Conference: Solving Global Poverty: A Conference and Special Journal Issue on Problem-Solving Sociology of Development

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Development research has the potential to improve people’s wellbeing around the globe. Prior research has shown that many of the impediments to economic development are social or institutional in nature. This means that sociology has a critical role to play in advancing research to understand and solve those problems, and is a vital complement to the largely individual and incentive-based approaches of developmental economists. This project is to hold a three-day conference of approximately 120 papers at Johns Hopkins University in fall 2024, in collaboration with the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Development section, on the theme of "Solving Global Poverty." The conference aims to bring sociological understanding of organizations, systems, governance, and collective action to international development, by bringing together academics and practitioners from the U.S. and around the world. By arrangement with the editors of the journal Sociology of Development, a selection of final papers will be published as a special issue of that journal, and McDonnell and Prasad will be co-editors of the special volume. The conference includes special programs for graduate students, incorporation of practitioners as panel presenters, discussants, and plenary speakers, and other special events. Several practitioners from the World Bank and USAID have agreed to participate and to encourage colleagues to participate. We anticipate more than half of the participants will be from under-represented demographic groups. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.