‘Images, Reflections, Mirrors’: Student Perspectives on the Financial Crisis and Challenges for Development

Abstract

This site explored student perspectives on development in view of the current financial crisis. The site worked with the 2009/10 cohort of IDS students, focusing on their motivations for entering the development sector, their experience with the financial crisis, as well as their views on potential spaces for change. The site brought out the paradox of, on the one hand, the significant impacts of the financial crisis, and on the other, the apparent lack of change in the way development is carried out. Using a policy processes perspective, this article suggests that the slow pace of change may be explained by a wide variety of values among actors, and by the interest of actors in working within, instead of challenging, existing institutional structures. Opportunities for policy change may arise with new actors, but this also raises questions around participation of marginalised voices.