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Paper short abstract

This paper examines Global South representation in the Digital Services Act (DSA) Council from a Development Studies perspective. The DSA Council, as discussed in Paper 1, coordinates the implementation and enforcement of digital platform regulation within the European Union.

Paper long abstract

Development Studies as a discipline claims a normative commitment to equity, inclusion, and global justice, yet its institutional architectures often reproduce the very epistemic hierarchies it seeks to dismantle. This paper critically examines how representation from the Global South within Development Studies Associations (DSAs) and allied academic councils shapes—and is constrained by—curricular power, knowledge production, and institutional decision-making. Drawing on decolonial theory and critical political economy of knowledge, the paper argues that formal inclusion of Global South representatives does not automatically translate into epistemic authority or curricular transformation.

Using qualitative document analysis of DSA governance structures, council mandates, and curriculum-setting practices, complemented by insights from Global South–based scholars and institutional actors, the paper explores three interrelated dynamics. First, it interrogates how curricula in Development Studies continue to privilege Euro-American epistemologies despite growing calls for decolonisation. Second, it analyses the institutional limitations placed on Global South representatives, including tokenistic inclusion, asymmetrical agenda-setting power, and structural constraints within international academic associations. Third, it highlights sites of institutional agency where Global South actors strategically negotiate, contest, and reshape curricular futures from within these spaces.

The paper contributes to ongoing debates on contested futures in the Global South by demonstrating that epistemic justice in Development Studies requires more than representational diversity; it demands structural reconfiguration of curricular authority and institutional governance. By centring Global South perspectives on institutional agency, the paper offers critical insights for reimagining more equitable, plural, and reflexive futures for Development Studies education and research.