International development is a field in which expert knowledge, drawn primarily from the social and natural sciences, has long been dominant. We know that complex global problems require multidisciplinary approaches and solutions, but how and where do the arts and humanities fit in?
In their new open access book New Mediums, Better Messages: How Innovations in Translation, Engagement & Advocacy are Changing International Development (OUP), co-editors David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock present twelve wide ranging contributions that suggest that we need to further broaden our ideas about what constitutes valid development knowledge. Themes include alternative media such as literary fiction, films, theatre, radio, photography, blogging, and music. Not only do we need to widen our frame of reference about what constitutes valid knowledge, but we also should question how that knowledge is created and valued, and by whom.
This event will be followed by a reception from 7.30-8.30pm.
About the panel
Dennis Rodgers is Research Professor in Anthropology and Sociology in the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Geneva Graduate Institute (Switzerland), and PI of the ERC Advanced Grant-funded project “Gangs, Gangsters, and Ganglands: Towards a Global Comparative Ethnography” (GANGS). His research focuses principally on the dynamics of conflict and violence in cities, particularly in Latin America.
Michael Woolcock is Lead Social Scientist in the World Bank’s Development Research, where he has worked since 1998. For 17 of those years he has also been an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. An Australian national, his current work focuses on policy implementation, complex program evaluation, and the future of multilateralism.
Emily LeRoux-Rutledge is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of the West of England. She researches the identities of marginalised groups (e.g. women, refugees) in global contexts, and has published in World Development and the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. She holds a PhD from LSE, and has fifteen years of experience managing research for international development organisations.
Hilary Standing is Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, and Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies. She trained as a social anthropologist and worked for three decades on health and development issues in South Asia and elsewhere. She has an MA in Creative Writing and now writes in retirement.
Mariz Tadros is a professor of politics and development and an IDS Research Fellow specialising in the politics and human development of the Middle East. Areas of specialisation include democratisation, Islamist politics, gender, sectarianism, human security and religion and development. She is director of the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development Programme CREID www.creid.ac.
David Lewis is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the Department of International Development. David's research interests lie at the interface between development studies and anthropology, and most of his work has been concerned with understanding people's encounters with development actors and development processes. He undertakes regular fieldwork in Bangladesh on governance, policy and civil society and also worked in Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Uganda.