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EADI Papers

To support our members with analyses of deeper and broader issues relevant to their work, we occasionally publish our own papers on topics with specific importance for the field of Development Studies.

EADI Papers

Reflections on Decolonising Knowledge for Development: An intivation to an EADI conversation

Peter Taylor, Laura Camfield, Alexandre Abreu, Marcin Grabowski, Nita Mishra, Crystal Tremblay - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)

What is Development Studies?

Andy Sumner - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Development Studies is an established area of scholarly enquiry, which implies some consensus over what the study of development entails. Does such a consensus exist? This paper argues that although there is some common understanding on Development Studies being about ‘development’ and having an inter-disciplinary as well as normative orientation, there is a set of quite different approaches to, or constellations of, Development Studies.
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Roles processes and risks within the research-practice nexus: Perspecives from academia

Sonja Keller & Katja Bender -
This explorative study was commissioned by EADI and conducted between October 2019 and July 2020. It aimed to assess from the perspective of academia facets of cooperation between development research and practice. This included identifying main groups of non-academic actors involved, analyzing motivations as well as enabling or disabling factors, and exploring ethical challenges of research-practice collaboration in development research. The study was conducted in the context of the rising attention paid to cooperation between research and practice in the context of sustainable development.
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Development Studies and the SDGs - Mapping an Agenda

Henning Melber -
This paper explores the concepts of development and development studies and their links to Agenda 2030. It revisits earlier efforts towards a new development paradigm and thereby looks beyond the SDGs. It examines the efforts towards sustainable development as a concept within an emancipatory discourse, which should be rooted in global solidarity, justice and human dignity. It thereby advocates an agenda, which aims at rather complementing if not transcending Agenda 2030, instead of being limited to full compliance within the confinement of the SDGs. This is motivated and guided by the interest to maintain ownership by scholars over development studies instead of surrendering the power of definition to the political and aid bureaucracy.
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North-South Research Partnership: Academia Meets Development?

Gilles Carbonnier & Tiina Kontinen -
This working paper examines recent experiences in North-South research partnerships, identifying worst and best practices. It draws on work undertaken by the EADI Sub-Committee on Research Partnerships over the past two years including an online survey, face-to-face interviews and roundtable discussions. Our findings confirm that research partnerships are not immune to the typically unequal, biased donor-recipient relations that have plagued international development cooperation for decades.
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