Last week (15th and 16th of February) the EDUKNOW member Arnaldo Pellini attended the Development Days Conference 2018 in Helsinki. This is a yearly event organised by the Finnish Society for Development Research. This year’s topic was: The Politics of Sustainability: Re-thinking resources, values and justice. It is a nice and informal event which brings together researchers, activists, and practitioners from all over Finland and overseas.
Arnaldo Pellini joined the panel on Paradigms of Development and Sustainability – Locating Politics and Colonial Continuities and presented on Doing Development Differently at scale and whether that can lead to sustainable institutional development.
Two very interesting days of presentations, discussions, and sharing of ideas. The development landscape is moving and shifting. The urgency of the problems linked to climate change, preservation of the natural ecosystem, and the search of new economic growth models is showing that the current neoliberal economic model and development practices struggle to find answers. Participation and citizen engagement in politics and public policy and diversified local development initiatives seems to provide some answers.