Join us and the Centre for Global Education at this online seminar, where we will share the findings of a Decolonising Economic Development: The Role of the Development Sector study carried out by academics Surbhi Kesar and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven. This research assessed the extent to which international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in the UK are ‘governing the poor’ through Eurocentric interventions, and challenging existing economic processes and institutions that contribute to underdevelopment for some and development for others. The research was based on analysis of INGOs affiliated to Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development. It assessed their work on issues of economic development to evaluate their stated aims and achieved impacts, and examined various aspects of their work related to their approach to economic development and understanding of decolonisation. The results of their research suggest that Eurocentrism dominates the INGO sector but that a ‘few INGOs attempt to tilt the scale against global capital’. Surbhi and Ingrid will present their research in the seminar and then discuss their findings with participants.
Click the button below to register.
About the Speakers
Surbhi Kesar is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London. Her research interests are in the fields of economic development and political economy of development, specifically focusing on informal economy, processes of structural transformation and capitalist transition in labour surplus economies, issues of economic and social exclusion, and decolonised approaches to the discipline of economics.
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven is a Senior Lecturer in International Development at King’s College, London.Her work is centred on structural explanations for global inequalities, the political economy of development, and critically assessing the economics field itself, in particular from an anti-colonial perspective. She has published research on decolonization, imperialism, and dependency theory, in particular with reference to the international financial system and its impact on African economies.