DSA2025

The world has been experiencing profoundly unsettling times and compounding experiences of crisis in the continual unfolding of capitalist development. Alongside rising inequalities, inflation, and enforced austerity, people have been subjected to an admixture of dangers: escalating wars, polarised politics, recurring health emergencies, and deepening ecological crises. Policymakers are increasingly referring to a ‘polycrisis’, where global risks come together to exceed the sum of their parts. Yet, alongside profound dangers, crises always generate commensurate opportunities for transformation and positive change. We invite reflections on how this danger/opportunity dialectic at the heart of crisis and capitalism is playing out in the field of development.

At DSA2025, we invite colleagues to wrestle with the ways in which development theories and practices, contested epistemologies and methodological challenges confront crises and uncertainty, and contribute (or not) to new opportunities for positive change. Some potential questions to grapple with include:

1. How have development plans and visions been shaped by deepening and pervasive crises and uncertainty?
2. How do expectations and dreams of the future impact the contested purpose of development and its many ideas of progress?

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