Event Archive for January 2026

Seminar - Details to Follow

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Online - MS Teams

Seminar - Researching Climate Change and Development from the Bottom Up – Reflections from Current Practice

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Online - MS Teams

Abstract

This roundtable engages speakers from OU partner organisations across the global North and global South to reflect on current challenges and opportunities in researching and influencing climate change and development ‘from the bottom up’.

Seminar - This is Essential Work: Art, Social Theory and Activism

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Online - MS Teams

Methods that employ creative practices as a primary mode of inquiry in the social sciences, humanities, and philosophy have been gaining in popularity. These methods go beyond traditional text-based research to explore complex, embodied, and emotional aspects of human experience and social phenomena.  As well as enriching social enquiry, arts-based methods can be a catalyst for social and political change, which involves nurturing imagination, empowering marginalized voices, and fostering collective action.

Seminar - Social Protection and Coloniality: Learning from the Past and Present

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(online) MS Teams

Abstract

The historical influence of colonial powers and the continued, deep-rooted engagement of international development actors in shaping social protection systems is widely recognised across academic and policy arenas. Nevertheless, evidence of the role of coloniality in social protection remains limited.

This seminar looks a new research exploring the enduring impact of colonialism on contemporary social protection systems by considering the role of coloniality in social protection in the Global South, and Africa in particular.

Seminar - Under Pressure: Global Value Chains, Structural Asymmetries and the Political Economy of Industrial Policy

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Online - MS Teams

Abstract

Engaging global value chains (GVCs) strategically through industrial policy was and remain central to the experience of late and late-late industrialisers. Despite structural asymmetries, several countries managed to 'break into' the global economy by 'linking up' into GVCs and global markets. A smaller number succeeded in increasing domestic value addition by 'linking back' into the domestic economy; countries that managed to 'keep pace' with technological change are even fewer.

Contact us

To find out more about our work, or to discuss a potential project, please contact:

International Development Research Office
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)1908 858502
E: [email protected]