With the world grappling with an array of socio-economic and political issues, scholarly interventions pave the way for revisionist policies and ground-breaking cultural discourse. With the emergence of the Global South as a region signifying momentous economic growth in particular, questions of inequality, development, and sustainability take precedence in scholarly debate as witnessed in the efforts of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH), VIT-AP to highlight these issues.
The School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH) at VIT-AP University, Amaravati organized an International Conference on Navigating Inequality, Development, and Sustainability in the Global South from September 13–14, 2024 to deliberate on such concerns, bringing scholars, academicians, industry professionals, and students to a common ground of academic intervention. Scholars from across the world, including those from the official collaborating institutions of the conference, viz. Ryukoku University (Japan), American University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Asian Studies Center–University of Valladolid (CEA), University of Alicante (Spain) and Casa De la India (Spain) in an effort to address these concerns, come together in this revolutionary enterprise, while also hosting resource persons from UNICEF and other significant institutions of global eminence.
Prof. Moriki Ohara from Ryukoku University, Japan and Prof. Jalandhar Pradhan delivered the keynotes and initiated critical deliberations for both days. The conference subsumed within its operative scope a holistic approach to address the said concerns and was multidisciplinary in nature.
“We have created a shared platform for exploring the complexities of inequalities, development, and sustainability in the Global South, the talk of the era,” Dr. Ashraf Pulikkamath, the Convenor of the conference pertinently noted. With the rapidly growing economies, the Global South stands at the center of this discourse with its multi-faceted challenges. One of the enduring challenges among all is climate change and sustainability, which was a poignant point of discussion at the conference.
Apart from that, the conference also aimed to address questions of inequality and development concerning gender, economy, subjective wellbeing, migration, government policies, among other critical disciplines while also bringing together literary responses towards the same. “The conference is an endeavour to bring about collective action in response to the perennial challenges that the contemporary world faces, and the academic community performs a significant role in ensuring that the world evolves into an equitable space for all concerned,” noted Dr. Soumik Sarkar, Dr. Ritu Varghese, and Dr. Anjitha Gopi, the Co-convenors of the conference.
The conference also emphasized on the immediate need to recognize the relevance of ensuring equity in social and economic development specific to the Global South, and suggests a promising enterprise to initiate timely discussion on global policies and scholarly interventions.