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NewsThe article, 'Issues in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology' by David Wield, Joanna Chataway and Maurice Bolo has been among the top 20 most downloaded during 2010. The Journal of Agrarian Change was delighted to report and congratulates the team for this remarkable achievement. Masuma Farooki was in Geneva from the 23rd to 25th of February at the Multi Year Expert Meeting on South-South and Triangular Cooperation, hosted by UNCTAD. Her presentation was titled ‘Making the Most of South-South Linkages: A New Growth path for SSA?’ which focused on various aspects of the DPP’s research on the Asian Drivers, the Commodities Program and Pro-Poor Innovation. The Second International Visual Research Methods Conference will be held at The Open University, UK, 13-15 September 2011. The Programme Committee invites proposals for papers, themed sessions, film/video screenings and exhibitions in the broad field of visual research methods. Please summarise your proposal in 200 words and send it by 1st March 2011 (this is an extended deadline) to IVM-Conference@open.ac.uk. We will let you know if your proposal has been accepted by 1 May 2011. Please see the conference website below. Visiting Professor Alcinda Honwana, now based in the United States, has obtained a grant from the Ford Foundation to research a new book on Youth and Social Change In Africa. Prof Honwana will be carrying out the research in South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Sudan and Senegal over the next few months. Masuma Farooki was awarded the EADI Prize for Development Studies 2010 for her paper entitled “China’s Metals Demand and Commodity Prices: A Case of Disruptive Development?” . The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes Prize is awarded for excellence in development research, for an essay on an issue of development studies by a postgraduate student. Elvin Nyukuri was among four panellists at a parliamentary forum at the House of Commons in London. Elvin made a presentation on “Grassroot Realities”. The theme of the meeting was ‘Facing a Four degree future: the case for adaptation in advance of Cancun’. This meeting was chaired by Caroline Lucas (MP). Joseph Hanlon's book Just Give Money to the Poor has been chosen by Sir Richard Jolly as one of the best books on Children and the Millenium Development Goals. Sir Richard was an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations holding senior positions in UNICEF and UNDP for nearly 20 years, including Special Adviser to the UNDP, an arhictect of UNDP's Humn Development Report, co-author of Adjustment with a Human Face, and Deputy Executive Director in UNICEF. He is now co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project. Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution from the Global South is by Joseph Hanlon, Armando Barrientos, and David Hulme, and was published by Kumarian in April 2010. http://fivebooks.com/interviews/richard-jolly-on-children-and-millennium-development-goals Hazel Johnson and Becky Hanlin spent last week in Nairobi, Kenya, working with partners at the Africa Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) to develop Continuing Professional Development (CPD) materials in the area of Technology Policy and Innovation Research. A very successful two day workshop was held on 5-6 October attended by representatives of the private and public sectors, academia and NGOs to discuss the content and format for these materials. A series of meetings with potential future partners and consumers of the materials also took place during the week. These activities have taken place as part of a British Council funded project and an OU Donor's Den funded project to build capacity to conduct CPD in Kenya using an OU course, T890 entitled Technology Policy and Innovation Research. The next activity following this workshop will see a revised set of materials complete with East African case studies placed on OpenLearn. Sally Hartley has been in Uganda conducting field work on young people's engagement with co-operatives. While there she wrote several pieces for Co-operative College in the UK, who are a co-sponsor of her PhD research. If you would like to read more about a savings and credit co-operative in North Western Uganda or more about the Ugandan Co-operative College please see http://www.co-op.ac.uk/events/luke-othellos-story-savings-and-credit-co-operatives-in-uganda/ and http://www.co-op.ac.uk/researching-co-operatives/co-operative-values-and-principles-at-uganda-co-operative-college/. Sally also wrote some pieces for youth engaged with co-operatives in the UK to enable them to learn more about youth and co-operatives in Uganda, see http://www.youngco-operatives.coop/Resources/International-Links/Youth-co-operatives-in-Uganda. These pieces focus on savings and credit co-ops and also farmers co-ops in rural areas and what youth gain from being a member. Les Levidow and Theo Papaioannou have been awarded an ESRC grant of £183,000 for a new project, ''Knowledge production for sustainable bio-energy: an analysis of UK decision processes and priorities'. It will investigate knowledge production processes for sustainable bio-energy. The main research question is: How do discourses, practices and interests of techno-scientific knowledge figure in selecting national research priorities for sustainable bio-energy from a wider range of options? The grant, which runs from December 2010 for 18 months, will be used to employ Michael Farrelly as a Research Fellow.
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