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Siyasat Arabiya, the Arab Center and Doha Institute published journal specialized in Political Science is delighted to announce a call for papers for a special issue on “The State and Development: Theoretical Debates and Practical Applications”. This issue will be guest edited by Arab Center Researcher, Harith Hassan. This issue starts from key questions revolving around what “development” means in the new political discourse: vital questions that we believe have not been dealt with in sufficient depth by academic studies, namely: What are the practical manifestations of development? What distinguishes it from similar terms used at earlier stages of the region’s history? Does the authoritarian state’s championing of this trend represent a retreat from the paradigm of neoliberalism, or a new representation of it? How can the state return to leading the development process in the context of globalization and international economic interdependence?

Proposed Themes

The journal is accepting research proposals of around 250 words, no later than Saturday, 30 November 2024, on any of the following themes:

  1. The role the state plays in development in the Arab region today and the nature of the political project underpinning the current development discourse.
  2. Reviewing the development projects of Arab states after independence, their concepts, programmes, and results.
  3. Analysing the doctrines and discourse around development in our region, and their changing features.
  4. The new “authoritarian developmentalism” and its similarities and differences with past development projects in the region.
  5. The political dimensions of current ideas around development.
  6. The relationship between democracy (transitional or consolidated) and development.
  7. Critical schools of development studies and their political conceptualizations.
  8. The question: is there an Arab critical theory of development?
  9. The political dimensions of alternative development applications.
  10. The impacts of globalization and post-globalization for development projects.
  11. The environmental school and its impacts in the field of development.
  12. Authoritarian development versus democratic currents.
  13. Transformations in the international political economy and their implications for the question of development in the Arab world.
  14. The political dimensions of the relationship between development and the digital economy.
  15. The Development State and the state of civil liberties.

The journal will respond to authors no later than Thursday, 23 January 2025. Accepted proposals must be submitted in their final versions no later than Saturday, 19 July 2025. All submissions will be subject to external peer review.

Research proposals should be submitted via the Researchers System. If you have additional questions, please contact us via the following email address: siyasat.arabia@dohainstitute.edu.qa.

***  For more information, please see the background paper