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I agree with others who have said that the use of "Development" as a concept is problematic. If it must be used,it really needs to be defined by the people being affected by the work/initiative/intervention. So it really comes down to local goals. And in many cases there are many and there will be tradeoffs. Thus, for me it will be important to complement any work with participatory approaches that permit capturing of the different perspectives/goals so that these tradeoffs can be made explicit and understood.

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useful chapter 1 for a quick framing of what is 'development' 

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useful chapter 1 for a quick framing of what is 'development' 

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see fig 1.1 - we could do our own quick version of this...

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'A sure-footed and self-confident book, ambitious in scope, authoritative in execution and practical in its implications' - Simon Maxwell, Director, Overseas Development Institute, London 'At last, a development studies text that encourages self-reflection from within the discipline.

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In my own work I look at whose knowledge counts when it comes to global change (or development).

How do we acknowledge the need to reduce inequality without focusing on GDP indicators?

It also comes into my work in education at Uppsala University on decolonial pedagogy. How do we hold spaces for uncomfortable conversations that need to happen?

Throughout my studies at SRC in a Masters in Social Ecological Resilience for Sustainable DEVELOPMENT, I have often grappled with the term development. To the point where often when I am describing my masters to other people, I do not even use the term development, due to certain post-colonial connotations. I think it is worthwhile to dissect the baggage of this word in detail. Perhaps we can redefine it for SRC (and incorporate this in the MSc programme)? Or perhaps we need to rally around a new type of change that is less euro centric globally north economic growth orientated?

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I also agree with the problem of using the term 'development' as Laura points out. I use system dynamics modeling.

I am interested in policy coherence and systems tools. I have worked with system dynamics tools that is used for government planning between ministries in particular the global south - in practice. E.g. for SDG planning and reporting.

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My understanding of “development” is somewhat influenced by Amartya Sens capabilities, that is increasing the range of options for people to do what they deem valuable – within scientifically-informed boundaries that are under constant revision and evolution. “Scientifically-informed” not in a serial process, but more in an inclusive, participatory way of doing science

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My understanding of “development” is somewhat influenced by Amartya Sens capabilities, that is increasing the range of options for people to do what they deem valuable – within scientifically-informed boundaries that are under constant revision and evolution. “Scientifically-informed” not in a serial process, but more in an inclusive, participatory way of doing science

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Hmm, i try to assess  how development is currently being done, think about what we would need to do in order to reach 'desired' objectives to try to nudge things in a good direction, and gear research like that, while identifying the people needed to do it, whether they be researcher from different disciplines or outside research

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I suppose from a theoretical perspectives most of my work is based on the capabilities approach at the local level, focusing particularly on how natural resource governance, participation and decision making support different ecological and social outcomes in low and middle income countries.

I previously worked in international development supporting the development of community-level natural resource management planning committees in pastoral lands in Kenya, with attention to improving participation, communication and decision making between different groups (e.g. government and customary institutions; different social groups; gender etc.).

In academia I have focused on testing how different forms of resource governance support different ecological and social outcomes in smallholder agroforestry contexts. At SRC I am working a global project (Nature4SDGs) looking at how governance and social marginalisation affect human-wellbeing relationships in different contexts in a series of low and middle income countries.

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My focus is often on changing (or studying, supporting changing) current unsustainable and inequitable paths. I think SES resilience and CAS theories offer lots of ways into that discussion, but the result is that I find myself working with people trying to shift approaches that may range from the classic development paradigms critiqued on here already, to working with those who likely never use that word.

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I'm hesitant to use the term due to all of the baggage it has. I'm interested in the "whys" of development: not just *who* is vulnerable (to effects of climate change, to economic trends etc), but naming the processes that reinforce inequality. How are traps & unsustainable paths created, how can they be escaped, and can trap dynamics identified in development contexts apply to the so-called developed countries as well - for example family farmers trying to navigate the market in industrialized countries?

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I am interested in exploring social-ecological response diversity in food systems in the global south, particularly if the diversity of local initiatives leads to higher rd. I don’t have a good answer for defining development and honestly have been considering if the term should even exist.  I am also struggling with the fact that even if we don’t try to do that most research, engagements and events are still very much driven by actors from the north. I am actively striving for the right balance and with avoiding colonialist ways of collaborating with actors from the global south. My work with development so far has been more working with stakeholder engagement and co-organisation of dialogues on resilience aiming for increased learning and common understanding among participants.

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I approach development primarily through the concept of a poverty trap, and the strategies that actors in the trap or external to the trap might use to trigger escape from the trap. With Jamila, I have focused on how mainstream thinking around traps is limited (and itself trapped!) -- due to focusing only on asset input interventions, ignoring poverty-environment relationships, etc.

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Krisztina Jonas            Development from my perspective is (could/should be ?) a contextual, situated action and planning avoiding generalised ideas about what "development" is, and what "forward looking" is.  Thus, development as such could start from the situated, diverse groups of individuals. 

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Krisztina Jonas            Development from my perspective is (could/should be ?) a contextual, situated action and planning avoiding generalised ideas about what "development" is, and what "forward looking" is.  Thus, development as such could start from the situated, diverse groups of individuals. 

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It is the eternal challenge of making decisions on a more global level about very local issues.

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I think my approach has been to avoid the term, or at least not to probe or discuss it specifically.
Rather then as a context to feed perspectives of biosphere-based, social-ecological, resilience etc. into.

Development as a context of policy/ practice/ interventions where a shift of perspective to SES and resilience could make a difference - for the benefit of ecosystem governance and human well-being.

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I approach development very broadly  , as a process of change.
1) development is the process of on-going, constantly changing social-ecological relations (CAS perspective). Coevolution as a useful framing of these changing relationships.
2) intersection of poverty alleviation and biological and cultural diversity as key tension point for sustainable development
3) resilience and development: as the capacity to persist, adapt, transform.
4) the 'how' development is 'done' if that even makes sense! who is involved, which issues, people and voices and have power. Therefore using food as method.

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A reflection on the "we" providing development to the "they" on the receiving end - thus, what narratives or discourses permeate through the development process, and do we (or not) consider this in the types of development research or methods or questions that we work on?

Also interested to delve deeper into concepts of precarity, inequality/equity and social differentiation in the development process

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The anthropocene context is crucial to me, I'm especially interested in very complex distant drivers of change that are sometimes unexpected, but that undermine social-ecological resilience in different localities (local or national). There are some tricky governance and political dimensions to this related to lack of international coordination + limited governance capacities and political interest on the ground. This is a global approach, with Global South dimensions that I'm keen to explore.

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SwedBio is currently in a process up-dating the ToC. However mandate currently Development = International Development and Cooperation
e.g. (aiming at achieving the SDGs / Aichii targets) based on local partners  priorities and ownership...

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I actually have a problem with the terms 'development' because it denotes that there is a group of people that 'need to be developed'. It's the same as the pushback on 'developing' countries as those that need to be developed- or brought up to a Western equivalent standard of living. Flipping it around, I think that from a global sustainability and equity perspective, much more 'development' actually needs to happen in the North- those of us as the higher consumers needs to learn to live within boundaries. Kate Raworth and Kate O'Brien have written some interesting thought pieces along these lines. Development needs to be incorporated into the decolonial agenda- where by recognising a pluralism of valid knowledges and ways of being are 'accepted'. I also wanted to share this great tweet (living my life on social media): https://twitter.com/MissChisomo/status/1255488050437783559?s=20 

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I actually have a problem with the terms 'development' because it denotes that there is a group of people that 'need to be developed'. It's the same as the pushback on 'developing' countries as those that need to be developed- or brought up to a Western equivalent standard of living. Flipping it around, I think that from a global sustainability and equity perspective, much more 'development' actually needs to happen in the North- those of us as the higher consumers needs to learn to live within boundaries. Kate Raworth and Kate O'Brien have written some interesting thought pieces along these lines. Development needs to be incorporated into the decolonial agenda- where by recognising a pluralism of valid knowledges and ways of being are 'accepted'. I also wanted to share this great tweet (living my life on social media): https://twitter.com/MissChisomo/status/1255488050437783559?s=20 

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Belinda Reyers                                    I feel that SES resilience approaches or concepts make clear some unique ways we can approach development as: (1) now happening in the Anthropocene; (2) an emergent process of intertwined SES; (3) and a universal or cross-scale endeavour rather than a local or southern focus. And many more.... I think the area of complex adaptive systems and development is also an important avenue and gap in development research and practice

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Belinda Reyers                                    I feel that SES resilience approaches or concepts make clear some unique ways we can approach development as: (1) now happening in the Anthropocene; (2) an emergent process of intertwined SES; (3) and a universal or cross-scale endeavour rather than a local or southern focus. And many more.... I think the area of complex adaptive systems and development is also an important avenue and gap in development research and practice

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Development to me is generally about improvements in human wellbeing at some level or scale. Because development is such a loaded term and used so differently across groups, the way I approach development tries to bridge the worlds of sustainable development, international development and even economic/social development through a complex SES approach.
I further have tried to integrate equity and sustainability as dual and interconnected challenges or outcomes that development (as a process) aims to address, rather than seeing development as a focus on equity with sustainability as an afterthought or as a limit. An SES approach to development or to resilience and development makes this a lot more possible to do.
I think development as process vs. development as outcome is a key tension between dynamic approaches to development and current more static approaches e.g. SDGs or international development

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Right now I am co-writing the book "The Soybean Through World History
Lessons for Sustainable Food Systems". We have combined political economy and Res Thinking to explore the features that brought us to the current configuration of our global agrofood system and unequal development (using the lens of the soybean).  We want to examine the evolving dominant structures and processes of the agrofood system and the social-ecological effects of these changes over time. We use a systemic and non-linear view of change, which reflects a holistic, non-determinist historical interpretation of evolving social and ecological relations

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As a decolonial thinker, I always try to decolonize my idea about development. First of all, development thinking (especially development studies) has a geographic pattern and it's remains Eurocentric concept, rooted in western enlightenment ideas about progress and modernity. Although, there's been an improvement in the past years on the rejection of a purely economistic approach to development and more ethical ways of doing research, for example with people from the Global South (not for or about them). In my studies, I seek to understand the structural causes of poverty since ppl from the Global South has been living under various forms of colonial power. So, how could I think differently about development from those places that have been conceptually positioned on the edges? What if instead of categorizing the majority of the world population as poor, development focus on the things that made countries rich? How it'd be to have a sustainable development goal focusing on ending extreme wealth rather than ending extreme poverty - for example?

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the struggle to improve the conditions of people's lives, reduce vulnerability, reduce and prevent multidimensional poverty are a backdrop to the social ecological systems that i study and often a key emergent property that i'm interested in. Development is therefore a local goal, but development more broadly is also a key driver of change and vulnerability (for better and worse) whether through poverty allevation programmes, infrastructure developments of individual countries or through a global growth oriented development that has impacts on the biosphere and creates opportunities and vulnerabilities for people.

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Research is valuable tool to advance in risk-informed development, as the integration of resilience in development beyond humanitarian aid response.  As practitioner in development, a practice to do is; identify and focus levarages/ barriers on theory of change of project/ programs, measure its achievements /impacts , and promote adaptive management and agile governance.

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I approach development as increased well-being for people. I work mainly in small-holder agricultural landscapes. My work has two strands: 1) How different parts of agricultural landscapes contribute to well-being, which is important to understand to guide interventions (that are happening); 2) What factors (biophysical, social, economic) influence the opportunities young people have to establish themselves as independent, and secure/improve well-being. How perspectives of youth themselves differ from how they are represented in policies

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I am working on a paper on indigenous ontologies of wellbeing in relation to nature and what we can learn from these for sustainability and development. I'd be interested to explore further with this group, how the ontologies of wellbeing and of development influence our approaches and practice.
P.S. I have a concurrent meeting this afternoon, so will unfortunately not be present for the full meeting today, but I would like to be part of any future discussions.

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I approach development generally through
1) exploring how a better understanding of human-ecosystem connections (e.g. biocultural values, sense of place) do/can improve people's lives in terms of poverty alleviation and quality of life, particularly in context of material poverty and urban migration in Africa; and
2) the intersection of poverty alleviation development interventions (such as ecotourism, conservation), and expressions of care or stewardship of local ecosystems, i.e. do they fit, what are the trade-offs.