Rethinking Regionalisation — Announcements — Center for Social Development Studies

Shifting Practices and Experiences of Development Cooperation in Southeast Asia: Understanding local voice and agency

27 and 28 March 2023, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) and M.A. and Ph.D. Program in International Development Studies (MAIDS-GRID), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University; Office of International Affairs, Chulalongkorn University; and Japan Society for International Development

Since the new Millennium, the development cooperation landscape has drastically changed in Southeast Asia. Actors providing, receiving, influencing and affected by development cooperation have diversified. So too has the forms and tools of development cooperation, for example South-South cooperation including by China and India, climate funds, and philanthropic foundations.

Existing development studies literature on donor competition predominantly focuses on the accounts of financiers and providers, for example their motivations and processes of competition. Far less attention is paid to the perspectives and agency of local actors in Southeast Asia, including the diverse voices within governments, as well as civil society and impacted communities. As a consequence, less is studied on how local actors evaluate and understand the shifting practices and experiences of development cooperation in Southeast Asia; and in particular, how they see opportunities and challenges within the changing development cooperation landscape to address what they define as their development challenges – and the very meaning of ‘development’. Exploring the local voice and agency in development cooperation is salient at this critical juncture as the crises of climate shock, pandemic, and the war in Ukraine have not only aggravated existing development challenges in the region but also shape the very dynamic development cooperation landscape in the region.

This WriteShop invites abstracts/ full papers from early career researchers in Southeast Asia whose work addresses any of the following themes, or related questions:

How have increasingly established donors, such as China, and longer standing Western donors positioned themselves within the new and dynamic development cooperation landscape? How do local state and non-state actors in Southeast Asia perceive the shift in the development cooperation landscape and the issue of donor competition? How have local actors responded to this shift and the donor competition?
In what ways and to what extent have local state and non-state actors been impacted by the shifting practices of development cooperation? What types of projects, programs, policies and politics have emerged?
In addition to state-led approaches, what other forms of development cooperation are emerging as significant, for example from climate funds and philanthropic foundations?
In what ways and to what extent have the changes and donor competition in Southeast Asia influenced/impacted upon strategies of the region’s own ‘new state donors’ for their South-South Cooperation, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand?
In what ways and to what extent have the regional process of development landscape change and donor competition been affected by recent events including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine?
What are the continuities, discontinuities and emerging new (or revived) meanings of development in relation to this shifting development cooperation landscape? What are the implications?

Selected papers will be invited to the WriteShop at Chulalongkorn University and will receive feedback and support to finalize their papers for publication in English in the Journal of International Development Studies, published by JASID. Travel stipends are available to Bangkok for selected participants. The full call for papers, including timeline, can be downloaded here.

Please submit your abstract (max 300 words) or direct enquiries to Dr. Carl Middleton. In your submission, please include your name, affiliation, and current country/ location of residence.