Join us for a thought-provoking roundtable that brings together scholars researching human "development" with those examining social and political "development." This experiment in cross-topic conversation will feature panelists discussing their research on environmental justice, planetary instability, reproductive rights in India, early life development science in South Africa, and health activism in Brazil. Unpacking key concepts such as "progress," "growth," and the "normal/abnormal" in the social and biological sciences, panelists will address how the research community can challenge these core concepts by drawing from emerging movements in unlearning, post/anti-development, degrowth, and decoloniality. In conversation with the audience, panelists will share strategies for breaking down disciplinary silos between the humanities, biological sciences, psychology, and social sciences to think creatively about alternative futures.

Panel Discussion: Challenging ‘progress’: from life-course research to the geopolitics of ‘development’

Dominique Béhague (Chair), Reader in Global Health and Anthropology, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, King's College London

Professor Navtej K Purewal, Professor in Political Sociology and Development Studies, Department of Development Studies, SOAS

Martin Savransky, Reader and Director of the Centre for Critical Global Change, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London

Michelle Pentecost, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Global Health, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, King's College London

Francisco Ortega, ICREA, Research Professor at the Medical Anthropology Research Center, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

The event is hybrid. The panel discussion will run from 17:15 to 18:30, followed by a reception from 18:30 to 19:00 for in-person attendees. For online attendees, the event will run from 17:15 to 18:30 only.