EJDR special issues are dedicated to a specific international development theme. The European Journal of Development Research regularly publishes themed special issues.

2021

Volume 33, issue 1 (January 2021) - Special issue: Youth, Aspirations and the Life course: Development and the Social Production of Aspirations in Young People's Lives.

Guest Editors:
Roy Huijsmans, Nicola Ansell and Peggy Froerer.

Overview:
The Special Issue Youth, Aspirations and the Life Course: Development and the social production of aspirations in young people’s lives engages with a trend in development studies and practice in which aspiration is viewed either as a potential driver of development or as a hindrance (when aspiration is deemed lacking, too low, too high, or of the wrong kind). This trend is especially noticeable in relation to children and young people. Critical of assertions that aspirations are simply there or lacking, too high or too low, can easily be raised or redirected, or that cast children and young people as naturally aspiring subjects, the articles in the collection draw on sociological and anthropological theory to tease apart how aspirations are produced over young people’s life course even in highly marginalised circumstances. Aspiration we define as an orientation towards a desired future. In relation to young people, this conceptualisation highlights that the work of aspirations is an ever unfolding dynamic through which possible futures and particular pasts come to have a bearing on the lived moment of the present. Gaining some control over this, however fragile or illusive this may be, the contributing articles demonstrate, is key to making life meaningful, perhaps especially so in adverse and rapidly changing circumstances.

Volume 33, issue 2 (March 2021) - Special issue: Bringing Production Back into Development.

Guest Editors:
Ha-Joon Chang & Antonio Andreoni.

Production was at the heart of economics from the days of Classical economics. However, with the rise of Neoclassical economics in the late 19th century, with its almost exclusive focus on market exchange and consumption, production has lost its status as the ultimate interest of economics. Several opportunities for fruitful integration of alternative streams of economics research – Evolutionary, Structuralist and Keynesian in particular – have been also missed. Even when the ‘market fundamentalism’ of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s started to wane, the main alternative approach, that is, humanist approaches to development, such as Sen’s Human Capability Approach, paid little attention to the domain of production. The fragmentation of the production-centred paradigm has weakened both academic research and policy-making related to economic development.

This special issue of European Journal of Development Research is meant to be a contribution to the emerging attempt to bring production back into the development discourse. We have collected research articles that use state-of-the-art theoretical developments and empirical evidence to evaluate the recent changes in various aspects of the domain of production with a focus on developing countries across the developing world. Theoretical contributions in this special issue stress the importance of integrating and updating the older ‘productionist’ theories. It does so firstly by highlighting the collective and productive dimensions of human capabilities, and secondly by re-asserting the important role that domestic linkages and demands play in transforming socio-economic systems. The empirical articles advance the GVC literature along different sectoral value chains – from agriculture, to manufacturing and services – by looking at the impact of financialisation, competition, and industrial policy on production transformation outcomes, using cases of Ghana, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand and China. The importance of building firm-level productive and technological capabilities is explored with reference to developing countries across the African continent and various experiences in the context of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. Building on detailed analyses of technology-fusion and sectoral applications of new technologies, the special issue contributes to the emerging literature on digitalisation by emphasising the role of foundational capabilities and the incremental learning processes involved in technological change. Finally, with a case study on Ecuador, the special issue engages with the paramount need for green industrialisation and the role that green industrial policy can play in that process.

Recently, structural challenges faced by developing countries have been further accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Against this background, there is an increasing recognition that production needs to be brought back into the centre of our thinking and policy agenda on development, if we are to address old and new challenges. This special issue hopes to contribute to this revival by providing re-conceptualisations of some of the key theoretical issues, detailed empirical examinations of the process of developing productive capabilities, and discussions of new challenges that need to be met, if we are to develop a renewed productionist agenda for development.

Volume 33, issue 4 (July 2021) - Special issue: Rural aspirations in Africa – livelihood decisions and rural development trajectories.

Guest Editors:
Javier Revilla-Diez, Kai Mausch and Dave Harris.

Volume 33, issue 5 (September 2021) - Special issue: Gender & Adolescence: Leaving no-one behind.

Guest Editors:
Kate Pincock, Nicola Jones, Sarah Baird, Laura Camfield, Anita Ghimire, Bassam Abu Hamad and Tassew Woldehanna.

2020

Volume 32, issue 5 (December 2020) – SPECIAL ISSUE: The Development Impacts of COVID-19 at Home and Abroad: Politics and Implications of Government Action

Guest Editors:
Henson, Kambhampati, Mogues, Olsen, Prowse, Ramos, Rand, Rasiah, Roelen, Tiessen, Yap.

Articles from:
Amewu, Asante, Pauw & Thurlow; Ouedraogo, Kinda & Zidouemba; Minten, Mohammed & Tamru; Tröster & Küblböck; Onditi, Obimbo, Muchina & Nyadera; Olsen, Bera, Dubey, Kim, Wiśniowski & Yadav; Yap; Valensisi; Cuesta & Pico; Roelen, Ackley, Boyce, Farina & Ripoll; Banati, Jones & Youssef; Rao, Narain, Chakraborty, Hbhanjdeao & Pattanaik.

Summary:
What is COVID-19’s impact on development? What lessons can be drawn from development studies regarding the effects of and recovery from COVID-19? The unprecedented scale and scope of government interventions carry implications at all levels: global, national, and local. In this introduction, our team of Editors underline the importance of systematic substantive study to further knowledge acquisition, and rigorous global-, national-, or context-specific evaluation to inform evidence-based policy-making. The 12 articles summarized here capture these values and sense of “high-quality.” Despite early considerations in the first year of the pandemic, they illuminate the need for diverse responses beyond business-as-usual, attention to the multiplicity of impact of policies formulated, and progressive strategies to counteract the impacts of this disaster around the world. The path of future research is clear: studies need to consider and give voice to marginalized groups to counteract the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic.

This special issue is the fruit of EJDR’s call for papers on the developmental impacts of COVID-19. Please note that it is complemented by the EJDR online collection around the same theme, available here.

Volume 32, issue 3 (June 2020) – COMMENTARY SECTION: North-South Partnerships and the Politics of Development Knowledge

Guest contributors:
White; Gunasekara; Grieve & Mitchell; Kontinen & Nguyahambi; Mitilin, Bennett, Horn, King, Makau & Masimba Nyama.

Summary:
The politics of knowledge, as a foundational issue in development research, are explored and discussed from diverse angles and by diverse researchers in this EJDR commentary section.

Volume 32, Issue 2 (April 2020): SPECIAL ISSUE – Development Challenges in Myanmar

Guest Editors:
Elin Bjarnegård

Articles from:
Stokke & Aung; Wells & Decobert; Schneider, Tun, Nuam, Feurer, Lundsgaard-Hansen, Yun, Nydegger, Oberlack, Myint, Zähringer & Messerli; Nilsen; Bächtold, Bastide and Lundsgaard-Hansen; Hedström & Olivius; Hardaker; Tan & Preece; Htun & Jensenius.

Summary:
Myanmar faces enormous development challenges amid a rapidly changing and uncertain landscape, both in terms of politics and international aid. The special issue looks into the multi-faceted challenges facing this country and its populations.

2019

Volume 31, Issue 1 (January 2019): SPECIAL ISSUE – Rural-Urban Transformations and the role of small towns in Sub-Saharan Africa

Guest Editors:
Cecilia Tacoli, Griet Steel, Jytte Agergaard, Sinne Ortenblad

Articles from:
Steel, Birch-Thomsen, Cottyn, Lazaro, Mainet, Mishili & van Lindert; Baker; Büscher; Agergaard, Larsen, Lazaro, Makindara & Birch-Thomsen; Karg, Bellwood-Howard, Akoto-Danso, Schlesinger, Chagomoka & Drescher; Ortenblad, Birch-Thomsen and Msese

Summary:
Driven by the increasing academic and policy interest in urban centres other than large cities, the papers in this special issue explore important aspects of small town development in a range of sub-Saharan African nations. The various papers focus on changes in rural economies and the growing significance of income diversification, migration and multi-local living, and how these rural-urban transformations intersect with market dynamics and the provision of services in small towns.

2018

Volume 30, Issue 3 (June 2018): SPECIAL ISSUE – Innovation systems in the era of global value chains

Guest Editors:

Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Rasmus Lema and Roberta Rabellotti.

Articles from:
Fagerberg, Lundvall & Srholec; Humphrey, Ding, Fujita, Hioki & Kimura; Park & Gachukia; Fransen, Bhaduri & Knorringa; Tajoli & Felice; Lee, Szapiro & Mao; Pietrobelli & Staritz; Keijser & Iizuka; Haakonsson & Slepniov; Sampath & Vallejo;Jurowetzki, Lema & Lundvall; DeMarchi, Giuliani & Rabellotti

Summary:
This special issue looks at how combining global value chain and innovation system approaches can help to understand the possible trajectories that learning and innovation can take in developing countries. The special issue takes a look at several empirical cases; based on these, the guest editors introduce the notion of the co-evolution of global value chains and innovation systems and outline a framework for investigating the interaction between the two in a dynamic perspective with multiple trajectories. This analysis shows that, in some cases, there is an improvement in local innovation capabilities with potentially positive effects on overall competitiveness, while in others there is little progress or even a loss of previous innovation capacity.
Volume 30 Issue 3 Table of Contents

Volume 30, Issue 1 (January 2018): SPECIAL ISSUE – Frugal Innovation

Guest Editors:

Peter Knorringa and André Leliveld

Articles from: André Leliveld & Peter Knorringa; Kate Meagher; Saskia Vossenberg; Iva Pesa; Wairokpam Devi & Hemant Kumar; Monica Altamirano & Cees van Beers; Aarti Krishnan & Christopher Foster; Eugenia Rosca, Jack Reedy & Julia Bendul

Summary:

Frugal innovations are increasingly important for development research. This special issue looks both at top-down business and management literature on frugal innovation, and at bottom-up development studies discourses on grass-root innovation, bricolage, and livelihood strategies; and the papers in the special issue are positioned accordingly. The issue also looks at the impact of the 4th industrial revolution (of digital technologies) and global population dynamics on the global development opportunities afforded by Frugal Innovation.
Volume 30 Issue 1 Table of Contents

2017

Volume 29, Issue 5 (December 2017): SPECIAL SECTION – Violence against Children

Guest Editor:

Anke Hoeffler

Articles from: Hoeffler; Giusto, Friis, Sim, Chase, Zayzay, Green & Puffer; van Esch & de Haan; Wright, Boydell, Siu, Nalukenge & Seeley; Siu, Wright, Namutebi, Sekiwunga, Zalwango, Kasule & Seeley; Mejia, Haslam, Sanders & Penman

Summary:

The introduction to this special section reviews how violence against children is defined, and which forms it takes. In contrast to other forms of violence (e.g. civil wars and terrorism) ‘every day’ violence against children receives little attention in development research, despite the high prevalence rates and resulting adverse consequences for societal development. The rest of the special issue presents evidence from promising parenting interventions for violence reduction in low income settings in Kenya, Liberia and Uganda.

Volume 29 Issue 5 Table of Contents

Volume 29, Issue 3 (July 2017): SPECIAL ISSUE - The Herbicide Revolution in Developing Countries

Guest Editors:

Steven Haggblade, Thomas Reardon and Bart Minten

Articles from: Haggblade, Minten, Pray, Reardon, and Zilberman; Swinton & Van Deynze; Bonanno, Materia, Venus, and Wessler; Das Gupta, Minten, Rao and Reardon; Huang, Wang and Xiao; Tamru, Minten, Bachewe, and Alemu; Haggblade, Smale, Kergna, Thierault, and Assima

Summary: The six case studies reported in this special issue – the USA, EU, China, India, Ethiopia and Mali – examine the differences in timing, key drivers and consequences of herbicide adoption. The global setting for this analysis of herbicide use is characterised by the increased availability and lower cost of herbicides; and the the upward pressure on rural wages.

Volume 29 Issue 3 Table of Contents

Podcast Series: The Herbicide Revolution in Developing Countries

To complement and extend the recently published special issue entitled The Herbicide Revolution in Developing Countries, we are pleased to present a series of podcasts from some of our contributors, exploring their articles. We will post each podcast here as they become available. We hope you enjoy them!

The Herbicide Revolution in Developing Countries: Tradeoffs among Productivity, Employment and the Environment
Steven Haggblade (co-Guest Editor of the special issue and Michigan State University), discusses the article he authored with Bart Minten, Carl Pray, Thomas Reardon and David Zilberman in the Herbicides special issue. He provides an overview of the key forces driving global development, diffusion and adoption of herbicides across developed and developing countries.

Listen here.

Rising Herbicide Use and Its Driving Forces in China

Zhihua Xiao (Peking University and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University) describes how agricultural labor shortages and rising farm wages in China have motivated a five-fold jump in herbicide use since 2005 and how local factories have scaled up production capacity as patent protection has expired for major international herbicide brands, making China one of the world’s largest exporters of generic herbicides.

Listen here.

The Rapid Expansion of Herbicide Use in Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia: Patterns, Drivers, and Implications
Seneshaw Tamru (LICOS-KU Leuven), reviews the rapid growth in herbicide use over the past decade in Ethiopia, exploring patterns of adoption, their causes as well as emerging environmental and regulatory issues.

Listen here.

Causes and Consequences of Increasing Herbicide Use in Mali

Veronique Theriault (Michigan State University), describes how rise farm wages and the growing availability of cheap generic herbicides have triggered rapid, spontaneous herbicide adoption by Malian farmers, who indicate that herbicides enable them to control weeds at 50% of the cost of hiring hand weeding labor. Under-resourced regulatory agencies have not been able to cope with the rapid surge in herbicide use, leading to growing concerns about the quality and safety of a large number of fraudulent and counterfeit herbicides now available.

Listen here.

2016

Volume 28, Issue 3 (June 2016): SPECIAL SECTION - South-south trade in capital goods

Guest Editors:

Raphael Kaplinsky and Rebecca Hanlin

Articles from: Kaplinsky & Hanlin; Agyei-Holmes; Atta-Ankomah; Cabral

Summary:

This special section looks at technology diffusion as a result of South-South trade in capital goods. It updates arguments from the “appropriate technology” movement of the 1970s and 1980s, by reviewing capital goods utilised in three sectors of considerable developmental significance in low and middle income economies via three distinct case studies.

Volume 28 Issue 3 Table of Contents

Volume 28, Issue 2 (April 2016): SPECIAL DEBATE SECTION - Moving Towards Inclusive Development?

Guest Editors:

Isa Baud

Articles from: Isa Baud; Andy Sumner; Peter Knorringa, Iva Peša, André Leliveld and Cees van Beers; Karin Pfeffer and Hebe Verrest; Wendy Harcourt; Francesco Colona and Rivke Jaffe

Summary:

This special debates section focuses on the European Association of Development Institute's (EADI's) discussion on how development studies are changing, by setting out recent views on new and changing research topics, and drawing out implications for current discussions on inclusive development. The contributions in the Special Debates Section are written by authors working at the cutting edge of development studies, in terms of their perspectives on development pathways and engagement with other disciplines. They centre on three concerns: (1) poverty and inequalities, (2) economic development through innovations in local production and international value chains, and global innovations impacting people and policies everywhere, and (3) hybrid governance arrangements, emerging as non-state actors take on governing activities.

Volume 28 Issue 2 Table of Contents

Volume 28, Issue 1 (January 2016): SPECIAL ISSUE - Policy Coherence for Development

Guest Editors:

Harlan Koff and Lauri Siitonen

Articles from: Lauri Sitonen; Michael King; Maurizio Carbone & Niels Keijzer; Joren Verschaeve, Sarah Delputte, Jan Orbie; Ninna Nyberg-Sorensen; Marikki Stocchetti; Harlan Koff & Carmen Maganda

Summary:

Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) is a major item on the post-2015 development agenda. This issue explores PCD as an element of transformative development, looking at the EU and the global PCD framework; how PCD has arisen; and at PCD in some specific contexts, such as migration, trade, and the right to water.

Volume 28 Issue 1 Table of Contents

2015

Volume 27, Issue 4 (September 2015): SPECIAL ISSUE - Inclusive Development

Guest Editors:

Nicky Pouw

Articles from: Catherine Sutherland, Diane Scott and Michela Hordijk; Karin Pfeffer, Heber Verrest and Ate Poorthuis; Mirjam A.F. Ros-Tonen, Yves-Pierre Benoit Van Leynseele, Anna Laven and Terry Sunderland; Joyeeta Gupta, Nicky Pouw and Mirjam A.F. Ros-Tonen; Elisabeth Peyroux; Mieke T.A.Lopes Cardozo, Jennifer Sawyer, and Maria Luisa Talaveri Simoni; Maarten Bavinck, Subramanian Karuppiah and Svein Jentoft; and Arjan De Haan.

Summary:

This special issue pushes development thinkers to confront one of the most pressing issues of development today: why are so many people are excluded from the benefits of human development and wellbeing? The first article in this special issue lays the ground by tracing the history of the idea 'inclusive development' and sketches the outlines of an elaborated theory of inclusive development. The three pillars of inclusive development (enhanced human wellbeing for all, social and environmental sustainability, and voice and empowerment) need strategic governance to become a reality in practice. The empirical contributions each highlight the complexities of governing for 'inclusion': the multi-scale policies and instruments that are (or are not) at the disposal of government and non-government actors and institutions; the regional and global influences in the political processes at work; and the pluralistic local legal contexts and origins of conflict and strife. The special issue concludes with an in-depth disciplinary contribution on how economists have dealt with 'inclusive growth', and where and how this differs or approaches 'inclusive development'. The special issue pays tribute to the academic career of Professor Isa Baud, by bringing together scholars from all continents, engaged in trans,- multi-, or inter-disciplinary research on governance and inclusive development

Volume 27 Issue 4 Table of Contents

Volume 27, Issue 3 (July 2015): SPECIAL ISSUE - Public Investments in and for Agriculture

Guest Editors:

Tewodaj Mogues, Shenggen Fan and Samuel Benin

Articles from: Tewodaj Mogues, Samuel Benin and Shenggen Fan; Bingxin Yu, Shenggen Fan and Eduardo Magalhães; Sarah Lowder and Jakob Skoet; Gert-Jan Stads; James Thurlow and Karl Pauw; Summer Allen and John Ulimwengu; Pramod Joshi, Praduman Kumar and Shinoj Parappurathu; Tewodaj Mogues

Summary:

This Special Issue is motivated by the importance of bringing to bear new conceptual and empirical research on the determinants, trends, and consequences of public expenditures in support of the agricultural sector of developing economies. Contributors from various disciplines assess the theoretical and more practical contributions to this area.

Volume 27 Issue 3 Table of Contents

Volume 27, Issue 2 (April 2015): SPECIAL DEBATE SECTION - The New Middle Classes

Guest Editors:

Jurgen Wieman

Articles from: Jürgen Wieman; Peter Knorringa & Alejandro Guarin; Nancy Birdsall; Isa Baud; Kees Biekart; Henning Melber; Peter Knorringa

Summary:

Should development studies deal with the middle classes in the developing world? Based on the debates that took place during the EADI General Conference in Bonn in July 2014, the special debates section assesses the relevance of the middle class theme and identifies the role of the new middle classes in emerging economies.

Volume 27 Issue 2 Table of Contents

2014

Volume 26, Issue 4 (September 2014): SPECIAL ISSUE - Understanding the Links between Labour and Economic Development

Guest Editors:

Ralitza Dimova and Christophe J. Nordman

Articles from: Martha Chen, David N Margolis, Julia Vaillant, Michael Grimm, Jann Lay and François Roubaud, Jonathan Goyette, Marcus H Böhme and Rainer Thiele, Ruxanda Berlinschi, Johan Swinnen and Kristine Van Herck, Ilhom Abdulloev, Ira N Gang and Myeong-Su Yun, and Ayça Akarçay Gürbüz, Sezgin Polat and Mustafa Ulus

Summary:

This Special Issue identifies some analytical and data-driven constraints to advances in our understanding of the role of labour in economic development, highlights some new paradigms, and offers new interpretations of phenomena in the interrelated areas of labour informality, self-employment, internal (rural–urban) and international migration, and labour force discouragement. The mobility of labour from low-productivity towards higher-productivity jobs, both geographically and across sectors and enterprises, is a crucial ingredient in ensuring sustainable growth and poverty alleviation. Hence, government (and international) policy effort should focus on dismantling institutional constraints to this successful transition.

Volume 26 Issue 4 Table of Contents

Volume 26, Issue 3 (July 2014): SPECIAL ISSUE - Social Protection for Social Justice

Guest Editors:

Allister McGregor and Stephen Devereux

Articles from:

Timo Voipio, Arjan de Haan, Sam Hickey, Naila Kabeer, Deepta Chopra, Charlotte Harland

Summary:

A range of authors explore the relationship between social protection and social justice. There are different ways of conceiving, designing and implementing social protection so that they are better able to contribute to the promotion of social justice in specific developing country contexts.

Volume 26 Issue 3 Table of Contents

Volume 26, Issue 2 (April 2014): SPECIAL ISSUE - 'Generationing' Development: Situating Children and Youth in Development Processes

Guest Editors:

Sandra J.T.M Evers, Shanti George, Roy Gigengack and Roy Huijsmans

Articles from:

Karuna Morarji, Lidewyde Berckmoes and Ben White, Caroline Archambault, Jason Hart, Sharada Srinivasan, Kristen Cheney, and Roy Gigengack.

Summary:

The articles comprising this special issue explore how young people’s agency shapes and is shaped by the changing terms of social reproduction brought about by development. The project of 'generationing' development involves re-thinking development as distinctly generational in its dynamics, by acknowledging the centrality of young people in social reproduction and putting them at the heart of development studies.

Volume 26 Issue 2 Table of Contents

Volume 26, Issue 1 (January 2014): SPECIAL DEBATE SECTION - Impact Evaluation

Guest Editors:

Laura Camfield and Maren Duvendack

Articles from: Robert Lensink, Howard White, Robert Picciotto, Glen W Harrison, Irene Guijt and Chris Roche

Summary:

The short pieces in the themed debate section speak to the importance of evaluation and replication of evaluations. They can improve the quality of development policy and programmes and explain intended and unintended consequences. The pieces raise questions such as: Is impact evaluation ‘evaluation’? Can randomised controlled trials (RCTs) help policy makers? What does a focus on observables really tell us? In this Introduction we summarise their arguments and make practical proposals to improve the quality of evaluation research, whether this is quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods.

Volume 26, Issue 1 Table of Contents

2013

Volume 25, Issue 1 (February 2013): SPECIAL DEBATE SECTION - A Nutritious New World: Will the World Nutritiously Feed Its Growing Population?

Guest Editors:

Jose Cuesta

Articles from: Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Lawrence Haddad, Elizabeth Warham, Rebecca Fisher-Lamb and John Beddington, Shenggen Fan, Purnima Menon and Joanna Brzeska, and Sheryl L Hendriks

Summary:

Whether the world will be able to nutritiously feed its growing population lies at the heart of the development agenda, and deserves careful and considered thought. Renowned experts in agricultural economics, economic policy, environment, and nutrition, ponder this question and provide insights from their respective fields and from different regional perspectives. These invited contributions provide a mix of optimistic and pessimistic predictions.

Volume 25, Issue 1 Table of Contents

2012

24.2 Beyond the BRICs: Alternative Strategies of Influence in the Global Politics of Development

Guest Editors:

Matthias vom Hau and James Scott

Summary:

This special issue is a first step towards looking beyond Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRICs, towards other countries that have become increasingly influential in the field of global development. Combining insights from international relations and development studies, the articles in this issue examine the role played by economic risers such as South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico in global governance institutions and their engagement with developing countries. These four states are at the forefront of this special issue because all of them have improved their relative standing within the global income hierarchy. This issue also seeks to explore the reasons for particular political responses to the economic growth experienced by those states, and unpack possible implications of their international engagement for the global politics of development

Volume 24, Issue 2 Table of Contents

24.1 Special Debate Section: Why is the empirical evidence on the role of FDI in development so ambiguous?

Guest Editors: Rajneesh Narula and Nigel Driffield

Articles from:

Rajneesh Narula and Nigel Driffield, Antonello Zanfei, Davide Castellani, Axèle Giroud, Oliver Morrissey, Nigel Driffield and Björn Jindra, James Zhan and Hafiz Mirza

Summary:

Inward foreign direct investment (FDI) has provoked a contentious and long lasting debate concerning the extent to which it stimulates productivity growth in the host country. The big questions that form the basis of this debate forum are simple enough: Do multinational enterprises (MNEs) cause net positive externalities to host countries or not? Why is the empirical evidence on the role of FDI in development so ambiguous, especially for the developing countries? Given the vigour and universality with which FDI (circa 2012) is considered to be a ‘good thing’, central to the economic development plans of almost all developing countries, an outsider may be forgiven for thinking that these questions should by now have unequivocally positive answers. However, these are not innocuous questions that trouble only a few specialists in the field interested in the arcane minutiae of theory, as this debate forum intends to illustrate.

Volume 24 Issue 1 Table of Contents

2011

23.5 Young Lives in Transition: From School to Adulthood?

Guest Editors: Laura Camfield

Articles from:

Laura Camfield, Peggy Froerer, Hannah Hoechner, Karin Heissler, Frances Lily Hay, Nitya Rao, Kate Orkin

Summary:

This special issue addresses the meaning of the porous and context-specific boundaries between childhood and adulthood in a range of developing countries, and highlights the ambiguous role of education and employment in young people’s ‘trajectories’. It explores key characteristics of youth transitions such as their complex, multiple and contested nature, and the way they are shaped by and often reproduce social differentiation and inequality. The special issue brings together papers by members of the Literacy and Development Group at the University of East Anglia, as well as others beyond it, all of which highlight the complex linkages between schooling, work and identity; the ways in which institutions and structures support or threaten these; and the meanings and purposes of education.

Volume 23 Issue 5 Table of Contents

23.4 Special Debate Section: The Politics of Poverty and Inequality

Guest Editors: Dennis Rodgers

Articles from:Robert H Wade, Andrew M Fischer, Naila Kabeer, Yusuf Bangura, James K Galbraith, Frances Stewart, Sarah Cook

Summary:

Prompted by the importance of the topic of inequality, and the lack of significant debate about it within the development policy world, the EJDR jointly organised with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) a special forum around the key concerns brought up in its 2010 flagship report, Combating Poverty and Inequality. The forum takes off from two key questions concerning inequality: Is inequality an insurmountable obstacle to meaningful poverty reduction, given contemporary global political economy realities? And what kinds of politics are conducive to substantial reductions in inequality and poverty? The informal essays in this special section provide a stimulating complement to UNRISD’s 2010 report, but can also be read alone, as interesting and often polemical statements about inequality, development and the politics of poverty reduction.

Volume 23 Issue 4 Table of Contents

23.2 Special Issue: The Legacy of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Processes in Latin America

Guest Editors:

Geske Dijkstra, Kristin Komives

Summary:

The articles in this volume examine several aspects of the Poverty Reduction Strategy process in Latin America. Together, they not only illustrate the dynamics of the PRS process in the different countries, but also assess whether central goals of the process, such as promoting participation and accountability, a moving towards a more programmatic approach to aid, and improving the effectiveness of poverty reduction policies, have been achieved. The collection focuses on the four Latin American Heavily Indebted Poor Countries: Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua. Most articles examine one of the expected outcomes of the PRS process (accountability, result-oriented budgeting, more effective spending, aid effectiveness) or deal with one sector or theme (gender, rural development, forestry). Most adopt a comparative approach; three take an in-depth look at the experience in one country.

Volume 23 Issue 2 Table of Contents

23.1 Special Debate Section: The 2010 UNCTAD Least Developed Countries Report – Towards a New Development Architecture for LDCs

Guest Editors:

Dennis Rodgers

Articles from:

Charles Gore and Zeljka Kozul-Wright, Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Richard Jolly

Summary:

This special debate section showcases the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s 2010 Least Developed Countries report. The report focuses on the need for a new international development architecture, both highlighting critical flaws in current arrangements, as well as suggesting potential innovations to foster better and more equitable development for LDCs. This special debate section begins with an extended summary of the 2010 UNCTAD LDC report, followed by two essays offering constructively critical commentaries.

Volume 23 Issue 1 Table of Contents

2010

22.5 Special Issue: New avenues for pastoral development in sub-Saharan Africa

Guest Editors:

Tobias Hagmann, Chinwe Ifejika Speranza

Summary:

In recent years pastoral production systems and lifestyles in sub-Saharan Africa – both sedentary and mobile – have gained increasing attention. While disciplinary approaches have produced important insights into the dynamics and problems of African drylands, few efforts have been made to problematize and conceptualize pastoral development from a holistic and comparative perspective. To fill this gap, this special issue aims to provide an overview of the current interdisciplinary research on the multiple challenges and opportunities faced by pastoralist societies and (semi-)arid ecosystems in SSA.

Volume 22 Issue 5 Table of Contents

22.3 Special Section: Female entrepreneurship across countries and in development

Guest Editors:

Wim Naudé and Maria Minniti

Summary:

It is generally recognized that women have a vital role to play as entrepreneurs in development, and that they often face more obstacles in this role than men. The dilemma is that women's challenges as entrepreneurs are tightly interwoven with the very fabric of their societies, so that perhaps more than any other topic, the role of women in entrepreneurship is a reflection of broader societal progress. This implies a dauntingly complex, but not insurmountable task for policy makers. The purpose of this planned special section is to throw light on this task by reviewing the state of empirical evidence on the broad position of women entrepreneurs across the world. Differing from other research on the topic the focus in this special section will be global and comparative. Papers in this special section examine the international comparable data available between countries (e.g. taken from the GEM survey and the World Bank's Doing Business Surveys) to better understand the profile, constraints and dynamics of women entrepreneurs. The papers in this special section will ask, from this, what are the institutional features of societies that influence women entrepreneurs, will explore how societal conventions in developing countries influence the success and outcomes of women entrepreneurs, and the extent to which these conventions may constrain or hinder other policy initiatives towards women entrepreneurship and empowerment, particularly in developing countries, such as the provision of micro-credit.

Volume 22 Issue 3 Table of Contents

2009

21.5 Symposium for Development Studies Association 30th Anniversary Conference

Articles from:

Jonathan Goodhand, Bart Klem and Benedikt Korf, Olivier Rubin, Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind, Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, R Sabates-Wheeler, L Taylor and C Natali

Summary:

In setting up the conference theme of ‘Development’s Invisible Hands', the organizers noted the enormous changes that have occurred over the Development Studies Association's (DSA) first 30 years. Contributors to the conference were asked to look towards 2038 and focus on themes likely to influence global change and re-shape development agendas. The papers in this symposium are developed from some of the best.

Volume 21 Issue 5 Table of Contents

21.4 China in Africa: A Relationship in Transition

Guest Editors:

Olusanya Ajakaiye and Raphael Kaplinsky

Articles from:

Oyejide Titiloye Ademola, Abiodun S Bankole and Adeolu O Adewuyi, Giorgia Giovannetti and Marco Sanfilippo, Nelson Villoria, Raphael Kaplinsky and Mike Morris, Jing Gu, Giles Mohan and May Tan-Mullins, Basile Ndjio, Vinaye Ancharaz, Peter Kragelund, Uwe Wissenbach

Summary:

Barely one decade ago, the juxtaposition of China and Africa seemed like an exercise in separate categories. Today it is inconceivable, from the African end at least, that Africa's economic and political destiny could be discussed without reference to China. There are important political alliances developing between China and Africa, often undercutting historical links with northern partners. However, although there are increasing flows of people between China and Africa, cultural spillovers remain relatively muted. Each of these papers focuses on the dynamics of China–Africa relations, taking the literature forward in that the categories of ‘China’ and ‘Africa’ are disaggregated.

Volume 21 Issue 4 Table of Contents

21.2 Special Debate Section on the Chronic Poverty Report 2008–2009

Articles from:

Martin Prowse, Duncan Green, Tony Addison

Summary:

The Chronic Poverty Research Centre is an international partnership of universities, research institutes and non-governmental organizations from Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Uganda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Senegal and the United Kingdom. Here, we have presented a summary of the report and a critical debate surrounding it. We hope that the combination of viewpoints and approaches will be both informative and thought-provoking, and will contribute to enhancing current debates about the report, on the issue of chronic poverty, and concerning development challenges more generally.

Volume 21 Issue 2 Table of Contents

21.1 Special Section: Development Trends: Five Visions from Five Continents

Articles from:

Michael Woolcock, Neera Chandhoke, Vishnu Padayachee, Elizabeth Jelin, Bonnie Campbell

Summary:

This special section is a collection of personal reflective essays by five members of leading development institutes in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Each is aiming to answer the question; what do you see to be the key development issues for the next decade? Together, they provide us with a fascinating and truly global window onto the emergent cutting edge of development studies, showing the diversity of the field to be immediately apparent.

Volume 21 Issue 1 Table of Contents

The European Journal of Development Research

Volumes and Issues