#DevDays2026 | FSDR@40
Development in Ruins, Hope in the Cracks: A Time for Reckoning, Reclaiming, and Reawakening
University of Helsinki, Finland | 26–27 February 2026
Concept Note
We live in a ruined and ruining world. The postwar program and edifice of “development” as we know it—built on the assumptions of linear progress, donor-driven aid, and international cooperation—is crumbling. Development’s failures, rooted in the colonial and capitalist world-system, are manifest: in the stark precarity and inequalities sharpening under economic neoliberalism; in the climate emergency spiraling beyond control; in the defunding of social institutions and public services amid rising securitization and militarization; in the surge of reactionary, ethno-nationalist, and authoritarian-populist politics eroding human dignity and global solidarities; and in the realities of genocide, forced displacement, and mass starvation–cruelties inflicted against humanity.
These ruins in the contemporary polycrisis, entangled with the history of extractive capitalism and colonialism, demand profound reckoning. Yet, in the cracks—within the fissures and margins of the prevailing disorder—seeds of hope are already germinating. This hope is found both in the recognition of diverse forms of human coexistence that predate Western hegemony, and in vibrant new movements. From struggles for climate action, equality, peace, and food sovereignty, to feminist economies of care and Indigenous knowledge reclamations, to the uprisings led by students and the youth, people are reawakening consciousness and reclaiming agency, spaces, and the commons. These are not simply strategies of survival, but practices of community-building and world-making that prefigure life beyond the colonial capitalist paradigm of development.
Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Finnish Society for Development Research, the #DevDays2026 international conference calls on scholars, practitioners, and activists to share their studies, reflections, advocacies, and experiences in engaging this dialectic of ruin and hope. We ask: How do we reckon with the ruins of development? How do we learn from, and nurture, the cracks where hope takes root? And how do we reawaken political consciousness for socio-ecological and economic-cultural transformation?
This gathering is more than critique. It is an invitation to self-reflection on Reckoning, Reclaiming, Reawakening toward renewal. As we reflect on four decades of critical development research in Finland, we take up the challenge not only to analyze collapse but to actively participate in the collective labor of reimagining and advancing futures of justice, care, and solidarity.
Keynote Speakers
- Walden Bello (State University of New York at Binghamton)
- Robtel Neajai Pailey (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Working Groups
We invite proposals for papers or expressions of interest to participate in any of the 20 selected Working Groups:
- Nurturing Hope and Resistance in the Ruins
- The Entanglement of Gen Z, Democracy and Geopolitics in the Global South
- Intergenerational Hope in Sparsely Populated Regions
- Sites of Ruins, Sites of Hope: (Re)Thinking Building Infrastructures in the Precarious Present
- Pedagogy of Resistance: Social Movements, Popular Education, and Transformative Learning
- Philosophical and Spiritual Practices for Sustainability Transformations: Cultivating Inner Wisdom, Embodying Change
- From Crises to Just Sustainable Futures: Reimagining the ‘Ecotopia’ in Socio-Ecological Systems
- Governing in the Ruins of Green Development: Neoliberal and/or Authoritarian Sustainability and the Cracks of Everyday Ecologies
- Extractivism, Recognition, and Responsibility: The Search for More Just Futures
- Planting Promises: Money, Myths, and the Realities of Global Tree Planting and Ecological Restoration
- Reawakening Consciousness: Pedagogies of Hope and Participatory Learning for Transformative Futures
- Methodology as a Tool for Resistance and Hope
- Supporting Environmental Defenders to Advance Environmental and Social Justice
- Re-imagining Futures from the Edges: Epistemologies and Experiences of Sustainability and Resistance Otherwise
- Shifting Foundations for Civic Space and Expanding Solidarity: Learning, Care, and Collective Agency Beyond Development
- Reimagining Political Participation in an Age of Geopolitics: Southern Experiences
- Reclaiming Metaphysical Memory: Indigenous Knowledge, Ancestral Healing, and Regenerative Development in the Global South
- The Political Economy of the Green–Digital Transition
- How to Stand with Sudan: Transnational Solidarity in Academia and Beyond
- DEVELOP2: The Academy Programme for Development Research
Submission Guidelines and Timeline
Submissions are encouraged to engage specifically with the focus of the chosen Working Group and generally with the overarching conference theme. Please submit your paper abstract or participation proposal directly to the Coordinator(s) of your preferred Working Group by 30 November 2025.
- 30.09.2025: Call for working groups opens
- 25.10.2025: Deadline for working group proposals
- 31.10.2025: Acceptance of working groups
- 7.11.2025: Call for papers opens
- 30.11.2025: Deadline for paper abstract submission
- 8.12.2025: Notification of accepted abstracts
- 12.01.2026: Registration opens
- 15.02.2026: Registration closes
- 25.02.2026: Pre-conference events (DocShop, Master’s Workshop, Public Forum)
- 26.–27.02.2026: #DevDays2026 Conference in Helsinki
In line with our commitment to democratizing, diversifying, and decolonizing development knowledge, we welcome online participation and hybrid engagement. We particularly encourage collaboration with colleagues from the Global South.
For more information and updates, please visit the conference website regularly, follow FSDR’s social media pages, or contact us at info.developmentdays@gmail.com.
Organizers
The Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR), in collaboration with the Finnish University Partnership for International Development (UniPID), the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), and Global Visions