The Center for Development Studies specializes in both applied research and theoretically grounded academic research that are informed by and engage global scholarship on development. We put forward critical readings of development theories and concepts from the perspective of Palestinian colonial realities, and thus introduce new insights into international academic circles. The centers promotes development visions and perspectives from Palestine and the broader Global South, and embraces transformative research approaches and methodologies. Our research programs aim to further the aspirations of the Palestinian people. We produce knowledge in dialogue with grassroots organizations, movements and a global network of scholar, while emphasizing the importance of the production of critical knowledge in the promotion of social justice.
CDS’s policy-focused applied research and academic research programs are informed by an overarching analytical framework that seeks to conceptualize development within the settler-colonial realities in Palestine. By rooting development in these realities, the center aims to understand how these political-economic structural conditions impact land, resources, modes of production, spatialities of life and interact with and reshape internal structures of power along with gender and class.