Education

Development Geographies: Current Debates

Photo: Alexander Abero / Unsplash

Duration:

New course in the National Program for Doctoral Courses in Human Geography at Stockholm University and University of Gothenburg.

Course Description

We live in unprecedented times, when ‘normality’, including around development processes, was perforated by the CoVID-19 pandemic initially, followed by a war in Ukraine, soaring prices of essentials (food and fuel), an impending global recession and debt distress for at least some 53 countries, according to the UN and likely projected up to 73 countries. It has hence become a moment for reflection on social harms (to people’s lives and livelihoods, for instance) and recompense (the environment) of these interlocking crises, with this awkward phase rightfully nudging us to revisit questions on the nature of the global economy and development processes. This course is on development geographies. Yet, instead of revisiting the depth and richness of the development paradigm and its contested nature, we use the current contemporary moment as a point of departure to focus on current debates around feminism and social reproduction, debt distress and degrowth. These contemporary discussions will help us disrupt development geography, as we have known it – and hopefully, help craft a toolbox that brings to the forefront the need for a regenerating state that recognizes the depletion and social harm four decades of market-centric global economy has wrought.

Location (preliminary)

September: University of Stockholm

November: University of Gothenburg

Time

September 18th-20th 2024

November 6th- 8th 2024

Course convenor and contributors

Convenor: Kanchana N Ruwanpura, Professor – Human Geography, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Co-convenor: Lowe Börjeson, Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Sweden

Deadline and process

May 15th 2024, please e-mail a copy of the application to  and .

All details can be found here: https://www.kultgeog.uu.se/digitalAssets/1019/c_1019624-l_1-k_development-geographies-ht24-2.pdf and https://www.kultgeog.uu.se/education/phd/national-phd-courses/

Course Admission

This course is directed to geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, political economists and global studies, and economic historian scholars pursuing research that relates to development subjects in some way. The course is conducted as a Swedish national PhD-course in Human Geography, which means that in case of a large number of applications, priority will be given to PhD-students at member departments, ie human geography departments in Sweden. However, the course is also open to doctoral students in cognate disciplines both from Sweden and beyond; as well as in rare cases to early career researchers.