Connecting people and places: spaces for thinking, learning, knowledge and action

✍ Scribed by Hazel Johnson; Gordon Wilson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 87 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/jid.1311

✦ Synopsis

the theme of 'Connecting people and places: challenges and opportunities for development'. 1 The articles in the issue cover a range of modes of connection, from migration and resource flows to new wave technologies, social networks and forms of organisation.

Why did we choose the theme of 'Connecting people and places' for the conference? Although such a theme has as its background the contested phenomenon of contemporary globalisation, we were particularly concerned with how to understand and conceptualise the new ways that people and places are being linked, for example through networks, partnership and modes of communication, and what the effects are for development policy and practice. Our main plenary sessions of the conference analysed the contradictions and ambiguities, as well as perspectives on the future. Overall, the conference was seeking to understand the changes, identify the challenges and the opportunities for new thinking and action. 2 This introductory article outlines a series of reflections engendered by the articles in this issue and by our own perspectives on the challenges and the opportunities of connecting