the same deadline for individual papers as below. Poster submissions are not eligible for bursaries and all expenses associated with printing posters will be borne by those submitting.

Information, Queries and Submissions should be directed in the first instance to:
Frances Hill
Executive Director
Development Studies Association
POB 108
Bideford
Devon EX39 6ZQ
Telephone: 01288 331360
Email: conference@devstud.org.uk