Reimagining Development

Tom McDonnell is co-director of the Nevin EconomicResearch Institute in Dublin and was one of three researchers who compiled a report for Oxfam published in January 2026 titled Confronting Wealth Inequality in Ireland .  In this episode, Tom sets out the report’s economic, social and democratic case for a tax on extreme wealth, alongside the need for Ireland to take a principled position in intern...

Dessie Donnelly is a member of the Rabble Cooperative, Ireland's first technology cooperative which supports progressive organisations and social movements to realise the power of technology in strategies for social change.  The Rabble Co-operative was commissioned by the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland to monitor online activity linked to violent far-right protests held in Belfast in...

Alfredo Saad Filho is Professor of International Political Economy at Queen’s University Belfast and a former Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference onTrade and Development (UNCTAD).  In this episode he unpacks neoliberal economics and its role in reproducing extreme inequality and fermenting the slide toward fascism across the world. He argues that the there is no soluti...

Rebecca Heslin is a clinical psychologist and vice-chair of the Dublin branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).  In this episode, she discusses the concepts of praxis and psychology in the context of solidarity and activism forPalestine.  Rebecca applies a psychological lens to Palestinian solidarity and reflects on how we can sustain our hope, optimism and activism while being...

Jim Clarken is the CEO of Oxfam Ireland and an Executive Director of Oxfam International.  He is a leading commentator on human rights, inequality, sustainable development, the rights of refugees and migrants, and business and human rights.  In this episode, he discusses the findings of Oxfam’s 2025 global inequality report titled “Takers Not Makers: The Unjust Poverty and Unearned Wealth of Colon...

Priya Lukka is a doctorate candidate in the School ofPolitics and International Relations in the University of Leeds. She recently delivered a workshop to members of Bond, the British network of network for organisations working in international development, on a “harm-repair approach” to global justice that acknowledges historic wrongs and how they can be accounted for. This episode discusses her...

Joe Murray has recently stepped down as Director of the Irish NGO Action from Ireland (AFRI), having worked in the international development sector in Ireland since the 1980s.  He reflects on his career as an educator, activist and campaigner for social justice, peace and sustainability.  In a dangerous period of military escalation around the world, Joe calls for demilitarisation and cautions aga...

Andrea Sempértegui is a professor of Politics at WhitmanCollege, Washington State, and Michelle Báez Aristizábal is a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. They are both academics and activists who have carried out research on Indigenous resistance to a mega-mining project called Mirador in Ecuador’s southern Amazon.  This episode discusses the environmental cost of the minin...

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven is a Senior Lecturer in International Development at King’s College, London and Surbhi Kesar is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London.  They are the co-authors of a research report titled Decolonising Economic Development: The Role of the Development Sector which was published by Bond, the British network for organisations working i...

Lubnah Shomali is Advocacy Manager with BADIL, a Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights in the occupied West Bank.  She discusses the acceleration of Israel’s forcible displacement and transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October 2023.  She also reflects on the mass incarceration and torture of Palestinians and the importance of language in documenting human righ...

Howard Stein is a Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan.  In this episode, he discusses how debt, neoliberalism and a dependence on commodities has compromised the capacity of African states to steer their own path toward development.  Professor Stein also reflects on the implications of China’s inter...

Helen Yaffe lectures in Economic and Social History in the University of Glasgow.  Since 1995, she has spent time living and researching in Cuba.  Her doctoral thesis, undertaken at the London School of Economics, was adapted for publication as  Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution  by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.  She discusses Cuba’s model of development which has achieved stunning indicators...

Colm Regan is the former head of global / development education in the Irish development agency Trócaire and founder of the NGO, 80:20: Educating & Acting for a Better World. He has extensive experience of policy, advocacy, campaigning and education for social justice in the global North and South. Colm regards global education as explicitly political and rooted in social change.  He discusses...

Caroline Murphy is the CEO of Comhlámh, the Irish Association of International Development Workers and Volunteers. She has considerable experience of the Irish international development and global education sectors having previously worked with Financial Justice Ireland, Children in Crossfire and the Centre for Global Education.  With work experience on both sides of the Irish border in different...

Dr Eilish Dillon is Assistant Professor at the Maynooth University Department of International Development. She has been actively engaged in global education in Ireland for over thirty years.  In this episode she discusses her career in education that has combined teaching in higher education with collaboration and practice with civil society organisations. Eilish discusses the need for critical e...

Professor Douglas Bourn, Professor of Development Education and Co-Director of the Development Education Research Centre at University College London, reflects on how the policy and practice of global education has moved from the margins to the mainstream over the past thirty years.  Reflecting on a career in both civil society and higher education, Professor Bourn shares his thoughts on the curre...