The University of Notre Dame hosted the 2019 Sociology of Development Conference, “Development in Dialogue: Engaging Practitioners and Across Disciplines,” which drew more than 200 scholars and development practitioners from around the globe. The conference theme highlighted exciting ways that sociological research can contribute to (and learn from) broader communities working on a wide range of development-related topics. Taking the theme seriously, paper panels featured sociological research alongside presentations from other disciplines, including economists, political scientists, ethicists, peace studies, and urban landscape design. Paper sessions addressed longstanding themes within Sociology of Development, including socioeconomic growth trajectories, political institutions, health, and gender, while also showcasing growing new research interest in topics like development practitioners as a profession and the role of meaning-making and discourse-analysis in development scholarship. The pre-conference workshop featured extended dialogue among scholars developing new sociological scholarship on corruption.
The theme of dialogue was also reflected in a series of three plenary panels, each of which differently engaged ways sociology can engage in dialogue, featuring combinations of scholars and researchers with experience in development practice. The opening Friday plenary featured Peter Evans (UC Berkeley), Patrick Heller (Brown University), Ann Mische (Notre Dame), and Walden Bello (Binghamton), with Jim Mahoney discussing. That panel examined the rise of populist politics, demonstrating how comparative and case analysis in sociological scholarship can illuminate pressing contemporary social issues. If you missed the conference but want to check out the presentations, videos of some panels--including the plenary sessions--are available on the conference website: devcon19.weebly.com.
The Saturday morning plenary challenged scholars to think about whether, how, and to what ends scholarship might seek to influence the world, featuring Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (the New School and former director of the UNDP Human Development reports), Ray Offenheiser (Notre Dame), Ann Swidler (UC Berkeley), and Michael Woolcock (the World Bank). Fukuda-Parr argued that understanding of the social world is informed by the transformation of words into numbers, but we principally measure things where there are vocal groups in the West pushing for measures, which leaves out issues important to the daily lives of people in the Global South. Swidler passionately argued that Malawians want modernity but without rule of law and an effective labor market, so many reforms go awry, and therefor cautioned against undermining valued institutions that work for people, like chieftaincy, if you cant actually do better at providing people’s daily needs. Woolcock argued that if you want to influence others, you have to take time to understand and honor their epistemic community, whether that means a local village or economists at the World Bank. He encouraged sociologists to go beyond critique, observing that systems don’t change by yelling at them, so instead show how a new idea works, say how to actually build it, and put effort into making it happen.
Carrying forward that theme, the Saturday lunch plenary featured a panel of practitioners who spoke about how sociologists could find traction engaging development organizations in collaborative research or with the policy implications of sociological research. This panel was chaired by Ray Offenheiser (Former President of Oxfam America), featuring Michelle Adato (Senior Operations Advisor at Millennium Challenge Corporation), Naomi Hossain (Research Professor at American University and Former Research Fellow at the UK Institute of Development Studies), Kimberly Pfeifer (Head of Research for Oxfam). Panelists mentioned that they do not often have time to browse full research articles, but some try to do so, and often encounter new research by attending conferences. Perhaps surprising to some, they countered prevailing beliefs that development organizations are only interested in big quantitative data or RCTs, mentioning that there is a growing interest in qualitative research within policy circles, as policymakers increasingly understand a need to know the narratives in order to understand the numbers. Overall, these research-oriented practitioners professed a hunger to hear about sociological research that speaks in practical ways to the kinds of decisions their organizations regularly have to make, carrying forward the idea that if sociologists can learn to express our ideas in ways that are accessible to the epistemic community of development practice, there is an eager audience out there.
We are incredibly grateful to the generous sponsoring institutions across Notre Dame whose donations made the conference possible. We were particularly delighted to be able to offer travel grants to four dozen participants. In closing we want to highlight two new things the conference tried this year, both of which were incredibly successful. First, we created the option to pay a modest voluntary registration fee, 100% of which was used to provide more travel grants for under-resourced attendees. It was a great pleasure to see the big hearts of the development section in action: one quarter of the travel grants were made possible thanks to the generosity of other conference attendees. Second, on Friday evening we offered an optional development Trivia Night, where participants met new friends and matched wits with other teams while enjoying pizza and beer. Could you recognize a photo of Timbuktu? Know the world’s second-largest importer of rice? The oldest stock exchange in the global south? Identify hot sauce by taste alone? Then you’d have loved Trivia Night. We are deeply grateful to the generous authors from the section who donated their books as prizes. 21 books were donated, which were displayed at the conference and then given as prizes to the top-finishing Trivia teams.
Thanks to all the participants who helped make the 2019 Conference such a great experience!
The 2019 Conference Organizing Committee
Erin McDonnell, Ann Mische, Tamara Kay (ND Sociology Faculty)
Jake Dillabaugh, Luiz Vilaça, Tomás Gold, Leslie MacColman (ND Grad Students)
Therese Hanlon (Kellogg Institute Events Program Manager)
The theme of dialogue was also reflected in a series of three plenary panels, each of which differently engaged ways sociology can engage in dialogue, featuring combinations of scholars and researchers with experience in development practice. The opening Friday plenary featured Peter Evans (UC Berkeley), Patrick Heller (Brown University), Ann Mische (Notre Dame), and Walden Bello (Binghamton), with Jim Mahoney discussing. That panel examined the rise of populist politics, demonstrating how comparative and case analysis in sociological scholarship can illuminate pressing contemporary social issues. If you missed the conference but want to check out the presentations, videos of some panels--including the plenary sessions--are available on the conference website: devcon19.weebly.com.
The Saturday morning plenary challenged scholars to think about whether, how, and to what ends scholarship might seek to influence the world, featuring Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (the New School and former director of the UNDP Human Development reports), Ray Offenheiser (Notre Dame), Ann Swidler (UC Berkeley), and Michael Woolcock (the World Bank). Fukuda-Parr argued that understanding of the social world is informed by the transformation of words into numbers, but we principally measure things where there are vocal groups in the West pushing for measures, which leaves out issues important to the daily lives of people in the Global South. Swidler passionately argued that Malawians want modernity but without rule of law and an effective labor market, so many reforms go awry, and therefor cautioned against undermining valued institutions that work for people, like chieftaincy, if you cant actually do better at providing people’s daily needs. Woolcock argued that if you want to influence others, you have to take time to understand and honor their epistemic community, whether that means a local village or economists at the World Bank. He encouraged sociologists to go beyond critique, observing that systems don’t change by yelling at them, so instead show how a new idea works, say how to actually build it, and put effort into making it happen.
Carrying forward that theme, the Saturday lunch plenary featured a panel of practitioners who spoke about how sociologists could find traction engaging development organizations in collaborative research or with the policy implications of sociological research. This panel was chaired by Ray Offenheiser (Former President of Oxfam America), featuring Michelle Adato (Senior Operations Advisor at Millennium Challenge Corporation), Naomi Hossain (Research Professor at American University and Former Research Fellow at the UK Institute of Development Studies), Kimberly Pfeifer (Head of Research for Oxfam). Panelists mentioned that they do not often have time to browse full research articles, but some try to do so, and often encounter new research by attending conferences. Perhaps surprising to some, they countered prevailing beliefs that development organizations are only interested in big quantitative data or RCTs, mentioning that there is a growing interest in qualitative research within policy circles, as policymakers increasingly understand a need to know the narratives in order to understand the numbers. Overall, these research-oriented practitioners professed a hunger to hear about sociological research that speaks in practical ways to the kinds of decisions their organizations regularly have to make, carrying forward the idea that if sociologists can learn to express our ideas in ways that are accessible to the epistemic community of development practice, there is an eager audience out there.
We are incredibly grateful to the generous sponsoring institutions across Notre Dame whose donations made the conference possible. We were particularly delighted to be able to offer travel grants to four dozen participants. In closing we want to highlight two new things the conference tried this year, both of which were incredibly successful. First, we created the option to pay a modest voluntary registration fee, 100% of which was used to provide more travel grants for under-resourced attendees. It was a great pleasure to see the big hearts of the development section in action: one quarter of the travel grants were made possible thanks to the generosity of other conference attendees. Second, on Friday evening we offered an optional development Trivia Night, where participants met new friends and matched wits with other teams while enjoying pizza and beer. Could you recognize a photo of Timbuktu? Know the world’s second-largest importer of rice? The oldest stock exchange in the global south? Identify hot sauce by taste alone? Then you’d have loved Trivia Night. We are deeply grateful to the generous authors from the section who donated their books as prizes. 21 books were donated, which were displayed at the conference and then given as prizes to the top-finishing Trivia teams.
Thanks to all the participants who helped make the 2019 Conference such a great experience!
The 2019 Conference Organizing Committee
Erin McDonnell, Ann Mische, Tamara Kay (ND Sociology Faculty)
Jake Dillabaugh, Luiz Vilaça, Tomás Gold, Leslie MacColman (ND Grad Students)
Therese Hanlon (Kellogg Institute Events Program Manager)