Welcome from the Chair

On behalf of Development Studies Association Ireland (DSAI), I am delighted to welcome you to our community. We are a community of over 800+ researchers, practitioners, and interested parties, who share a passion for international and sustainable development cooperation research and practice. Ireland has a long and proud history of international development scholarship and practice, with decades of collaborative engagement between expert practitioners and university researchers examining and evaluating development policies, and programme and project outcomes, outputs, and impacts over time and across geographies.

As a community we are growing. From 500+ in 2022 to over 800 members today, we are seeing a keen interest in and rising energy amongst our community members. Through our study groups, events and conferences, we welcome members to join us to discuss the current conjuncture, share the latest research, explore research needs, identify opportunities to network and collaborate and strategize as a community of practice on how to navigate this moment. The terms crisis and polycrisis have been a standard part of our lexicon for many years. But, I think all would agree that we have entered a new period of deep uncertainty and fundamental change. Weakening social connections and relations, shifting cultural and normative assumptions across multiple scales, where fundamental commitments to and recognition of universal values are now being actively eroded, combined with the continuing unfolding crisis of climate change, rising intersecting inequalities and multidimensional poverty, demand radical and rapid attention. The DSAI is more important than ever as a platform for facilitating engagement and action to address the complex multi-scale, multi-site, multi-sectoral challenges we face today. From food security and healthcare to climate change and global inequality to social inclusion and gender equality to migration and peacebuilding, development studies equip us with the concepts, tools and methods to unpack, understand, and respond to complex pressing issues. Through our work, the DSAI fosters collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, creating a space where creative solutions can be discussed and new paradigms of restorative and regenerative development practice can be explored.

As the newly elected Chair of DSAI, I am proud to be part of an organisation that plays a key role in promoting critical, inter- and transdisciplinary development studies and research in Ireland.   I am an associate professor in development practice based in the discipline of Geography, in the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. I am also the principal investigation of Geoformations (https://geoformations.eu), a European Research Council funded project examining the geographies of dynamic governance assemblages in development cooperation civil society spaces and the director of the Climate Justice in Development research group. I have been a member of DSAI since it emerged as an independent body in 2013, serving as secretary in its first year.  DSAI has a strong history of scholarship, critical engagement, and collaboration from which we can draw and upon which we can build over the coming years. I look forward to serving the DSAI community and working together with our members to deepen and broaden the contribution that we can collectively make. Together we can advance the role of development studies, inspire meaningful change, and contribute to a more just, inclusive and caring world.

If this speaks to you, and you have not yet managed to engage with us please Join us. DSAI membership is free. Get involved.

In solidarity and hope,
Dr Susan Murphy
Chair, DSA Ireland