2025 HDCA Conference Call for Papers

Conference Themes
We welcome papers and panel proposals from scholars, researchers, and practitioners. Such proposals are expected to be original contributions that resonate with the central themes of this conference. We are particularly looking for submissions in 6 categories:

Intersecting and interconnected themes of the conference

A. Advancing human development and capabilities: Papers on advancing the capability approaches pioneered by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum but also extended, applied and developed further by many scholars within the HDCA community are appropriate for this theme. We would like to welcome papers in this thematic area including:

• Theoretical and conceptual papers, especially from philosophers examining and critiquing the capability or capabilities approach; extending these to examine issues related to gender justice, collective capabilities and the links between capabilities and human rights.
• Decolonising knowledge and the potential for and the limitations of the capability approaches in relation to de-centring knowledge creation mainly from the Global North to promoting local to global perspectives from the Global South; contextualising the capability approach in relation to Africana philosophy.
• Measurement oriented papers developing new ways of multi-dimensional measurements of human development and capabilities including those of qualitative approaches.Innovations in applications of previous approaches or developing new approaches to solve specific contextual dilemmas.
• Innovations in applications of previous approaches or developing new approaches to solve specific contextual dilemmas.

B. Peace and capabilities: We particularly welcome papers from peace studies scholars (including those following or building upon the works of Johan Galtung, Adam Curle, John Paul Lederach) who may be new to the capability approach to explore the possibilities. A lot of work on connections between the capability approach and conflict resolution and peace-making has been developed through the human security framework (UNDP HDR1994; Sen and Ogata Commission report, 2004; Gasper, 2006; UNDP Human Development Report, 2022). As the Symposium on Human Security at 30 noted human security is “…a useful lens to see that many disputes are not zero-sum; to have a comprehensive perspective on interconnectedness; [and] to see people as active agents in shaping what’s to come.” (Pedro Conciecao, 2024) We welcome papers that aim to extend the capability approach to peace-making, peacebuilding, conflict resolution especially in fragile and conflict affected environments and the potential challenges. We are also to keen to welcome papers that compare, contrast or explore the synergies of indicators and measurement methodologies inspired by the capability approaches with those of peace indicators. We also welcome submissions by scholars from politics and international relations domains if they explore the application of the human development and capability approach dimensions to peace indicators. Also welcome are applications of the CA to specific international conflict mediation, development of dialogue, and the use of the capability approach for normative foreign policy or diplomacy.

C. Culture and capabilities: In this theme we are particularly interested in:

• Papers exploring the interactions between culture and human development in the sense of Hangzhou Declaration. Papers are also welcome on cultural liberties and alternative perspectives on culture theories or such constructs and how these can impinge on unfreedoms of particular groups or minorities;
• Submissions exploring the role that arts, literature and other ‘cultural capital’ can play in advancing capabilities and human development. In particular, we welcome submissions that explore or extend the methodologies and ideas developed in the capability approach to the understanding and valuation of such ‘cultural capital’ or collaborative papers that use arts as a means to deliver some of the complex and profound insights of the capability approach including through performance or short playlet;
• Papers that explore the use of arts including music, drama, literature, visual design and others as a means for advancing pedagogies in the context of specific issues of human development and capabilities; and
• Papers in the field of management studies which focus on organisational culture in the context of human resource development but submissions that can theoretically and empirically relate with the mainstream ideas of human development and capability approach and engage with the specific use of ‘culture with a small c’ that we are using in this conference rather than as organisational culture.

D. Culture, peace and capabilities: This theme or subset of papers may examine the three-way relationship of culture, peace and capabilities. For example, we could ask, do enhanced freedoms translate into better and deeper understanding of for example historical injustices and thus lead to mechanisms for healing, reparation and restorative justice, in turn making the societies more resilient? Can cultural diversity contribute to equitable and just growth and development?Could there be comparisons between Bakhtinian dialogic approaches and the idea of deliberative reasoning central to the CA?

E. Peace and culture: We do welcome submissions that explore the possible two way interactions between culture and peace. How does culture influence pathways to peace? How does peace promote the right of people to their cultural identities and heritage? How are peace studies adapted and mediated in different cultural settings and practices? How does this influence peace education and pedagogies? How are psychological and health dimensions related to peace and culture? Are there approaches and methods in health studies or in psychology that can shine light on new approaches for the CA thinking or applications?

F. Other relevant studies: We welcome proposals that fall outside of these five themes above as long as they are highly relevant to conference themes and to informing ideas, discussions and debates to exploring the links between culture, peace and capabilities. For example, these could be papers exploring ideas of justice or new innovations using digital and social media or machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools; philosophical, ethical and pragmatic dilemmas of new technologies and how these may impede or assist in advancing capabilities and freedoms; and the exploration of debates related to the so called ‘responsible AI’.

Submission and Review Process

Please submit your proposal for the conference, via the submission site by 4th February 2025 using the appropriate form. The submission portal and link will open in early January 2025 on the HDCA website.

If you encounter problems with the online submissions system, please email the conference organizers at: hdca2025@bradford.ac.uk

All proposals will be reviewed by two referees using the following evaluation criteria: originality; relevance and perceived goodness of fit of the paper to the conference themes; potential scholarly contribution of the paper; multi-disciplinarity or the potential to bring in perspectives from disciplines presently under-represented in the HD and CA literature; innovation in relation to theories or application; potential benefit or value added to the authors from participating in the conference.

Important deadlines

Paper and panel proposal submissions closing date: 4th February 2025
Communication of accept/reject decisions by: 4th April 2025
Early-bird registration opens by: 4th May 2025
Regular registration opens by: 4th June 2025

Full Paper Proposals

Papers are welcome on any of the themes outlined above. At this moment, we need only the abstract. A selection of papers may be considered for publication in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities by the editors. To be candidates for this, we expect all submissions to be original and not substantively the same as a paper previously submitted to another conference. Be honest and transparent and explain how this paper extends, complements or advances something you have presented earlier elsewhere. Paper proposals should include the following:

• Title of the paper
• Author/s name and institutional details
• Conference theme that this paper most aligns with (choose one): A/B/C/D/E/F
• Thematic group to which this aligns most
• Up to five key words
• Abstract – not exceeding 400 words
• Up to five most important references
• Originality statement and connection with work previously published
• Whether applying for the in person conference or the virtual conference (which will take place on Friday 5th September)
• Expected benefit of participating in the conference to the authors;
• Is this paper being proposed as part of a panel proposal? Y or N
• If yes, the chair of the panel needs to provide additional panel abstract here, not exceeding 600 words.
• Do you consider yourself to be an early career researcher? Y or N
• Is this paper from a current doctoral research study? Y or N
• Is this paper from a masters dissertation? Y or N

Poster Presentations

We welcome poster presentations from early career researchers and PhD students. This is a developmental opportunity to share details of your research and gain feedback or suggestions from established scholars. Poster proposals should include the following:

• Title of the poster
• Author/s name and institutional details
• Conference theme that this paper most aligns with (choose one): A/B/C/D/E/F
• Thematic group to which this aligns most:
• Up to five key words
• Abstract – not exceeding 400 words
• Up to five most important references

Panel Proposals

1. Standard panels with 3 or 4 papers (90 minutes): These can include closed or open panels.

1.1. Closed panels are those where the panel proponents have already been identified. In this case, all the paper proposals should be submitted individually by each author as per guidelines for full paper proposals mentioned earlier. The chair of the panel should use the format in 1.3 below.

1.2. Open panels are welcome but usually these are organised in conjunction with a Thematic Group. If you are interested in the conference organizers allocating
suitable papers to your panel please submit an open panel proposal using the format outlined in 1.3 below.

1.3. Panel proposal format:

• Type of panel: Closed/ open
• Title of the panel
• Thematic Group with whom you wish to organize this panel
• Name of the chair
• Name of discussant if any
• An abstract of the panel theme, aims and justification (up to 1,000 words)
• Up to five keywords
• Conference theme that this panel aligns with: A/ B/C/D/E/F
  If closed panel: names of authors who will be submitting proposals

2. Policy or practice panels (90 minutes): We welcome submissions by practitioners including those from activist or NGO backgrounds. These panels are aimed to be critical reflections on good practice and learning from what works and why. Though these are from practitioners, the expectations of rigor and quality are no different to those of academic or research papers. Proposals may include panels that examine a program or policy or practice that is highly relevant to one of the six thematic areas and has relevance to more than one country or region. Panel proponents should provide information on the following questions in their proposal:
questions:

• Panel title
• Theme of the conference the panel aligns with: A/B/C/D/E/F
• Panel description (up to 1,000 words) covering information on the following:
  • The key questions your panel aims to examine
  • The key claims to success or what has worked and why
  • What are the challenges and why it may not work elsewhere or in your case in the future?
  • Why policy makers or practitioners from another country in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa or Oceania should be interested in your panel and what they may learn from this?
  • What is the value added you are expecting from participating in the conference

3. Skills workshop: We welcome applications to run a skill development workshop mainly aimed at doctoral students and early career researchers, but may be of interest to everyone. Maximum time available for workshop is 90 minutes. These proposals must outline the following (in 600 words):

• What skill is this workshop aiming to develop?
• Why you are the right person/s to deliver this?
• How this workshop is relevant to any of the six thematic areas of focus for this
  conference?
• A description of how the workshop will be run or what happens in the workshop, and
• Logistic details of what kind of room you need, what activities will take place, whether 90 minutes is enough for the workshop;
• Whether there is a minimum and maximum number of participants.

Please note we do not have any budget to buy materials or software. Therefore, any workshops must be such that there is no cost to organizers and should be inclusive. There should be no risk to participants.

Professor Francisco HG Ferreira
Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies
Director, International Institute of Inequality Studies
London School of Economics

Professor Kunal Sen
Director, World Institute for Development Economics Research
United Nations University, Helsinki

Professor Laura Valentini
Professor of Philosophy
Ludwig Maximilians Universitat, Munich

Professor Lewis Gordon
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and
Head of the Department of Philosophy
University of Connecticut

Professor Kate Picket, OBE
Professor of Epidemiology
University of York

Professor John Wright
Director of Research, Bradford Institute of Health Research
Founding Researcher, Born in Bradford

Dr Pedro Conceição
Director, Human Development Report Office
United Nations Development Program

Professor Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti
Professor of Economic Policy, University of Pavia
President of the HDCA

• Those working in NGOs are eligible for concession.

Conference registration includes one year membership fee for HDCA and subscription to the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. For those attending in person, the fee also includes conference dinner.

Please note we do not have hybrid sessions. Online participants will be able to watch all the keynote lectures. Online only panels will be scheduled for 5th September.

The HDCA and the local organising committee will award a limited number of scholarships to scholars with limited or no resources to attend the conference. The demand for scholarships usually far exceeds the available funds and therefore we encourage only those who really need financial support to apply. Details will be made available in due course on the conference website.

At the conference, the HDCA will award the annual Wiebke Kuklys Prize for the best paper presented by a graduate student. All graduate students who have not been awarded their degree before September 1, 2025 and are presenting a paper at the 2025 HDCA conference under their sole authorship are eligible to be considered for this prize. If you wish for your paper to be considered, indicate so on the online submission form. To compete for this prize, the full paper must be submitted by 15 July 2025. The winner of the 2025 Wiebke Kuklys Prize will be awarded a cash amount (the purpose of which is to contribute to the student’s graduate work, for example, in the form of equipment or book purchases or conference attendance). The name of the winner will be announced at the closing plenary session of the conference, which the author must attend. Check previous winners: Here.

Program Committee

From the HDCA:

Prof Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Pavia and President of HDCA

Dr Nozomi Sakata, Associate Professor, Hiroshima University and Executive Committee member of HDCA

Dr Petya Ilieva, Associate Professor, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Fellow of HDCA

Dr Melis Cin, Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice, University of Lancaster

From the University of Bradford:

Prof PB Anand, Professor of Public Policy and Sustainable Development

Prof Fiona Macaulay, Professor of Gender and Conflict

Dr Anisha Samantara, Lecturer in International Development

Dr Joseph Ajefu, Associate Professor in Development Economics

Conference Organising Committee

Prof PB Anand, Chair of the Conference

Prof Fiona Macaulay, Professor of Gender and Conflict

Dr Joseph Ajefu, Associate Professor in Development Economics

Dr Anisha Samantara, Lecturer in International Development

Dr Hannah Intezar, Associate Professor in Sociology and Criminology

Dr Salvo Di Martino, Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Sasha Ban, Associate Professor in Health Studies

Dr Sudhir Selvaraj, Assistant Professor in International Development

Dr Serag El Hegazi, Lecturer in International Development

Mrs Nabeela Khan, Post-graduate Researcher & Lecturer in Sociology

Conference External Advisers

Prof Des Gasper, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands

Prof Flavio Comim, Dean of IQS School of Management, Universittat Ramon Llull, Barcelona

Madam Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Formerly Director of Quaker United Nations Office, Cape Town, South Africa

Dr Anita Patil Deshmukh, Partnership for Urban Knowledge and Action Research (PUKAR), Mumbai, India

Prof Neil Stott, Management Practice Professor of Social Innovation, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge