Critical Approaches to Development (CAD)

The first workshop on Critical Approaches to Development was organized in November 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over time, it spontaneously gave rise to a network of academics, activists, and professionals from the Global South who critically engage with development. (More information can be found at www.acd-rede.com.) The first workshop was organized by Professor Isabel Rocha de Siqueira, with support from then-postdoctoral researcher Paulo Chamon and graduate students from the Institute of International Relations (IRI), Ana Carolina Cardoso and Tatiana Castelo Branco. It was also decided at that time to establish a network secretariat, composed of then-students Ana Carolina Cardoso and Beatriz Teixeira, along with IRI graduate Mariana Gamarra.

A second international workshop was held in 2019, also at the BRICS Policy Center, with the same broad engagement and strong support from IRI students and other members of the CAD Network. Both workshops included calls for papers and mentoring sessions, as well as experiential activities.

The network remained active but without in-person meetings during the pandemic.

The CAD Network has organized panels and roundtables at national and international conferences, inspired undergraduate research projects, master’s dissertations, and doctoral theses, and contributed to the development of academic and professional graduate-level courses at IRI.

In 2024, the CAD Network partnered with the BRICS Policy Center’s Socioenvironmental Platform on a project supported by the Ford Foundation, and workshops will resume in 2025. The Ford Foundation-funded project will also provide support for students in their studies.

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT

Our discussions began with a shared reflection: mainstream development discourse shows numerous signs of failure. The limitations of projects based on linear, causal, and scientistic formulations, top-down instruments, and goals focused almost exclusively on achieving predefined “results,” “evidence,” and “efficiency” have long been pointed out.

In terms of effects, decades of mainstream development projects have not prevented—and, in many cases, seem to have contributed to—the exacerbation of inequalities, the violation of rights, the erosion of social protections, and environmental destruction. Moreover, these projects often remain incapable of recognizing subjects and ways of life that differ from modern Western standards, except through the lens of deficiency or lack—of resources, goods, resilience, etc.

In this context, what can be expected from alternative developments and alternatives to development? What theoretical and practical resources can not only provide necessary critique but also drive transformative action? What counter-narratives, counter-archives, and different starting (and ending) points have marginalized experiences offered? How can we amplify these experiences and place them at the center of crucial discussions on structural power relations in the field?

The main objectives of the CAD Network are:

a) To facilitate the formation of a shared body of knowledge based on experiences and perspectives from the Global South, in order to reorient the development debate from the margins;

b) To foster and create networks through pluralistic dialogue between academic, activist, and professional development sectors; and

c) In the long term, to rethink the role of knowledge production on alternatives to development and alternative developments.

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