Critical thinking on development emerges both “from” and “facing” development. The former assumes that development is the solution to current exclusion, inequality and sustainability problems, and reflects on the effectiveness of development proposals. The latter argues that the colonial and economistic assumptions implicit in the logic of development perpetuate the power dynamics that shaped current problems. The inherently practical vocation of the reflection on development challenges the ability of both positions – “from” and “facing” – to transit towards truly transformative practices in terms of equality, sustainability and gender. "Critical thinking on development" welcomes reflections – both “from” and “facing” development – on the capacity of translating theory into transformative practice: Are the Sustainable Development Goals an instrument for transformation? What transformation? Or, rather, are they a limiting framework that keeps debates and practices within the logics that have shaped the current world? Do Buen Vivir and Degrowth have the capacity to materialise practical, solid and lasting transformations against the logics of capitalism? Is it possible to think and implement decolonial and sustainable development?
This line addresses those aspects related to the configuration, development, monitoring and evaluation of the International Development Agenda, as well as the theoretical and political principles that support it, its potential and limitations, the actors that participate in it, the public policies that are implemented and their coherence. In this framework it is possible to include the analysis of both the development and results of the Millennium Development Goals Agenda, the Aid Effectiveness Agenda, the Development Financing Agenda or any other sectoral development agenda, as well as studies related with the configuration and monitoring of the current Sustainable Development agenda.
This line aims to analyse development cooperation from the standpoint of international relations and global governance. In this sense, first, we are interested in its incorporation as field of study within the discipline of International Relations and, second, in its daily implementation through both international (bilateral and multilateral) policies, as well as global governance practices in this area.
Thus, we are interested in scientific works, both theoretical and empirical, that make reference to development cooperation from an international perspective and its link with topics such as the following: theory of International Relations; the international development cooperation system, including the foreign policies of states and of international organisations (actors, policies, questions of legitimacy and effectiveness, etc.); the processes of agreement, cooperation and regional integration; the international human rights regime; contexts of conflict and armed post-conflict; etc.
This line will hold studies framed in the field of Development Economics, as a discipline that deals with analysing the socioeconomic problems that developing countries face, both from a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective. This includes, therefore, studies on the causes of poverty, underdevelopment and inequality within and among countries.
This line includes works that analyse (i) the role of the different actors that intervene in the international cooperation system, including the different types of donors (multilateral organisations, state and sub-state public agencies, Non Governmental Organizations (NGDOs, social movements, companies), recipient countries and regulatory institutions; (ii) the new cooperation mechanisms, instruments and approaches; (iii) sources of financing and their innovations; (iv) critical views on traditional cooperation; and (v) the contributions of alternative perspectives on traditional cooperation such as South-South, South-North, and triangular cooperation. Similarly, the line holds contributions that analyse the actual logic of the cooperation system and that question the current system from other realist and constructivist epistemologies within international political economy.
This line welcomes all those works that are oriented towards the formulation and/or the evaluation of public policies or private actions headed towards the consecution of an improvement in the living conditions of a population or geographical zone, through progress in social protection that mitigates the vulnerability against natural disasters and adverse economic situations carrying with them the reduction of family income. Although advances in the reduction of extreme poverty have been made, there is still a need for actions that guarantee the access to basic services like potable water, sanitation, as well as education and health. In addition, the development of mechanisms of social protection that guarantee the sufficiency of income throughout a life’s entirety and facing episodes of illness or unemployment is still necessary. Finally, this line also welcomes works that cover the principles for the formulation and the design of policies, the proposed measures, the exchange of experiences and good practices, as well as the sharing of achieved results.
The aim of this line is to present and/or analyse political policies, programmes, projects and initiatives headed towards addressing social and environmental challenges from science, technology and innovation at the service of human development.
This line welcomes contributions related to the different dimensions of rural development (economic, social, institutional, cultural, gender and environmental), population and territory. As an example, some topics would be: globalisation and rural territories, sustainable rural development, community rural development, agri-food systems and development, problems derived from tenure/land grabbing, population dynamics, and synergies between rural and urban territories, among others.
Contexts of armed conflict or high levels of violence persist in the world, with serious consequences for millions of people. Violent conflicts generate severe violations of human rights and prolonged humanitarian crises, where phenomena such as natural catastrophes, climate change and megaprojects of transnational companies also have an impact. On the international scale, the achievement of peace is one of the axes on which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), promoted by the United Nations, are based. On a local level, the populations and communities affected by violence fight for their survival and frequently articulate collective strategies of resistance and peacebuilding. We start with the challenges for an inclusive peace being huge, due to the definitions of armed conflict themselves –and especially their causes-, as well as notions of peace and peacebuilding, being a discursive and practical territory in dispute, where economic and political interests of a different nature intersect. Thus, we welcome researchers and professionals from different fields and areas of action (universities, research and/or education centres, third sector organisations, social movements, technical staff from institutions…) to present results from research or advances from research in-progress in order to contribute critical analyses on different aspects along the following topics: violent conflicts, peacebuilding; transitional justice; human security; civil resistance; and humanitarian action.
This line will address the different types of population displacements –both internal and external- and the problems associated with this complex process and with the diverse causes (voluntary or involuntary) and that are closely related to development in countries of origin and host countries. Other topics of interest include, for example: the causes of displacement, socioeconomic and cultural impact on origin and destination, organisation and activity of diasporas, public migratory policies, social attitudes and stereotypes towards immigration, the integration of immigrants, humanitarian crises and forced migration, migrations and gender, human trafficking and migrant smuggling, refuge and trends in the application of the right of asylum, etc.
This line seeks to bring together those works that address development studies from a feminist and gender perspective, in alignment with the objective of "ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls throughout the world" (SDG 5.1). Inequalities in areas such as employment, universal access to reproductive and sexual health, economic resources, leadership positions in all regions, and persistent violence against girls and women internationally and in diverse contexts (labor, educational, family, etc.), including trafficking for sexual exploitation, are issues of concern in the 2030 Agenda and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5) and also in this line of the conference.
Of interest are scientific works that, using a diversity of methodological approaches, not only offer a global and / or local panorama of existing gender inequalities, but also propose solutions (interventions, programs, strategies, policies) based on evidence. The globality of contributions of this line will reflect the very diverse options and realities of women at the international level, thus attending their diversity in terms of culture, ethnicity, socio-economy, religion, family, etc.
Contributions in this line can deal with the role of civil society starting from their diverse local, state and transnational manifestations, with a special focus on the interactions with structures, dynamics and social, political, economic and cultural actors. In this sense, the following topics could be covered: the approach on the role and participation of civil society in processes of elaboration, implementation and control of public policies; the capacity of influence or advocacy in decision forums and spaces, especially in international governance and the 2030 Agenda; the transformation and interaction through social networks and information and communications technologies (ICTs); as well as the participation in the generation of knowledge that, from praxis, from the construction of narratives and discourses, or from the actions driven towards the determination of the public agenda, strengthens, widens or critically questions the notion and the practice of development.
This thematic line aims at being a forum of meeting, discussion and exchange of ideas on the contribution, from any academic field, towards the construction of critical citizenship. The objective is to gather research and experiences that deal with the debate between education and social change. The former understood as all pedagogical action –in formal, not formal and/or informal areas- that strengthens the capacities of critical transformative subjects in order to undertake actions that allow to transit towards more just, equitable and sustainable models. This perspective welcomes the theoretical frameworks and the practices that are situated in the field of human development and the SDGs, as well as those other ones that discuss their limits and widen them through decolonial, feminist and ecosocial contributions.
The hegemonic development model -in which the objective of a continuous economic growth remains at the centre- clashes with the ecological sustainability of the planet. The hostility of the current global ecological crisis is notably increasing, overcoming even some ecological limits, among which climate change is probably the most alarming. The ineffectiveness shown so far by public policies and international agreements suggests a rethinking of the ecological issue in the political agenda, as well as in public decision-making. Social movements, as well as other civil society actors demand fair, viable and democratic solutions within the framework of the socio-ecological conflicts that have been generated, which, in many cases, occur in the context of the North-South dialectic. Emerging paradigms such as Degrowth and Buen Vivir also address, among others, the issue of sustainability and socio-ecological transition. Thus, this line addresses a broad reflection framework, ranging from the analysis of material, energy resources or the environmental impacts generated, up to the challenges posed on sustainability and development both globally, regionally and/or locally.
Social and Solidarity Economy is acquiring an increasing visibility in the context of the “new development agenda” marked by the Sustainable Development Goals. The commitment by wide spectrum partnership, between state, private sector and civil society invokes the potential of the private sector to generate a leverage effect derived from the mobilisation of resources and logics that are found within it. A great part of the narrative that legitimates this argumentation utilises concepts linked to the debates on social entrepreneurship and social businesses, the models of inclusive business (at the base of the pyramid), and a new version of Corporate Social Responsibility based on the generation of “shared value”. In this context and to the extent that SSE proposes not only “another way of doing business”, but also progressing towards the construction of “another economy”, there is room to question the role that SSE could play in these debates: What analytical and methodological categories of a transformative nature can SSE provide? What role can SSE organisations play in this context? To what extent can SSE organisation logics contribute to a transformative agenda that places life sustainability at the centre? What differential aspects for development cooperation do organisations that have cooperation (and intercooperation) as a central part of their logic propose? Is there room for a business agenda for development from SSE? What models of business and strategies of economic/business intervention are coherent with a transformative agenda? What logics of scalability and growth are compatible with this agenda?
