The DevDays2027 program features 22 Working Groups spanning critical perspectives on development research, policy, and advocacy.
Guidelines for Submissions:
- Where to Send: Please submit your abstract or expression of interest directly to the primary email contact listed on each Working Group page.
- Submission Format: Standard abstracts should be up to 300 words unless otherwise noted on the specific Working Group page.
Deadline:
25 November 2026
The #DevDays2027 Working Groups
WG 1: Critical Data Studies: Interrogating the Age of Big Tech and AI
Coordinator: Christopher Chagnon (University of Helsinki)
WG 2: Beyond “Smart” Forests: Centering IPLCs and Equity in Forest Governance Coordinators: Ayonghe Akonwi (University of Helsinki), Omobola Eko (University of Tuscia, Italy)
WG 3: Governing through Markets: Public Value, Capability and Accountability
Coordinators: Vinay Sharma; Ashish Bhateja
WG 4: Conversations Across Contexts: A Warm Data Lab
Coordinator: Arnaldo Pellini (Capability POy and ODI Global)
WG 5: Reclaiming Development: African-Led Research, Collective Power, and Just Futures for People and Nature
Coordinator: Amos Njuguna (NIERA: Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa)
WG 6: Global Sustainability with Global Resources and Stakeholders
Coordinator: Annika Hyytiä (University of Helsinki)
WG 7: China and the New Geographies of Green Transition
Coordinators: Usman Ashraf, Mirä Käkönen & Chenmei Li (University of Helsinki)
WG 8: Africa Across the Social Sciences: Early-Career Perspectives
Coordinators: Ilmari Huotari (University of Helsinki / Global Development Studies), Kirsten Nielsen, (University of Helsinki / Anthropology), Lina Bonde (University of Helsinki / Sociology)
WG 9: Experiences from the DEVELOP2 Academy Programme
Coordinator: Mikko Ylikangas (Research Council of Finland)
WG 10: Tropical Forest Governance in the Era of New Digital Technologies
Coordinators: Heini Vihemäki & Maria Brockhaus (Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki)
WG 11: Resisting Green Extractivism in Nordic Frontiers to Sustain Life
Coordinators: Eleonoora Karttunen (Social and Public Policy, University of Eastern Finland), Susanna Myllylä (Environmental Policy, University of Eastern Finland)
WG 12: Tariff Liberalisation and Sustainability: Rules of Origin as Development Policy
Coordinators: Guillaume Gérout Suominen (University of Helsinki), Jacob Kotcho Bongkwaha (Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States)
WG 13: Emptying Landscapes? Rural Outmigration and the Transformation of People–Nature Relations in the Global South
Coordinators: Edward L. Webb & Heini Vihemäki (Viikki Tropical Resources Institute, University of Helsinki)
WG 14: Learning Otherwise, Becoming One: Unity, Popular Pedagogy, Andragogy, and Action Research as New Dynamics of Collective Power
Coordinator: Abirlal Mukherjee (University of the People, California, USA)
WG 15: Global Climate Tipping Points and Extractive Politics
Coordinators: Sophia Hagolani-Albov, Markus Kröger & Sanna Komi (Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki)
WG 16: From Extractivism to Degrowth: Exploring Local Alternatives in a Global World
Coordinators: Sanna Komi (University of Helsinki, Global Development Studies, and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals), Riina Bhatia (University of Helsinki, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Sustainability of Society)
WG 17: Care and the Governance of the Commons: Towards New Approaches
Coordinator: Francesco Mirra (University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
WG 18: Reimagining Democratic Participation in an Age of Geopolitics: Southern Experiences
Coordinators: Henri Onodera (University of Helsinki), Karim Maïche (University of Lapland)
WG 19: Educational Sovereignty: Pedagogies of Resistance and Relational Epistemologies for Empowering People and Nature
Coordinators: Meri Mononen-Matías (University of Helsinki), Gabriel Cruz Ignacio (Teacher/Researcher, Oaxaca, Mexico; online coordinator)
WG 20: The Political Economy of the Green–Digital Transition
Coordinator: Paul Arteaga (Lappeenranta University of Technology)
WG 21: Transdisciplinary Research in a Changing Arctic: Geopolitics, Knowledge and Decolonial Practice
Coordinators: Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen (LUKE: Natural Resources Institute Finland), Þorbjörn Kristjánsson (University of Iceland)
WG 22: Navigating the ODA Crisis: Post-Aid Solidarities, Youth Agency, and Resilient South–South–North Academic Networks
Coordinator: Teo Ramari (SYL and the University of Helsinki)