13-17 November
Links to videorecordings are listed under each session title. (Please note: some sessions were not recorded.)
Click here for the full playlist
Global Dialogue Week (GDW) is a free online event open to everyone. It features parallel sessions and webinars that bring together academics, leaders, and practitioners in human development, as well as diverse voices from around the world, to discuss both the most pressing global challenges and emerging issues in human-centered development.
The GDW will run online from the 13th to the 17th of November. It will encompass a week-long series of multifaceted discussions on topics including, but not limited to, education, decolonisation, development ethics, and the environment. Interactive sessions organized by the HDCA thematic groups and regional network coordinators will offer participants the chance to delve into the opportunities and challenges related to SDGs and human development across various regions and themes. Moreover, this transdisciplinary dialogue will emphasize the significance of multi-regional and cross-disciplinary engagement. Its aim is to foster a global discussion on contemporary issues, movements, and tensions in the field of human development using a bottom-up approach.
GLOBAL DIALOGUE WEEK SCHEDULE
Links to videorecordings are being added under each session as soon as available
MONDAY 13TH OF NOVEMBER
Session A1 6:30 - 8:00 am (UTC) Climate change, community capabilities and leadership (APRN, Edmund Rice Centre, IPTG and SHDTG)
The session will start with a keynote address by Mr ‘Alopi Latukefu, Director of Edmund Rice Centre followed by a panel discussion by three Pacific leaders around the importance of local solutions and working with communities and their local knowledge systems to meet global climate challenges of our times. The Asia Pacific Regional Network is collaborating with the Edmund Rice Centre, and the Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Human Development Thematic Groups.
Session A2 11:00 – 13:00 am (UTC) / Sustainable Institutions and Collective Capabilities (Empowerment and Collective Capabilities TG AND Early Career Researchers and Practitioners Network)
Frank Hindriks, Professor in Ethics, social and political philosophy at the University of Groningen will be our speaker for this topic, sharing his research on social ontology and collective ethics, which he links to issues such as identity politics, collective responsibility, corporate responsibility and rights. The aim of this online session is to reach out to leading scholars working on social ontology and engage with them in interesting discussions about relevant themes, such as collective responsibility, collective agency, empowerment and collective capabilities.
Speaker: Frank Hindriks, Professor in Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Founding member of the International Social Ontology Society (ISOS) and one of the founding editors of the Journal of Social Ontology.
Moderator: Solava Ibrahim, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom. Coordinator of the Thematic Group, Empowerment and Collective Capabilities.
Session A3 13:00 -14:30 pm (UTC) / 15:00 – 16:30 (SAST) African Research Associations and Knowledge Networks Information Session (Southern Africa RN with the Francophone Africa RN)
(Videorecording not available)
There are several vibrant and active African networks, associations and organisations that are doing well to promote research and knowledge production in Africa. However, many young scholars on the continent are often unaware of the various opportunities that exist to: apply for research funding, collaborate in research projects, attend academic conferences or contribute to local journals. This ‘African Research Associations and Knowledge Networks’ information session will bring together scholars and practitioners to shed light on these opportunities. Speakers will also talk about the importance of thinking more broadly about internationalisation of higher education, making contributions to African scholarship through supporting African journals, and they will also share ideas for maintaining links to African based colleagues for researchers in the diaspora.
Chair: Mikateko Mathebula - University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Associate Professor at the Higher Education and Human Development Research ProgrammeSpeakers:
Professor Oliver Mutanga - Oliver holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of the Free State, and is an Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, where he teaches and conducts research on inclusion. He sits on the editorial board of the African Journal of Disability.
Dr. Bertha Kibona - Bertha holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of the Free State, and is a Programme Manager for Training, Grants and Fellowship Programme at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).
Dr. Samba Diarra - Samba holds a PhD in Sociology and is a Research Fellow at the Department of Education and Research in Public Health (DERSP) at University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali.
TUESDAY 14TH OF NOVEMBER
Session B1 15:00 – 16:30 (UTC) Project-based methods to engage students in environmental-sustainability and climate-change learning: Building a learners’ toolbox (Human Rights TG)
In an era when it seems overwhelming to ameliorate or keep up with the scale of environmental problems, it can be challenging to find teaching methods that engage students and empower them to be agents of change. Drawing on experiences from an undergraduate course on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this panel introduces project-based learning activities that students can take into their communities. Course instructor Roni Kay O’Dell will introduce her learner-centred teaching approach to curriculum and course design. She will be joined by two students who will describe the two projects they created and implemented: An on-campus walk that introduced university students to the SDGs, and a project on sustainable clothing where students created messages for social media and worked with a local thrift store to host an on-campus clothing drive. Together presenters will share what worked, offer suggestions for successful course and project design, and provide examples of teaching and learning resources. Participants in this workshop will be encouraged to contribute their own ideas.
About the presenters:
Roni Kay O’Dell is an associate professor of political science working in the Global Studies Program at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. A specialist in learner-centered teaching, she is co-author with
Sasha Breger Bush of Global Politics: A Toolkit for Learners (2020, Lexington Books).
Amanda Dewitt is Seton Hill University’s director of Service Learning Experience
Session B2 17:00 – 18:30 (UTC) Human Rights and the Climate Crisis: The critical role of lawyers and judges in securing the right to a healthy environment (Human Rights TG)
As the climate crisis moves the planet precariously to a point of no return, recent court cases, including ones brought by young people, have been making encouraging inroads. In August, Montana’s First Judicial District Court ruled wholly in favour of 16 youths who had argued that the State’s laws and actions promoting fossil fuels violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment”. In September, six youths from Portugal presented their case against 33 European countries at the European Court of Human Rights. However, achieving positive rulings is not without challenges. This presentation features Michael Wilson, former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii, who has harshly criticized US federal courts’ “stark failure” to assume their climate-justice responsibilities https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/hawaii-supreme-court-takes- climate-crisis; April Williamson of the Urgenda Foundation, which won a landmark case in the Netherlands in which the court ordered the Dutch government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions https://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/urgenda-foundation-v-kingdom-of-the-netherlands/; and Anjana Ramanathan, an assistant professor at Jindal Global Law School in India, who will speak about climate justice litigation cases in the Global South, including those involving Indigenous communities and women, which have to date received far less international attention.
About the presenters:
April Williamson is a senior legal associate at the Climate Litigation Network, a project of the Urgenda Foundation. Her responsibilities involve supporting national organisations bringing climate cases against their governments. April holds an MSc in Environmental Policy from Imperial College London and an MSc in Law, Business and Management from the University of Law.
Michael Wilson is a recently retired associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, a position he held for a decade. He is a founding member of the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment, which supports judges, courts, and tribunals to respond to pressing environmental crises. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, India.
Anjana Ramanathan is an assistant professor at India’s Jindal Global Law School whose interests include Dalit and Adivasi rights. She holds an LLM in International and Human Rights Law from Leiden University.
The panel will be chaired by Thomas Bundschuh, PhD, a human rights scholar and qualified lawyer whose particular interests include climate change litigation and the effects of climate change on the human rights of vulnerable groups. He teaches at Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
Lucy Maxwell is a lawyer and co-director of the Climate Litigation Network whose responsibilities include legal analysis and strategy development to support national-level climate litigation against States, will also be on hand to answer questions. She holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights and the Environment from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Session B3 13:00 – 14:30 pm (UTC) / 15:00 – 16:30 pm (GMT+2) Negative Capabilities, a promising lens to analyze ways to overcome vulnerabilities (Francophone Africa RN)
The notion of Negative Capabilities has roots in Sen’s interpretation of the positive and negative freedom perspective developed by Isahia Berlin (1969) (see Sen, 1991). It offers a very useful framework for analyzing vulnerability and proposing ways to overcome it. The "negative" conception of freedom – or negative capability –considers the space of opportunity that a person enjoys despite constraints. Yet constraints, and the resulting vulnerability, can also be a source of creativity to find solutions. The aim of this panel is to further discuss former work on this notion made in particular by Elaine Unterhalter and Aliya Khalid, as well as at the session organized by the RN Francophone Africa at the Sofia conference. Different kinds of constraints will be considered – at the personal and collective level - and how people cope with them. The panel will be opened by Achille Tokin, followed by Elaine Unterhalter who will introduce this promising field. Aliya Khalid will share her application of this notion on a study of Pakistani women agency. Claudine Sauvain-Dugerdil will further illustrate the notion with the examples in the health domain presented at the RN session in Sofia and application in issues such as ageing. Mikateko Mathebula will be the discussant for the session.
Chair: Mikateko Mathebula - University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Associate Professor at the Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme
Presenters:
Elaine Unterhalter - Professor of Education and International Development at University College London (UCL). She has published widely on the capability approach and education with work looking at a range of different issues including gender, HIV, equity, island prisons, and the measurement of gender equality in and through education
Aliya Khalid - Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK. Departmental Lecturer of Comparative and International Education
Claudine Sauvain-Dugerdil - Professor Emeritus, University of Geneva. Research and teaching in demographic anthropology of family, life course and gender issues in Switzerland, Central America and West Africa
Session B4 15:00 – 17:00 pm (UTC) /16:00 –18:00 pm (CET) A novel integrated framework for Sustainable Human Development in Europe (European RN)
This seminar focuses on the presentation and discussion of a novel framework for Sustainable Human Development (SHD) in Europe to place economic growth and human flourishing within social and environmental boundaries. This is done by combining the global policy framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the theoretical insights of the Human Development paradigm and other critical perspectives and schools of thought. Taken together, they allow for the integration of the dimensions of social, environmental, and economic sustainability into a new integrated framework, in order to consolidate the SHD paradigm for its mainstreaming and uptake at all levels. Moreover, the framework relies on the Quintuple Helix model to introduce the constellation of actors – government, business, academia, civil society, natural environment – potentially driving the transition towards SHD, assigning them a dynamic role for all SHD pillars. All in all, the ambition of this framework – elaborated as part of the SPES project funded by Horizon Europe – is to offer a theoretically-grounded and policy-oriented framework to guide measurement systems, research activities and policy discussion in reconciling the multiple facets of sustainability transitions towards SHD.
Chair: Alejandra Boni - Full Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Deputy Director of Ingenio Research Institute (CSIC-UPV), HDCA Fellow
Guest speaker: Mario Biggeri - Full professor in Applied Economics at the Dept of Economics and Management, University of Florence, HDCA Fellow, Scientific Coordinator SPES project
Discussants
Heriberto Tapia - Research and Strategic Partnership Advisor of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO)
Romina Boarini - Director of the Centre on Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE), OECD
Andrea Ceglia - Policy Assistant to the Director for Prosperity in DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Moderator: Andrea Ferrannini - Coordinator of the Local Development unit at ARCO (Action Research for CO-development) and Project Manager of the SPES project
Session B5 13:00 –16:00 pm (UTC) / 14:00 – 17:00 (CET) The Ocean Race, Genova. The Grand Finale case: The success and effectiveness of sustainability management of a top sport event with the aim of protecting the Oceans and Environment. "Racing with Purpose" strategies discussion and their sustainable outcomes as drivers and tools for implementing international policy actions, economics and freedoms in the Capability framework. (Sustainable Human Development TG)
(Videorecording not available)
The Round Table Panel is a sustainability-focused event having some key policy, sports, organization, practitioner and academic people discussing the impact of the recent The Ocean Race sailing event, a sport event with a sustainability purpose at the core of its organization gathering experts to finalise guidelines that could inform a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights. Taking the inspiration from a sport sailing event we will consider dimensions including governance, EU versus local policy, the adoption of management standards vs innovation ones, the identification and planning of relevant management phases, economic sectorial interrelations, impact of internal and external communication on targeted audiences, local vs central funding and resources, the implementation of social responsibility and environmental-friendly practices. A theme linked to mega events is the ability of citizens to meet and co-legislate and have an active role in participations in the international policy spaces. The panel will address how citizens can have in practice an active role and expand their freedoms: the sustainable development demand of responsibility, the request of "effective and efficient institutions through which concept of freedom, justice, fairness, basic capabilities, and equity govern the access to and use of ecosystem services" underlined by Amartya Sen (2010) is a question that we have to think as a global challenge for the next generations. The main objective of this panel is to bring together at an academic table key participants coming from different areas offering contribution in their different respective roles with the aim to develop further understanding of sustainability dimensions and on CA framework and cities development. In the panel will follow the presentation of a PhD project in Management, Innovation, Sustainability and Healthcare, Management of Sustainability by doctoral student at the Scuola Universitaria Superiore, Sant'Anna, Pisa: Sustainable management, mega sporting events as the new major attractions. Balancing temporary tourism and long-lasting benefits.
Schedule:
Moderator: Carla Francini, Sustainable Human Development Them. Group coordinator, HDCA
Mayor of Genova, Marco Bucci will open the panel
Welcome and introduction, regards, main themes and participants
Stefania Manca Municipality of Genova
Sustainability and Resilience Manager. Statistics, Urban Agenda for the EU
The case of The Ocean Race in Genova, Sustainability processes end with Guidelines, EU Process, the coalition of Mayors
Mario Dogliani 3D4EU - LIFE4MEDECA tech manager
EU and International frameworks architecture for the protection of Seas and Oceans
FIV President Italian Federation Sailing Francesco Ettorre
Advisor Antonietta De Falco
Sports and social aspects for development, interaction with municipality of Genoa and central authorities
Sailing champions: Will explain how top sailing competitions have the possibility to drive attention and actions to protect the oceans through race performances
Francesca Clapcich, Winner of The Ocean Race with 11th Hour Racing Team and first Italian Winner of the OR
Gerwin Jansen, Cecilia Zorzi. Sailing Team Genova
Alessandra Ghezzi, Team 11th Hour Racing, Communications Director
Speaker Todd McGuire, Managing Director
Lorraine Mckenna, Sponsorship Manager
Sustainability and sponsorship for "Racing with Purpose Sustainability Strategies"
Communication specialist and professional
Carlo Borlenghi, best-known sea and sailing Photographer, author
The Sustainability lens in yachting regattas
Giulio Guazzini, Sailor and Rai journalist L'uomo e il Mare
The round-the-world sailing mega event and the narrative for sustainability
Michele Corti, journalist, presenter, Making the narrative of The Ocean Race at home
Richard Brisius, The Ocean Race organization Representatives and CEO
The Ocean Race adventure, the Summits, NY UNGA week and The Oceans Rights Chart
Academic discourse
Pasquale De Muro, University of Rome, Italy, Why a Capability Discourse for a Sailing Sport Event. The Capability Framework, Opportunities and Freedoms
Jack Laurence Simpson, University of Leeds, London, UK
The CA, the City of Capabilities Concept
Annamaria Pesci, PhD student, Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
Working at a framework for inclusive sustainability
Session B6 19:30 - 21:30 (UTC)/ 16:30 - 18:30 (UCT-3) Aproximaciones Críticas al Paradigma de Desarrollo Humano en América Latina Post-COVID19 (Latin America RN)
El objetivo de este panel es poner en discusión de forma crítica la relevancia del paradigma de desarrollo humano como marco de análisis y guía de política en los países de América Latina en la etapa post-pandémica. Con el fin de abordar esta discusión desde diferentes perspectivas, este panel contará con la participación de una activista, una hacedora de política y un académico; cada uno de ellos proveniente de un país distinto de América Latina. Se espera que los panelistas puedan orientar su diálogo a partir de tres preguntas orientadoras: (i) ¿En qué medida la perspectiva de desarrollo sostenible es realmente compatible con una perspectiva de desarrollo humano aplicada a América Latina?, (ii) ¿qué tipo de alianzas regionales sería necesario reforzar o crear para construir un paradigma de desarrollo humano desde y para América Latina?, (iii) desde su perspectiva particular ¿cuáles son las problemáticas de América Latina que el paradigma de desarrollo humano no ha abordado y que sería urgente atender ya sea desde su propia perspectiva o en diálogo con otras?
Presenters
Cristina Fróes de Borja Reis Tiene una licenciatura en Economía de la Universidad de São Paulo (2003), una maestría en Economía de la Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro (2008), un doctorado en Economía de la Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro (2013) y una beca posdoctoral en la Iniciativa Internacional de Posdoctorado/Marie Curie Actions en la Universidad Técnica de Berlín. Actualmente, se desempeña como Subsecretaria de Desarrollo Económico Sostenible en la Secretaría de Política Económica del Ministerio de Hacienda, trasladada de su cargo como profesora asistente en la Universidad Federal de ABC. Tiene experiencia en el área de investigación en Desarrollo, trabajando principalmente en los siguientes temas: cadenas de valor globales, Agenda 2030, inversión pública, estructura productiva, comercio internacional y economía política internacional. Es miembro de ABDI y del CORECON-SP.
Dr. Mathias Nebel es Profesor de Ética Social Cristiana en la Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) y Director de un Centro de Investigación dedicado al bien común en la misma universidad (Instituto Promotor del Bien Común). Anteriormente fue Profesor de Ética y Teología Moral en México (2003-2008, UIA e ITAM), Investigador Asociado al Instituto Von Hügel de la Universidad de Cambridge (2008-2009), Coordinador de la Escuela Doctoral de Teología de Suiza Oriental (2010-2013, CUSO) y Profesor de Teología Moral en el Institut Catholique de Paris (Cátedra Jean Rodhain, 2011-2015). a lo largo de su carrera se ha ocupado de una ética del desarrollo (Libertad como desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe, México: UIA, 2014), y de una teología de la persona humana (Libertad como desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe, México: UIA, 2014).
Session B7 16:30 – 18:00 pm (UTC) Meet-the-editors panel: the state of capabilities research (Early Career Researchers and Practitioners Network (ECRPN)
This panel brings together editors from various journals that publish capabilities (CA) research. Together with the incoming Journal of Human Development and Capabilities editor Alejandra Boni Aristizábal, and moderated by the exiting editor and HDCA president-elect Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, our panel of editors will discuss the state of CA research from each of their journal’s focus and editorial standpoint. Discussion will map the progression of how capabilities research has been received and the various directions it is presently heading towards. The session will also provide insights into some of the challenges authors face when publishing CA research, along with the considerations from the editors’ perspectives on publishing work that focuses on the capabilities approach. Time permitting, discussions might also enter into the changing publication landscape with open access publications, as well as how AI is disrupting or innovating academic publishing.
In addition to the editors from the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, our panel includes Filomena Maggino Editor-in-chief of Social Indicators Research, Martin van Hees Advisory/Senior editor of Economics and Philosophy, Lori Keleher Editor of Journal of Global Ethics, as well as Rafael Ziegler Associate Editor of Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. Together they shall share their various perspectives on the state of capabilities research along with the progress and challenges of publishing work focusing on the capabilities approach within the disciplinary scope of their journals.
Moderator: Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti, HDCA president-elect and former Editor of Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
Panelists:
Alejandra Boni Aristizábal, Editor of Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
Filomena Maggino, Editor-in-chief of Social Indicators Research
Martin van Hees, Advisory/Senior editor of Economics and Philosophy
Lori Keleher, Editor of Journal of Global Ethics
Rafael Ziegler, Associate Editor of Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Journal of Human Development and Capabilities
WEDNESDAY 15TH OF NOVEMBER
Session C1 10:00 – 11:30 am (UTC) Living on the Margins: Gendered Spaces and Power Politics in Asia (South Asia RN & Gender and Sexuality TG)
The topic of gendered access to public space has been widely discussed in both research and practice, with a significant body of academic and policy research on the relationship of public space with gender, class, caste, colour, and race. This panel addresses the ways in which politics of gender, space, time and power intersect to produce multiple forms of discriminations for marginalised communities and its implications on their rights, freedom and dignity as equal citizens of the state especially in the context of Asia. The three papers would offer a critical understanding of how their experiences shape access, mobility, and political and economic participation in public spaces? What forms of exclusions, discriminations, violence are experienced by vulnerable groups in different spaces? The papers would then connect these observations to larger questions of citizenship, capabilities and rights in the context of state discourses and policy perspectives. They argue for claiming the public spaces as sites of resistance and protests and in the process, deconstructing the hegemonic spatial power hierarchies and asserting their claims of ‘social citizenship’.
Presenters:
Dr. Arunima Mukherjee - University of Oslo, Norway
Dr. Nupur Ray - Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi, India.
Dr. Karen Lorimer - Reader in Social Science and Health | School of Health & Life Sciences Reader in Social Science and Health | School of Health & Life Sciences ,Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland
Azadeh Akbari - Assistant Professor, Public Administration & Digital Transformation at the University of Twente, the Netherlands
Katherine Wyers - Doctoral Research Fellow - Information Systems University of Oslo (UiO)
Session C2 12:00 – 13:30 pm (UTC) Political economy & interdisciplinary perspective and thinking past Agenda 2030 SDG (Sustainable Human Development TG)
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations’ (UN) member states in 2015. A shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future, it is based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which the UN describes as an urgent call for action. The organization says that ending global poverty requires focusing on strategies that reduce inequality and spur economic growth, while also tackling climate change. The pertinent questions are, how far has SDG fared, does the agenda worth the hype. The talk will focus the analysis from more of a political economy perspective and interdisciplinary, in terms of trying to think and rethink past Agenda 2030 (e.g., what does current research tell us about how the SDGs can be evolved in the next iteration to better serve their goals?). They will draw from practical illustration from the global south and global north.
Presenters:
Melissa Langworth - Tulane University USA; Dr. Melissa Langworthy is a feminist economist specializing in capabilities and sustainable development, gender equality, and economic justice. She is the Senior Gender Expert for the European Commission “Enhanced EU-GCC Political Dialogue, Cooperation and Outreach” project
Dr. Brian Ikejiaku - The University of Bradford U.K.; Brian is the Director of research at SoL, Faculty of Management, Law & Development. He is an interdisciplinary scholar (of law, politics/IR, & international development) and one of the leading scholars in the field of International Development Law
Dr. Zainab Mai-Bornu - is a lecturer in International Politics at the School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester. She was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. Her primary research focuses on inequalities, conflict, gender, natural resources, vernacular security and development in Africa
Session C3 14:00 – 15:30 pm (UTC) What do we want in development ethics? What to include in the next Routledge Handbook? (Ethics and Development TG)
The human development approach played a large role in shaping the Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics. HD has been conceived from the start as development that enhances people's well-being and empowerment, sustainably and equitably. The Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics presents analysis and debate on the meaning of these values as setting boundaries for worthwhile development – along with other values, such as human rights, cultural freedom, and responsibility/integrity. In addition, relations between development ethics and other philosophical trends is discussed, as well as regional perspectives on pressing ethical problems and promising ways of thinking. Panellists will make short presentations aiming to stimulate audience discussion of ways in which the Handbook might be improved in its second edition.
Panelists:
Jay Drydyk - Professor of Philosophy, Carleton University (Ottawa), Past President International Development Ethics Association, Past President HDCA, co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics
Lori Keleher - Professor of Philosophy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM, President International Development Ethics Association, former EC member of HDCA, co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics
Stacy Kosko - Associate Research Professor in the Department of Government and Politics (GVPT), the Director of the College Park Scholars International Studies program, and the Joel J. Feller Research Professor at the University of Maryland
Su-Ming Khoo - Associate Professor and Head of Sociology, School of Political Science and Sociology, and Chair of the Socio-Economic Impact (Ryan Institute) and Environment, Development and Sustainability (Whitaker Institute) Research Clusters at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway)
Session C4 16:00 – 17:30 pm (UTC) / 17:00 – 18:30 pm (SAST) Social Innovation, Education and Human Flourishing: Lessons learned from three projects in South Africa, Kenya and Spain (Design, Innovation and technology & Southern African Network)
Social innovation projects play a crucial role in promoting alternative platforms that foster human development, particularly by focusing on the flourishing of local communities around the world. To achieve this, it is essential to contextualize, adapt and remain sensitive to the specific needs and aspirations of these communities, creating spaces of solidarity and responsibility towards diverse understandings of development. This panel brings together researchers and practitioners to explore three distinct projects of social innovation, spanning different areas of research, such as education, agriculture and citizen science. By sharing our experiences, the panel aims to facilitate a transversal and horizontal conversation and reflect on our key learnings and drawing insights that can pave the way for a more critical ‘innovation’ praxis in the future. Through this collaborative effort, the panel seeks to contribute to the advancement of theorizing social innovation approaches that have a meaningful and sustainable impact on human development, human flourishing and the empowerment of local communities.
Chair: Mikateko Mathebula - University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Associate Professor at the Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme
Presenters:
Carmen Martinez-Vargas Lecturer in Education and Social Justice, Lancaster University, UK. Carmen is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work is focused on the politics of knowledge and knowledge inequalities embedded in Higher Education practices, especially focusing on participatory research and the Capability Approach
Caroline Kuhn holds a PhD in education and technology and works as a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Bath Spa University (UK). Her research interest lies at the intersection of data, technology, power and people with a special interest in how to integrate digital technology meaningfully in resource-constraint contexts, so that different ways of knowing and doings are respected and considered; framed in a critical pedagogy approach and foregrounding always the human/agency dimension of socio-technical systems.
Alvaro Fernandez-Baldor is assistant professor at the Department of Project Engineering. He has an interdisciplinary profile, having studied technical industrial engineering (Univ. de Cantabria), automation engineering (Univ. del País Vasco), master's degree in rural development (Univ. Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and a doctorate in agri-food economics and environment (UPV)
Monique Leivas Vargas is a sociologist and facilitator of knowledge co-production processes between university and society based on participatory methodologies: participatory video, social mapping and so on. She is currently investigating processes of hermeneutical marginalisation and epistemic injustices in the processes of knowledge production between the university and society, in order to promote the expansion of capabilities for epistemic liberation in the most vulnerable and historically marginalised populations.
Session C5 14:00 – 15:30 (UTC) Coming to our senses: Complexity, spirituality, and thrivability in the Anthropocene (Human Rights TG)
With the planet experiencing unprecedented ecological and humanitarian crises, finding a path forward requires transformational approaches. Drawing on his decades of experience in international development and his scholarly commitment to complexity theory and secular spirituality, Naresh Singh advances some relatively new ideas with the potential for much needed fundamental transformations. These ideas also draw from the newer sciences of quantum physics, psychiatry, and neuroscience as well as the mystical dimensions of the world’s major wisdom traditions of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Together these can be used to build a systems framework incorporating applied spirituality to address the problems of the Anthropocene.
About the presenter:
Naresh Singh is professor and executive dean of the School of Government and Public Policy at OP Jindal University in India, and director of the university’s Centre for Complexity Economics, Applied Spirituality, and Public Policy. His previous engagements include principal adviser at the United Nations Development Programme on Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods and director general at the Canadian International Development Agency.
THURSDAY 16TH OF NOVEMBER
Session D1 13:00 - 15:00 pm (UTC) Simposio: La vulnerabilidad de niños y niñas en América Latina desde la mirada del capability approach (Latin America RN)
Este simposio presenta la vulnerabilidad a la que están expuestos niños y niñas en América Latina utilizando un enfoque de capacidades centrado en la niñez. El panel está organizado por miembros de la Red Regional Latinoamérica y del Grupo Temático Niñez y Juventud de la HDCA y presenta los trabajos de dos expositoras. El primero se centra en el estudio de la vulnerabilidad social de la niñez y las políticas públicas en América Latina y considera que el concepto de vulnerabilidad social de la niñez muestra que el enfoque de capacidades resulta ser una propuesta teórica que permite la investigación y el análisis del tema, así como la creación de políticas públicas basadas en los derechos humanos, que permitan la posibilidad de una interacción y ajuste permanente, de acuerdo con las situaciones y contextos en los que viven las personas. El segundo se centra en el estudio de la desigualdad multidimensional y la vulnerabilidad a la pobreza a lo largo de la vida y presenta la evolución de una cohorte de niños uruguayos, a partir de datos del Estudio Longitudinal del Bienestar en Uruguay (ELBU), que es un estudio longitudinal realizado por el Instituto de Economía que da seguimiento a una muestra de niños que cursaban el primer grado en escuelas primarias públicas en el año 2004 y estuvieron 25 años en la última ola.
Presenters:
Graciela Tonon - (UNICOM- Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina)
Andrea Vigorito (Universidad de la República, Uruguay)
Coordina: Jhonatan Clausen (IDHAL-PUCP, Perú)
Session D2 10:00 – 11:30 am (UTC) Justice and Development: the many facets (Ethics and Development TG)
(Video recording not available)
This panel will address the many facets of development and the ethical challenges it poses: from considering as a subject of justice any “other” (animals, plants, or nature as a whole) to whom we recognize an unconditional, unilateral, and continuous responsibility in a sociopolitical context, to a social change with a participative approach, in which human, social and environmental health will benefit just by adopting sustainable life- styles, endorsing sobriety and naturality, as well as renouncing the materialism of the consumer society and given value to the natural and cultural wealth. We will also analyze the potentials of capacitation approach to the analysis of one of the principal contemporary questions regarding climate justice: the issue of Amazon deforestation.
Panelists:
Julio Cáceda-Adrianzen is a philosopher from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and holds a master's degree in Human Development: Approaches and Policies from the same university. He is currently a lecturer at the Goethe Universität-Frankfurt am Main, where he is doing his doctoral studies in political science, working on a thesis on justice beyond humans.
Mariaclaudia Cusumano - graduated (B. D.) in Political Science, M.D. Cooperation and Development Currently, she is a Ph. D. Candidate in the Program “Context, Environment, and lifestyle for Well-being and Health” at Kore University of Enna (Italy). She is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Migration and Urban Sociology at the Kore University of Enna. Her field of Research is Sociology of the Environment and Territory Environmental Sociology.
Pedro Biselli Moraes - Undergraduate Student in Economics at São Paulo School of Economics from Getulio Vargas Foundation and Research Assistant at José Luiz Egydio Setúbal Foundation
Session D3 11:30 am – 13:00 pm (UTC) / 10:30 am – 12:00 pm (GMT) Exploring Subjectivities – Advancing a Human Security Conceptual Framework (Human Security TG)
(Videorecording not available)
The human security panel session during the Sofia conference looked at contemporary trends within human security, and its relation to recent trends and themes covered by the UNDP Human Development Report Office (UNDP 2022a, b). For this panel, a conceptual and thematic framework was set out by Gasper (2023) that organises current human security discussions into a set of topics for further exploration. A feature of human security thinking is that it focuses on people, their fundamental (basic) needs, and the threats to these (Sen 2013, in Gasper 2023). These threats, and the various forms of vulnerability, risk and well-being requirements people experience, if they are to be the focus of human security approaches, need methodologies for their identification and acting upon.
In exploring this framework, one contemporary debate within human security is the distinction between subjective/ felt/ perceived insecurity compared with ‘objective’ insecurity: measured threat factors, deficiencies and risks. How might a human security approach be ‘humanised’ further? This includes how this issue of subjectivities and the experiential aspects of people’s lives may come to play a larger methodological role in understanding the risks and fault lines in people’s lives, as well as potential strategies for alleviating these vulnerabilities.
Panelists:
Tamara Kool, Researcher, Verwey Jonker Institute (tamara.a.kool@gmail.com) is a former coordinator of the HDCA Human Security Thematic Group. She recently completed PhD on 'Beyond the Right to Work: Labour Market Engagement of Protracted Refugees Through a Social Exclusion Lens’, looking at long-term refugees in Jordan.
Su-Ming Khoo is an Associate Professor and Head of Sociology in the School of Political Science and Sociology and at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) (suming.khoo@universityofgalway.ie). She researches and teaches on human development, human rights, public goods, development alternatives, decoloniality, global activism, development education and higher education, and is a coordinator of the HDCA thematic group on Human Security.
Michael Drinkwater, independent consultant (drinkwatermichael@gmail.com), is an is an academic practitioner with three decades experience in a wide variety of roles in international development. In recent years much of his work has focused on a variety of complex evaluations, research and learning work around forms of programming addressing gender inequity and women’s empowerment, migration, social change and inclusion, and resilient livelihoods and wellbeing. He is currently a coordinator of the HDCA thematic group on Human Security.
Session D4 12:00-13:30 pm (UTC) / 14:00 – 15:30 pm (SAST) Enhancing narrative capabilities and repairing relationships through participatory research: possibilities, complexities, and limitations (Southern Africa RN)
(Videorecording not available)
How can we think about relationships that look different and that support a cooperative space to foster the narrative capabilities and agency that diverse stakeholders value contextually during and beyond participatory projects? In taking up this question, three papers from three funded projects draw conceptually on the capability approach (Sen, 1999), but specifically on Michael Watts’ work on narrative capability, to unpack the challenges and opportunities to initiate and maintain cooperative research relationships and foster narrative capabilities between actors differently situated within: non-profit and community-based organisations; higher education institutions; and local communities. The panel thus addresses what it would mean for relationships founded for the purposes of participatory research to be mutually beneficial and sustainable, although imperfect in praxis, in the face of dynamics that often privilege the agendas, positionalities, skills and knowledge of researchers or facilitators of participatory projects. The panel also critically reflects on how the effective freedom to tell one's own story, or narrative capability is shaped by the methodologies typically employed in participatory research projects involving youth. Finally, the panel examines the uneasiness of eliciting sometimes very personal stories and appropriating these for research purposes, thus raising ethical questions related to the objectives, processes, and outcomes of participatory research.
Panelists:
Dr. Mikateko Mathebula - Associate Professor at the Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme (HEHD) University of the Free State, South Africa. Mikateko's work examines through storytelling methods and the capability approach, the relationship between processes of higher education, youth development and wellbeing in the South African context, with a focus on youth from low-income households
Dr. Carmen Martinez-Vargas - Lecturer in Education and Social Justice, Lancaster University, UK. Carmen is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work is focused on the politics of knowledge and knowledge inequalities embedded in Higher Education practices, especially focusing on participatory research and the Capability Approach.
Dr. Melis Cin - Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice, Lancaster University, UK. Melis is a feminist researcher with a particular interest in exploring the relationship between education and international development.
Session D5 18:00 – 19:30 pm (UTC) Engaging Students as Epistemic Contributors: Running a Policython at the University of Windsor through STEMx Policy (North American RN)
In this interactive event, we explore how UNESCO could develop policies to shift housing as a human right for international students amid a global housing crisis and mass migration. We provide a case study and a platform from which HDCA members can work with undergraduate and/or graduate students to prepare a "pitch" of their ideas. Students propose policies for housing as a human right for international students. The case study uses the capability approach as a framework for policy. This event offers a case study (including an online video introduction from the author), a presentation template, links to relevant open-source readings and an opportunity for the selected three teams to present at the HDCA Global Dialogue. Tim Brunet and a student from the University of Windsor will present how to run a policython event. The structure of this event is similar to a policython run at the University of Windsor Ontario for the UWill Discover Sustainable Futures conference. The exercise demonstrates ways from which students learn about policy development, being an epistemic contributor, and presenting complex ideas within a short time frame.
Presenters:
Tim Brunet is a Higher Education professional with extensive experience in digital, interpersonal, external, and organizational communication. He is the project chair of the UWill Discover Sustainable Futures project which is funded in part by SSHRC and the University of Windsor. His research and practice propose shifting higher education goals from human capital theory to a human development vision. As such, he studies the application of the Capability Approach in administrative, pedagogical and research activities in higher education. His teaching philosophy engages students in bodies of knowledge while giving them opportunities to have a voice in their disciplines, on our campus, and in their communities.
Montserrat Culebro is a professor at Universidad Abierta y a Distancia de México and a lecturer at University La Salle and University of Xochicalco. She works on ethical aspects of social and economic problems applying moral theories and the devising of new concepts. Her areas of research are applied ethics, with special emphasis on bioethics, development, and environmental ethics.
FRIDAY 17TH OF NOVEMBER
Session E1 10:00 – 11:30 am (UTC) Exploring the cultural and narrative dimensions of technology to imagine new possibilities (Technology, Innovation and Design TG)
Session E2 14:00 – 15:30 pm (UTC) / 15:00 – 16:30 (CET) Towards Person-Centered Care: Using the ICF and the Capability Approach (Health and Disability TG)
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a comprehensive framework developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess the impact of health conditions. It focuses on the dynamic interplay between an individual's health conditions and contextual factors. The ICF has gained global recognition and has applications in research, policy development, education, clinical practice, and rehabilitation. a global scale, with many applications in research, policy development, education, clinical practice, and rehabilitation.
The ICF has been compared to the Capability Approach (CA), in particular its framework and practical implementation, and there have been proposals to jointly use in healthcare settings in particular or to revise the ICF in light of the CA (van der Veen et al. 2022; Mitra and Shakespeare 2019). The purpose of this proposed session centers on the potential convergence of the CA and the ICF by examining how these frameworks can collectively enhance our understanding of the lived experience of health and, subsequently, improve the delivery of person-centred care.
The session assembles a panel comprising experts from both research and practical backgrounds. Sophie Mitra (Fordham University), Patricia Welch Saleeby (Bradley University) and Sabina van der Veen (Leiden University) have significantly contributed to a detailed analysis comparing the foundational concepts of the ICF with those of the capability approach and the practical application of these frameworks within clinical settings, specifically exploring avenues to advance person-centred care. Marijn Aalders (Bettery Institute) brings extensive knowledge regarding the education of healthcare professionals and strategies to foster more person-centred care interactions.