Short Abstract:

We invite papers engaging with a tradition of academic activism. In the context of Development Studies, there is a richness of work which can rethink the development academic in ways which can contribute to understanding and tackling current contradictions and crises of capitalist development.

Long Abstract:

This panel invites paper proposals engaging with, or coming from, a tradition of academic activism. In contrast to trends within the neoliberal university, academic activism evokes solidarity, disruption, and impact which cannot be measured within academic and research governance matrixes such as the UK’s Research Excellence Framework. It speaks back to market logics of knowledge production and prompts reflections about what counts as knowledge, who can claim to do research, and who is benefiting from academic knowledge production.

In the context of Development Studies, where academics have long moved between the worlds of policy, practice, and research, there is a richness of work which can point towards a reconfiguring of the development academic in ways which can contribute to understanding and tackling the current contradictions and crises of capitalist development. Coming together in a spirit of learning and exploration, this panel aims to tackle questions such as ‘what does academic activism look like in a neoliberal university?’, ‘what can the development academic offer the increasingly violent, unequal, inequitable and unstable contexts in which so many people live? Can academic activists use the contradictions of capitalist development and the neoliberalism of higher education to reimagine ways of living and learning?

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