With financial support from the Ford
Foundation, the Development Studies Committee of the University of Cambridge
is hosting an advanced summer programme on rethinking development economics
for the seventh time. Last six years' programmes were great successes
and we hope to build on them.
This summer's programme will be held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
between 4 July and 21 July 2007, inclusive. The programme will admit a
select group of 25 or so young academics from developing countries, including
transition economies, and provide them with lectures, discussion, and
research workshops with leading scholars on cutting edge topics in development
economics from a number of critical perspectives. The programme will fully
finance travel, accommodation, subsistence, and tuition fees for those
who are selected.
Background
The failure of various neo-liberal reforms in numerous developing and
transition economies to generate long-term growth and reduce poverty have
generated such criticism that even the IMF has recently felt obliged to
proclaim poverty reduction as its official goal. At the same time, as
most dramatically demonstrated in the collapses of the Seattle and the
Cancun talks and the impasse in the Hong Kong talk of the WTO, there is
an increasing dissatisfaction both in the developing and the developed
countries with the emerging neo-liberal global economic order. There are
also new trends emerging that suggest a growing challenge to neo-liberal
dominance – such as increasing economic weight of China and India, the
emergence of alliances among developing countries (IBSA – India, Brazil,
and South Africa – and ALBA – Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba – are the most
prominent examples), and the leftward shift of many Latin American countries,
some of which were the most diligent pupils of neo-liberalism.
If there is an increasing demand for an alternative to this orthodoxy,
the supply is not meeting it. The older generation development economists
of the 1950s and the 1960s vintage have been, over the last few decades,
edged out of most major universities in international centers of academic
excellence, especially the major US universities. The situations in most
developing countries are even worse. While in these countries there may
be more demand for alternatives to orthodox development economics, these
countries have even less capability to generate such alternatives. Due
to, among other things, resource constraints, researchers and students
from developing countries tend to rely on a small number of standard textbooks
and the publications from the multilateral financial institutions, which
severely restricts their exposure to alternative approaches.
The Programme
The programme intends to fill this important intellectual gap. It will
give a select group of 25 or so young academics from developing countries,
including transition economies, an opportunity to gain exposure to frontier
research undertaken from critical perspectives on key issues in development
economics. The teaching will be conducted through lectures, discussions,
and research workshops provided by some of the world's leading academics
in relevant fields. All travel, accommodation, subsistence, and tuition
fees will be paid for by the programme.
Each day of the workshop will consist of two sessions, one in the morning
and one in the afternoon. Each session lasts three-and-half hours. The
sessions will be mostly in the form of lectures, which will consist of
at least two hours of lecturing and at least one hour of discussion with
some breaks. There will be three “Research Workshops” on selected topics,
which will involve short presentations by a few members of the teaching
staff, followed by an open discussion. There will be also a few evening
talks, which are more like seminars than lectures (the full list of this
is to be confirmed). There will be also informal contacts between students
and faculty during lunch, tea and coffee breaks, and possibly some dinners.
The details of the provisional programme is attached at the end of this
announcement.
Applications
The applicants are expected to have at least a Master's degree in economics
or in relevant subjects with a strong background in economics (e.g., development
studies, public administration) and currently be engaged in academic jobs
(teaching or research). They are expected to have at least two years'
work experience. Some will be chosen from outside academia (e.g., government,
private sector, NGOs), if they have the minimum academic qualification
and relevant experiences. On average, those who were selected for the
last six programmes already had a PhD (or were close to finishing it)
and had five years' work experience. All these are, however, basic guidelines,
and all cases will be considered on their own merits.
Those who wish to apply for the course should send their Curriculum Vitae,
an official transcript (showing courses taken and grades gained) from
BA onwards, and one letter of reference from someone who is familiar with
their academic work. For students whose main medium of instruction during
their education was not English, some proof of English proficiency will
be necessary. Results of standard English proficiency tests (e.g., TOEFL
or IELTS) will be preferable, but other proof may be also accepted (e.g.,
a sample of written work in English).
Applications should be accompanied by a covering letter, indicating the
applicant's full contact details (including the e-mail address, which
will be the main means of communication during the admissions process)
and their fields of interest within development economics, to
Dr. Ha-Joon Chang,
Course Director,
CAPORDE,
Development Studies Committee,
17 Mill Lane,
Cambridge CB2 1RX.
United Kingdom.
The application should actually reach Dr.
Chang by 30 April 2007, and being postmarked before 30 April is not enough.
Please note that we are not able to accept any document faxed or submitted
in electronic forms, with the possible exception of the reference letter.
Although a hard copy if preferred, the reference can be e-mailed, if necessary,
to Dr. Chang at hjc1001@econ.cam.ac.uk.
While we will not individually acknowledge the receipt of the documents,
we will be happy to confirm the receipt if asked. The successful candidates
will be notified of the outcome of their applications by the middle of
May, and the rest by the end of May.