Global Development as a Relationship: Dependence, Interdependence or Divide?

CONFERENCE: The Development Studies Association (DSA) Conference in 2015 takes as its theme the forms of relationship that are valued, enacted and denied through current processes of international development.

Ebola, political violence, migration, trade and climate change all assert our global interdependence, while structures of governance still tend to assume the predominance of nation state sovereignty.

Contemporary growth processes have generated prosperity for many, great wealth for some and exceptional inequality. Their neo-liberal thrust valorises independence and generates increasing populations whose labour appears either surplus or highly insecure, and so rely on forms of social dependence to secure a basic livelihood.

Alongside these non-inclusive growth processes new communication technologies have become an important means through which relationships are enacted, reconfiguring notions of nationality, community, neighbourhood, family and personal identity.

Development Studies Association