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PODCAST

In Pursuit of Development

Step into conversations that travel across continents and challenge the way you think about progress. From democracy and inequality to climate resilience and healthcare, Dan Banik explores how societies navigate the complex terrain of democracy, poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through dialogues with scholars, leaders, and innovators, In Pursuit of Development uncovers how ideas travel, why policies succeed or fail, and what it takes to build a more just and resilient world. Expect sharp

science social sciences

All Episodes

00:59:24

Electrifying India — Elizabeth Chatterjee

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/10/20

Dr. Elizabeth Chatterjee is an assistant professor of environmental history at the University of Chicago. Her research explores how non-Western energy histories disrupt conventional understandings of capitalist development, the social dynamics of climate change, and green political thought."India and the 1.5°C warning: The power of political targets" (The Asia Dialogue)"The Asian Anthropocene: Electricity and Fossil Developmentalism"(Journal of Asian Studies , 2020)“New Developmentalism and Its

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01:01:10

Why is the West obsessed with changing China? — Xu...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/10/13

Xu Qinduo is a political analyst, news columnist and an adjunct professor at Renmin University’s School of Journalism and Communication. He is also a senior fellow at the Pangoal Foundation and host of the talk show “Dialogue Weekend” at China Global Television Network, CGTN. He was previously posted as China Radio International’s chief correspondent in Washington, DC.Why the US and the West are always obsessed with changing China (Global Times)China and the U.S.: Equality and Beyond (China Today)Xu

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00:55:59

What went wrong with COVAX, the vast global vaccine...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/10/06

Katerini Storeng is an associate professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. She directs the interdisciplinary Global Health Politics research group and is the Deputy Director of the Independent Panel on Global Governance for Health, an initiative to follow up the Lancet-University of Oslo Commission's agenda on the political determinants of health inequity. Dr. Storeng's research advances a critical, ethnographic perspective on the social and political

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00:58:27

Beyond the Bottom Billion — Paul Collier

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/09/29

Welcome to season 3!Our first guest this season is Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. In 2014, Professor Collier received a knighthood for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.Sir Paul's research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies;

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00:55:09

The remarkable expansion of South–South Cooperation —...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/06/30

Welcome to the final episode of season 2. We’ve had some great guests this season and the show has attracted thousands of new listeners in large parts of the world. Thank you all for listening and for all the positive and most encouraging feedback that we have received this year.Our guest this week is Emma Mawdsley, who is a reader in human geography at Newnham College and Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at the University of Cambridge. She recently received the Royal

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00:54:11

Popular mobilization against dams in Myanmar —...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/06/23

Many of you may have heard about instances of local communities mobilising against the construction of dams in various parts of the world. But it turns out that not all communities are able to collectively resist dam-building. So, what explains the varying degrees of community resistance against large dams?Kyungmee Kim tackles this question in a doctoral thesis that she successfully defended recently at Uppsala University in Sweden. She studied popular mobilization against dams in Myanmar and the

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01:05:53

Politics of the poor — Indrajit Roy

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/06/16

Even though the world is richer today than ever before, a large number of people do not share in those riches, even in democracies. So, what does living in a democracy mean for people who simultaneously confront persistent deprivations and increasing inequalities? Do people living in poverty absorb the universalistic ideas associated with democracy? Or do their precarious lives overwhelm them so much so that they cannot act beyond particularistic concerns? These are the questions that Indrajit Roy

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00:56:36

Religion and democratic mobilization in Brazil – Amy...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/06/09

In a splendid book titled– Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God – Amy Erica Smith examines the causes and consequences of Brazil’s culture wars – that as Brazilian democracy faces a crisis of legitimacy, political divisions among Catholic, evangelical, and nonreligious citizens have grown. How then have these culture wars affected Brazil’s democracy? And does religious politics either threaten or help to shore up a democracy now facing grave challenges to its

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00:56:56

"Global Britain": Inspired vision or wishful...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/06/02

Following Brexit, Britain has expressed a desire to play an important new role in world affairs. The idea of "Global Britain" has thus made a comeback with free trade as its core element. Indeed, Global Britain appears to be a catchy label for the UK’s ambition to look beyond Europe for new commercial opportunities and pathways to global influence. But critics argue that “A positive image of Global Britain must be earned, not declared.” And that the narrative of Global Britain will only be

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00:58:14

How does digital technology affect healthcare? —...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/05/26

There is considerable attention on the pivotal role that digital technology can play in providing better healthcare. The term “digital health” is broad in scope and includes mobile health (mHealth), health information technology, tele-health and telemedicine, virtual care, remote monitoring, and wearable devices. Indeed, for many years, I have been a big fan of wearable devices such as my Fit-bit wristband and am obsessed with monitoring my various stats such as number of steps walked or run every

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01:00:20

Reimagining development — Hannah Ryder

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/05/19

Do current “development” structures work? If not, why? And what solutions are out there that place greater agency in low-income countries to shape these development structures and results?Hannah Ryder is the CEO of Development Reimagined, an international development consultancy in China, which provides strategic advice and practical support to African, Chinese, and international stakeholders on issues ranging from the Belt and Road Initiative to Africa’s growth markets to green growth and China’s

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01:01:12

Navigating by judgment to achieve development impact...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/05/12

In an excellent book on how aid agencies manage foreign aid projects, Dan Honig argues that tight top-down controls and a focus on target-setting and metrics often lead aid projects astray. If one navigates from the top, one may achieve more management control, more oversight, and more standardized behavior. But this may be at the cost of flexibility and adaptability. By contrast, if one empowers those closest to the ground, and focuses on what field agents can see and learn, we may apply so-called

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01:07:46

Democracy and crisis response in India — Patralekha...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/05/05

India is experiencing a devastating second wave of the pandemic. Indeed, the country appears to be going through one of the darkest moments in its post-independence history with new records broken every day for new cases of Covid-19. There are also growing concerns that even these staggering numbers that have been officially reported are in reality an undercount. And then there is the crippling shortage of life-saving supplies such as medical oxygen.Critics claim that the Indian government has

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01:01:16

The globalization of foreign aid — Liam Swiss

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/04/28

Why do aid agencies from wealthy donor countries with diverse domestic political and economic contexts arrive at very similar positions on certain foreign aid policies and priorities?In his book, The Globalization of Foreign Aid: Developing Consensus, Liam Swiss examines how certain ideas and practices influence the work of aid agencies in Canada, the United States and Sweden and how aid agencies end up adopting common policy priorities such as in the fields of gender and security. He argues that

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01:03:15

Nigeria and the inadequacies of the resource curse...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/04/21

There is considerable academic literature on the resource curse thesis which aims to explain why resource-rich countries have not benefited from their oil and mineral resources. And this resource curse thesis within economics, political science, and sociology has numerous economic, political, social, and environmental dimensions.But in her work, our guest has often highlighted the inadequacies of the “resource curse” thesis particularly in explaining dissatisfaction with the pace of economic

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01:07:30

Can we domesticate the state or will it domesticate...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/04/14

With many path-breaking books, James C. Scott has for long been a key figure in Southeast Asian Studies and in the comparative study of agrarian societies, peasant politics and resistance studies. His hugely influential scholarship crosses disciplines, shaping political science, anthropology, and history.In this conversation, we focus on a selection of Prof. Scott's books, including Seeing Like a State, which is a magisterial critique of top-down social planning, The Art of Not Being Governed,

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00:57:26

Population and development: Risks and opportunities —...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/04/07

An article in The Economist magazine in September 2018 argued that high birth rates is one of the main culprits for pervasive poverty on the African continent. The article, in particular, cited the example of Tanzania, where the then President John Magufuli did not apparently see the point with birth control, having announced in 2016 that women could throw away their contraceptives as state schools will be free. President Magufuli subsequently claimed that a major consequence of widespread

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01:02:58

Imperialism and the developing world — Atul Kohli

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/03/31

Western imperialism has fundamentally shaped the developing world. In particular, Great Britain and the United States – the dominant capitalist powers of the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively, have played a major role in this historical process. But why did they pursue imperialism? And what effects did such imperial practices have on the developing world? These are the key questions that Atul Kohli examines in his brilliant new book, Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S

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01:03:34

Summit diplomacy and African agency — Folashadé Soulé

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/03/24

Several countries are vying for the African continent’s attention. While there has been considerable attention on China’s and India’s motives and interests, Russia, Germany, France, the UK, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Middle Eastern countries are all trying to increase their footprint on the continent. An important first step for many of these countries is to organize a summit – a major gathering of leaders and other high-level officials to discuss how African countries can further strengthen

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01:07:45

India-Africa relations — Renu Modi

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/03/17

While a considerable amount of world attention is focused on China’s commanding presence on the African continent and the impact of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, India’s activities in Africa have received limited attention. This is indeed surprising because India has an over 2000-year presence on the continent and India-Africa relations have witnessed a major upsurge in recent years.In its relations with African countries, India frequently highlights the economic and philanthropic

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