Celebrating 50 Years of International Consortium for Social Development: Honouring Our Legacy, Shaping Our Future

Introduction

This article is about wholeheartedly celebrating 50 years of the International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) by looking at the origin, formation, and purpose of the ICSD; key leaders who led the consortium; its main activities and achievements; and prospects in the contemporary and emerging contexts. It is challenging to review 50 years of work of the ICSD in one article as it is difficult to include everything the ICSD has done in the past. But 50 years of continuous and consistent functioning and contribution to the social development field is a significant milestone in any organization’s life, and it well deserves to be appropriately observed. It may not only inspire other organizations and people but also serve as a benchmark for future leaders, when they turn back after another 50 years to reflect on the state and stature of the organization then and now and feel proud of what they achieved for the organization. Looking at the past 50 years, that is what we are doing now. It is just a coincident that I happened to be the president, and our team (see Appendix 1) and members, of the ICSD during this golden jubilee celebratory moments and movements. It is a real honor and privilege to be in this position and to undertake this nostalgic and reflective journey. Observations and analysis in this article are based on my experiences and secondary data/literature (e.g., 46 volumes of the Social Development Issues; Hollister, 2015; Jones & Pandey, 1981; Meinert, 1991; Meinert & Kohn, 1987; Midgley, 1995, 2014; Midgley & Pawar, 2017; Paiva, 1997; Pawar, 2014; Pawar & Cox, 2010; Raymond & Cowger, 2012).

The analysis is presented in the following six parts. In the first part, the ICSD’s origin, formation, and purpose are discussed along with how its focus and scope expanded from merely based in the US to a global outlook and expansion. In the second part, we pay tributes to ICSD members and leaders who have contributed to building the organization over a period of 50 years. The third part discusses the three main activities of the ICSD: organizing biennial conferences, including branches in different parts of the world; publishing Social Development Issues, a peer-reviewed journal; and contributing to the theory and practice of social development. Reflecting on these activities over a period of 50 years, the fourth part looks at the impact of ICSD and poses a few questions for further reflection, and the fifth part contemplates promising future that the members and its leaders can create for the ICSD and through that crucial platform for themselves. Finally, the article concludes by proudly appreciating how the ICSD has sustained for 50 years, which provides a solid foundation and direction for many years to come!

Origin and Evolving Purpose and Scope of the ICSD

Tracing the origin of ICSD may call for recalling some and familiarizing others of the three interconnected historical contexts. First, about 50 years ago, some or most of the world was unfortunately described and understood in terms of the third world, implying the existence of and comparison with the so-called first world, mostly (western) developed nation-states, though some of their wealth, to put it mildly, came/comes or taken from the so-called third world. Perhaps, at the time the quest was how to change the third world’s prevailing socio-economic, political, and cultural conditions like the first world. Second, as part of this process, among others, many social work educators and practitioners gravitated to educational institutions in the West (particularly the US) to receive advanced training and acquire knowledge and skills to change the world. Some of them worked for the United Nations and some continued to work in social work schools in the US. Third, the social work schools in the US at that time were mostly dominated by clinical social work practice curriculum that might have been appropriate at the local prevailing contexts in the US but appeared not fit for the purpose of changing the socio-economic conditions and poverty levels in the so-called third world. A small group of serious visionary social work scholars and educators who were experiencing the mix of the three contexts considered developing and incorporating social development ideas in social work training. As the following brief sketch shows, this is the historical background of the 1970s in which the current International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) had undergone a gestation period of conceptualizing social development ideas in informal meetings and was born in 1974/1975 and its birth name was Midwest Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development (MIUCISD) (see Hollister, 2015; Meinert, 1991; Paiva, 1997).

Although social development ideas and nomenclature were common in post-World War II development programs and in the United Nations, Hollister (2015) notes that in the early 1970s, it was a new concept to American social work and a few faculty and some deans and directors were interested in it. In fact, in 1971, when Dr. David Hollister joined the new school of Social Work at the Duluth campus of the University of Minnesota, it was called the School of Social Development and its founding dean, John F. Jones (Jack Jones) was keen on developing the school along with the social development concept, instead of traditional social work curriculum, and recruited Rama Pandey, P.D. Kulkarni, Salima Omer (who had the experience of UN development programs), and Gary Askerooth (had community development experience in Mexico and the US).

As Hollister (2015) traces, around the same time, Frank Paiva was appointed as the director of the University of Missouri—Columbia School of Social Work (already faculty in the school), who had also experience in working with the UN development programs and was keen to connect social work to social development. However, Paiva notes that Missouri social work faculty were not that supportive of social development ideas. However, he did receive support from the former director of the Missouri Social Work School, John Moore, a faculty, Lee Cary in the Department of Community Development and another faculty, Mel Blasé in Agricultural Economics at the same university. Paiva, Moore, Cary, and Blasé themselves constituted an ad hoc committee to explore whether other faculty members in universities in the Midwest region were interested in jointly pursuing the conceptualization and practice of social development ideas and their relationship to social work. In 1972–1973, they contacted six university schools of social work in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota at Duluth, Nebraska, St. Louis University, and Washington University in St. Louis with a questionnaire to explore whether they had any interest in social development and its international implications and in attending a meeting to discuss the following purpose/objectives related to social development (Raymond & Cowger, 2012).

To discover and refine the knowledge required for social development and to clarify the role of the human service professions in the development process; to explore the development of educational programs and specific curriculum content to reflect the above; to ensure the reflection of the foregoing in the programs of country assistance undertaken by our universities; to initiate and sustain a continuing process of mutual consultation and cooperative action among schools in the mid-west region towards these ends (Paiva, 1977b, cited from Raymond & Cowger, 2012, p. 293).

On receiving positive responses from all of them, in January 1974/1975, an initial meeting was organized at the University of Missouri Columbia, and under the chairmanship of George Nickolaus, associate dean of the College of Community and Social Services, paper presentations, discussions, and recommendations occurred. As a consequence, the action committee (John Moore, Chair; Boyd Faulkner, St. Louis University, Tom Walz, Iowa, Richard Parvis, Washington U – St. Louis, and Frank Paiva, ex-officio, University of Missouri) prepared the report, which included the following objectives of the proposed association.

Recognizing that the task of human development is both a national and international goal, in the context of increasing interdependency, and that human welfare and the means to achieve it are more satisfactorily definable in international terms, this association of educational institutions seeks the following objectives:

1. To foster a continuous process of discovering and refining the knowledge required for social development and of clarifying the role of the human service professions in the development process.

2. To explore the development of educational programs and specific curriculum content to reflect the above, particularly in the professional programs we represent.

3. To ensure the reflection of the foregoing in the programs of country assistance undertaken by our universities.

4. To initiate and sustain a continuing process of mutual consultation and cooperative action among schools in the Midwest region towards these ends.

5. To secure, as appropriate and possible, the participation of other universities on the international scene in this undertaking. (Unpublished report; pp. 3–4; Paiva, 1997, p. 116–117).

The document produced by the action committee was the basis of a Memorandum of Agreement, which was signed by university-level administrators and by the deans or directors of the seven participating schools of social work. This officially created the Midwest Inter-University Consortium for Social Development (MIUCISD), which eventually became ICSD (Hollister, 2015; Meinert, 1991). The consortium instituted the board of directors and each of the seven participating schools had a seat on the board headed by a Chair. Hollister notes that the chairs in order were Shanti Khinduka (Washington University), Jack Jones (Minnesota—Duluth), Tom Walz (Iowa), Arthur Katz (Kansas), and Irl Carter (originally at Iowa but later in Duluth). Throughout this period, Frank Paiva served as the formally appointed executive secretary (Paiva, 1997).

The MIUCISD kept meeting in their member campuses to discuss and develop social development ideas and their relation to social work/human services. As the board of directors were deans or directors of the schools, they tried to provide a social development perspective in their social work programs. For example, the University of Minnesota at Duluth already had the School of Social Development, Tom Walz, at the University of Iowa provided a social development concentration in the MSW program, and an interdisciplinary doctoral program in social development was established at St. Louis University.

Although in 1974/1975 the seven schools had joined hands to develop social development thoughts (Meinert, 1991, p. 2), its structure appeared exclusionary as it did not include other interested schools which were not in the Midwest region of the US. For example, Dan Sanders from the University of Hawaii School of Social Work was invited to attend the meetings of the MIUCISD but was not a formal member of the consortium (Paiva, 1997). It appears that on Dan Sanders’ request/complaint (Meinert, 1991; Paiva, 1997, p. 119; Raymond & Cowger, 2012), a memorandum of cooperation was approved by the membership in 1977 and the name was changed from MIUCISD to Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development (IUCISD) to include scholars and schools beyond the Midwest region (Meinert, 1991; Raymond & Cowger, 2012). University of Minnesota-Minneapolis and the University of Hawaii joined the consortium. In May of 1977, to reflect the changed name, the Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development (IUCISD), an official Memorandum of Agreement slightly amended/refined the above five goals as follows to expand the scope of the consortium beyond the Midwest region. The highlighted are new additions and the original third goal was replaced with the following third goal. Similarly, in the fourth goal, the restriction to the Midwest region was removed.

1. To foster a continuous process of discovering and refining the knowledge required for social development, and of clarifying the roles and skills of the human service professions in the development process.

2. To develop educational programs and specific curricula content to reflect the above process, particularly in the professional programs represented.

3. To ensure participation in the program of social development, with primary emphasis on developing countries.

4. To initiate and sustain a process of mutual consultation and cooperative action among members of the consortium toward these ends.

5. To secure in this undertaking, as appropriate and possible, the participation of other parties and educational institutions on the international scene (Meinert, 1991, p. 4).

Towards addressing these goals, the first formal consortium conference was organized in Columbia, Missouri in 1978, but most participants were from the US. The theme of this conference was “Conceptualizations of social development”, which suggests one of its goals. With Dan Sanders’ active participation and his ideas, the consortium was opened up to include individuals and institutions internationally and social justice, peace, and human rights perspectives in social development. In subsequent years, its 23 biennial international symposiums/conferences and 46 volumes of Social Development Issues, its flagship journal, which will be discussed in later respective sections, continue to contribute to achieving some of the above goals.

Over the years, the IUCISD drafted its constitution with a clear purpose, spreading the knowledge of social development worldwide, philosophy, goals and the governance structure, which was approved by its members. As the constitution shows, it was periodically reviewed and refined seven times (Sri Lanka 1994; Portugal 1996; Egypt 1998; Brazil 2005; Mexico 2009; Singapore 2015; post-S. Africa Conference 2021) with due approval of its members. It may be noted that in its biennial international symposium held in Recife, Brazil, the IUCISD name was changed to International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) to make it more inclusive to interdisciplinary colleagues beyond educational institutions and universities, to government and non-government organizations, nationally and internationally.

In keeping with the contemporary local and global developments, the latest version of the ICSD constitution (ICSD, 2021) has articulated the following mission, vision, activities, objectives, and philosophy, which reflect the original goals of the consortium and appropriately refine and expand them (Table 1). To some extent, it also shows the current conceptual development of social development, which will be discussed in a later section.

Among other things, Table 1 shows the expanding purpose and scope of social development to explicitly include global south and north countries (developed and developing) and environmental justice concerns and participation of people. Over a period of half a century, ICSD is evolving with increasing meaning and relevance. As so many dedicated individuals/scholars and institutions have contributed to it, the next section aims to acknowledge and sincerely pay tribute to them.

Tribute to ICSD Pioneers, Members, Friends, and Leaders

In line with my previous colleagues, at the outset, I would like to pay rich tributes to the following first core members, pioneers of the MIUCISD and social development visionaries, whose names are listed in alphabetical order.

Gary Askerooth (Iowa and later Minnesota-Duluth), Sunny Andrews (Nebraska), Mel Blase (Missouri), Irl Carter (Iowa and later Minnesota-Duluth), Bernard Coughlin (St. Louis U.), John Else (Iowa), Ted Ernst (Nebraska), David Hollister (then at Minnesota-Duluth), Jack Jones (Minnesota-Duluth), Arthur Katz (Kansas), Shanti Khinduka (Washington University-St. Louis), Ezra Kohn (Nebraska), Roland Meinert (Missouri), John Moore (Missouri), Salima Omer (Minnesota-Duluth), Frank Paiva (Missouri), Rama Pandey (Minnesota-Duluth), Dick Parvis (Washington University-St. Louis), Joan Smith (Missouri), and Tom Walz (Iowa) (Hollister, 2015; Meinert, 1991). Inadvertently, if this list has missed any other core members or pioneers, my apologies as my information is based on early publications/documents.

Secondly, I would like to pay rich tributes to the following ICSD leaders who served as chair and/or presidents of the ICSD in their respective periods (Tables 2 and 3). Meinert (1991) notes that during the early formative stage, Arthur Katz, John Jones, Frank Paiva, Tom Walz, and Dick Parvis helped to create the organizational structure.

In his article, Paiva (1997, p. 120) observes that between the Hong Kong meeting in 1980, and the next international meeting in 1982 in the UK, the term “chairman” of the consortium was dropped in favor of the term “president”. Thus, Dan Sanders was described as the first president of the ICSD and the other presidents assumed the role as follows during their respective periods (Table 3).

Each of these presidents has dedicated their voluntary time to the ICSD to ensure its effective functioning, and along with their teams, they contributed in their unique ways to build and sustain the ICSD. During this golden Jubilee celebration, it is apt to remember their leadership and services and honor them for their commitment to making this special interdisciplinary body, ICSD, not only during their presidential period but also before and after.

While appreciating all presidents’ contributions, I would be failing in my duty, if I did not repeat what others have acknowledged about the first president of the ICSD, Dan Sanders, whose leadership was instrumental in providing a truly international face to the ICSD as its individual and institutional membership significantly increased both nationally and internationally and continued in the 1990s, the foundation for the biennial symposium was laid, and the first ICSD branch in Europe was established under his leadership (see Meinert, 1991; Paiva, 1997; Raymond & Cowger, 2012).

Thirdly, hundreds of colleagues have served ICSD in different capacities, informally or formally, whether secretary, associate secretary, treasurer, vice president, chairman, member at large, and so on. It is not practical for me to list all their names, but I would like to acknowledge their hard work and dedication to the ICSD and sincerely thank them. I would also like to sincerely thank current members of the ICSD Executive Council and Board (see Appendix 1) for their support and teamwork.

Finally, the origin and evolving purpose and scope of the ICSD discussed above shows that a large number of scholars and institutions have engaged with, contributed to and gained from the ICSD, and its conferences and journal, social development issues for more than 50 years as the idea was germinated and discussed in the early 1970s much before it was given a formal shape in 1974. The ICSD website shows that at the time of writing this article (March 2024), it had over 475 registered members, 1,700 ICSD Facebook members, and over half a million visits to and views of the ICSD website (https://www.socialdevelopment.net/). Over a period of 50 years, many people have become members, some discontinued, some were not able to renew, some remained as friends of the ICSD, some watched it from a distance, and some critiqued it. On this 50th anniversary celebration of the ICSD, I would like to pay my sincere tribute to all of them. They are all important to the ICSD and ICSD values and respects them. Without their support and participation, the following activities of the ICSD would not have been possible.

Main Activities of the ICSD

It is challenging to capture 50 years of activities of the ICSD in one article. Towards achieving its mission, vision, and goals, discussed above, in my view, ICSD has uninterruptedly conducted activities in 3 areas: (1) ICSD biennial international conferences; (2) Publication of Social Development Issues Journal and related media; and (3) Conceptual and theoretical contribution to social development. Each one of these will be presented in separate sections below.

ICSD Biennial International Symposia/Conferences

To spread the knowledge and understanding of social development, ICSD biennial international symposia and now called conferences provide a sound platform for scholars to come together, share their research and thoughts, and develop professional and personal networks, nationally and internationally. To effectively achieve the latter, unlike other professional conferences, the size of the ICSD conferences relatively remained small, with about 200 to 300 participants. Many participants from different countries have participated in these conferences and gained insights from them. I certainly have.

Significant negotiations and planning occur before these conferences to develop productive collaborations and partnerships and to collectively mobilize the necessary resources to conduct these conferences successfully. Organizations, generally universities and or similar institutions, submit an expression of interest to host the conference and the ICSD Executive Council discusses these proposals and carefully chooses them to ensure that the conference venues are spread in different parts of the world so as to reach out to and facilitate the participation of people from particular regions. Compared to similar professional body conferences, ICSD conference fees are kept relatively low to facilitate the participation of people. When resources permit, partial scholarships are provided to a small number of participants from developing countries. These conferences are jointly organized by the ICSD and host organizations by appointing dedicated conference coordinators to represent each organization, respectively. In addition to scholarly exchanges, these conferences generally enhance the international profile of the host organizations and create an atmosphere to think about social development.

Figure 1 shows the organization and spread of ICSD conferences in different parts of the world covering Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Over a period of 50 years, ICSD in collaboration with various host organizations has organized 25 international conferences, including the national 1978 conference that was held in Missouri and the 24th one that will be held in Cochin, India in 2025. As most of the work of organizing these conferences falls on conference chairs/coordinators, several organizing committees and their members, I would like to pay tribute to all chairs/coordinators and organizing committee members of these 25 ICSD conferences (see Table 4).

Figure 1

Spotted regional locations of the ICSD biennial international symposia/conferences, 1980–2025.

Note: For details of the specific spotted locations on the map, see Table 4.

Source: Adapted from ICSD.

Table 4 shows that social development is the main theme in most of the conferences. In addition to keynote speeches, plenary sessions, focused workshops, and presentation of papers and posters, four important features of these conferences are special lectures to honor our leaders, presenting awards to social development thinkers and practitioners, fundraising through auctions and field visits, and international linkages.

When Dan Sanders, the first president of the ICSD, suddenly passed away in 1989, in his honor The Dan Sanders Memorial Peace and Social Justice Lecture was instituted and it was delivered by well-known scholars in the closing session of every biennial conference.

On the unexpected departure of the third president of the ICSD, Jim Billups, to honor his contributions to the ICSD, with Maria Billups, the ICSD established the James Billups International Social Development Leadership Award, which is presented every year to a person who has made an exceptional international contribution in promoting peace, social justice, and inclusiveness.

In 2010, on the initiative of family members of the fifth president of the ICSD, the Shanti K. Khinduka Lecture in Social Development was instituted (Pawar, 2024). The first one was delivered by Michael Sherraden in 2011 at the 17th ICSD biennial conference held in Bangladesh and this special lecture continues at every ICSD conference.

President also presents other social development leadership awards during the conference to recognize members’ contributions to the ICSD. In the conference, during the presidential dinner, an exciting auction of items donated by conference participants is conducted to raise conference scholarship funds for the participants from low-income countries. Along with the conference, field visits are organized to expose participants to local innovative projects. In addition, some participants bring their students to undertake international placements or brief exposure visits before or after the conference and as well as participate in the conference. This practically develops and extends international linkages. So, this ICSD legacy and its conferences achieve multiple goals, though the wider impact of these cannot be captured, measured, and readily shown. However, I believe, that ICSD biennial conferences, big or small, have provided a fertile ground for scholars to think, write, present their research work, and deliver keynote and plenary speeches, leading social development thinkers and practitioners to receive awards, participants to learn from innovative field projects, and cultivate professional and personal international networks, and through that process disseminated and stimulated research and ideas of social development for more than 50 years.

Social Development Issues Journal and ICSD Newsletter and Other Media

Knowledge building and dissemination are essential foundation and features of any professional body. Towards that end, since 1977, ICSD has been publishing social development ideas in a flagship journal, Social Development Issues, which was started and managed in working arrangements with others by the University of Iowa till 1998. As discussed below, in 1999, ICSD took full responsibility for owning and publishing SDI. To communicate with members, it also publishes ICSD newsletters twice a year and ICSD is present in other social media. These are discussed below.

In 2024, ICSD’s journal, Social Development Issues was running its 46th volume in which the third issue was dedicated to observing the 50th anniversary of the ICSD and that is where this article is published. It is commendable that the University of Iowa and ICSD have proudly and almost uninterruptedly published 46 volumes of SDI so far and I am confident, it will continue to do so in the future. This is not a small achievement for any professional body. Many individuals, ICSD members, the journal managing board members, universities and institutions, publishers, authors and reviewers, and readers have dedicated their voluntary time in contributing, building, and sustaining this journal. My wholehearted tributes to all of them on this 50th anniversary of the ICSD. It is not possible to state all individual contributors’ names, but I must acknowledge some of them who have played key roles in planting, publishing, and nurturing this journal.

Originally, in 1977, the refereed journal, Social Development Issues: Alternative Approaches to Meeting Human Needs, was started and published by the School of Social Work, University of Iowa, which provided financial and staff support (Askerooth, 1977) to the journal. In the editorial of the first issue, Managing Editor, Gary Askerooth (1977) states that “The journal staff has had an exciting and difficult time achieving this, but we have had considerable help”. His editorial concluded with the following sentence:

The will to encourage diversity and experimentation in solutions to the problems of social development can, we hope, be combined with the commitment to sharing our knowledge and resources toward new forms of worldwide unity through cooperation.

During its initial years, the journal had “working agreements with the National Rural Social Work Institute, the Community Organization-Administration Symposium (CSWE), and the University Consortium for International Social Development” (Walz & Jacobsen, 1983, p. 6) and it published peer-reviewed papers from their annual/biennial conferences. While reviewing SDI issues, several published papers coming from IUCISD conferences from 1978 onwards can be seen. Walz and Jacobsen (1983, p. 6) in their “Special Thanks” note that “At various times the journal has served as an outlet for publishing “best papers” from these organisations’ conferences and working agreements with them have helped to assure a steady high quality supply of manuscripts and a tighter theme for each issue”. Further correspondence and a meeting between SDI and IUCISD boards in 1984 in Washington DC resulted in a new SDI editorial policy that emphasized “the need for an international understanding of social issues in order to combat social injustice and to advance development” (Wetzel, 1984, p. 3). In 1985, SDI 9th volume, 3rd issue included IUCISD subscription details and the form and continued to appear in subsequent issues. Some IUCISD conference papers were guest-edited (for example, by Richard Estes, Roland Meinert, Rama Pandey). The SDI published IUCISD conference peer-reviewed papers on a cooperative basis till 1989 as IUCISD did not have any financial responsibility for the publication costs (Meinert, 1991). In 1990, Southwest Missouri State University became a partner with the University of Iowa and IUCISD in cosponsoring and publishing the journal (Meinert, 1991). IUCISD paid for subscriptions for each of its members, took over editorial policy and appointed editors (Raymond & Cowger, 2012).

In 1999, the University of Iowa handed over the publication responsibility of the journal to the IUCISD. The IUCISD board under the presidency of Charles Cowger took on the management, financial, and copyright responsibility for the journal. President Cowger successfully mobilized 10 universities as publication partners to support the publication of the journal. From 1999 to 2002, the University of Texas at Arlington Publication Office produced the journal. Under his leadership, the managing board of the SDI negotiated a new contract with Lyceum Books, a commercial publisher, for the publication and distribution of the SDI. In 2003, Lyceum Books began publishing the journal (Elliott & Mayadas, 2002, p. 1). In addition, in 2013, ICSD entered into a contract with MetaPress to publish SDI online. Later, the Ingenta publishing platform was used to provide online access to the journal. Due to the cost of production and publication (both print and online) and financial sustainability issues, the SDI managing board and ICSD decided to discontinue Lycem Books by the end of 2019 and Igenta by the end of 2020. In 2020, a contract was signed with Michigan Publishing Services, the University of Michigan Press to publish SDI only online on their platform and ePage Imaging Services, India was engaged for copyediting and type-setting services. With this new arrangement by the SDI managing board, ICSD has been able to publish SDI in a self-reliant manner without seeking funds from any and depending on other sources. Given the way the journal has traversed through many arrangements and sustained, this new arrangement is a significant milestone, and it has great potential to do better.

This exceptional achievement for the journal would not have been possible without the support and sacrifice of the chairs of the SDI managing board and its members and ICSD board members for several years, who often remain behind the scenes. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them on this occasion. Most importantly, over nearly 50 years, the journal was edited by more than 12 editors, whose names are listed in Table 11 and the time they have served. The longest-serving editor was Martin B. Tracy, who is grateful to the School of Social Work at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, which supported his editor role when he moved there as director of the program in 1994 (Tracy, 2024). The longest-serving book news editors were James Midgley and Michelle Livermore, though Michelle continued a few more years later. There were also many scholars who guest-edited special issues. Irrespective of the time served, ICSD owes an intellectual debt to all editors who have voluntarily worked hard to read and edit articles to maintain the quality of the journal. Beyond editorship, their intellectual leadership should inspire many social development scholars to follow suit. My special thanks to Brij Mohan who readily accepted the editor role during the critical phase of the journal and brought out all issues on time, including two special issues. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Philip Hong to the SDI Editor role from the beginning of 2025.

ICSD and Theory and Practice of Social Development

This section looks at ICSD’s contribution to knowledge/theory and practice of social development over a period of 50 years. As the scope of social development is very broad, it is challenging to articulate it and more so in a section of the article. It is important to note that as social development is multidisciplinary, knowledge creation and publication of social development are not restricted to ICSD and its members. Many other disciplines such as economics, politics, sociology, and multidisciplinary disciplines such as development studies, political economy, and international development have contributed to social development knowledge. “The contribution of economists like Gunnar Myrdal whose role in shaping a social development agenda in conjunction with economic development was pivotal to the subsequent evolution of the field. In the late 1960s he and a group of economist colleagues influenced the UN’s promotion of social development around the world through unified planning and community development” (Midgley, 2024). Other examples include the United Nations Human Development Index and Human Development Reports (UNDP, 2024), Sen’s (2000) development as freedom and capability approach, Oxford University’s research on multidimensional poverty (Alkire et al., 2015) and research on social determinants of health (WHO, 2024). These and similar contributions are closely connected to the theory and practice of and relevant to social development. However, such important work from other disciplines/scholars is excluded from the discussion.

Generally, the focus here is whether and to what extent ICSD and its members and other social work and social development-oriented scholars, irrespective of whether they were ICSD members or not, have contributed to knowledge/theory and practice of social development. It is also limited by what the author has read and understood. Thus, the work presented here needs to be considered as examples, rather than entire social development knowledge created by all scholars. The fact that ICSD including its branches have organized more than 50 global and regional conferences and contributed to publishing 45 volumes of the SDI journal (as of 2023) convincingly suggests that ICSD has provided fertile platforms for social development scholars to create, share, and disseminate social development knowledge, which is its fundamental mission. Some papers presented in ICSD conferences have been published in the SDI special issues or as single articles after due peer review process. Further analysis of these publications is presented in the following section to provide some indication of their contribution to social development knowledge.

Social Development titled articles published in Social Development Issues journal

Rudimentary analysis undertaken shows that over a period of about 50 years (Table 12), SDI has published nearly 900 articles, of which 170 articles (19%) had in their titles a “social development” phrase. This conservative calculation suggests that scholars have researched and published on the social development theme in at least about 20 percent of articles published in SDI. Another trend to note from Table 12 is that in the first 14 years, scholars gradually focused on the social development theme; in the next decade research and publications on social development increased to nearly 30 percent of articles; and in the subsequent decades, there is a gradual decline of such publications with social development titles. Further research is needed to discover why this is so. It may be noted that this basic analysis excludes related articles which have discussed poverty, community organization/development, participation, comparative welfare policies, and international social work and exchanges or one of the dimensions of social development without stating social development in SDI and it also excludes other journals in which social development related articles have appeared. Thus, the above analysis does not mean scholars within and beyond ICSD have not researched and published on social development.

Table 12

Total number of social development titled publications in Social Development Issues.

Period	Total no. of articles published	Articles published with social development titles	Percent of Social development titled publications
1977–1990	284	48	17
1991–2000	207	59	28.5
2001–2010	199	36	18
2011–2023	207	27	13
Total	897	170	19

Source: Author.

Social Development titled books

A social development titled book search on Google Books website revealed that since the 1970s, over 80 social development books and/or titles closely related to social development have been published. For example, Gore’s (1973) Some Aspects of Social Development and Social Development: Challenges Faced in the Unequal and Plural Society (Gore, 2003); Jones and Pandey’s (1981) Social Development: Conceptual, Methodological and Policy Issues; Midgley’s (1995) Social Development: The developmental Perspective in Social Welfare and Social Development Theory and Practice (2014); Mohan’s (2015) Global Frontiers of Social Development in Theory and Practice; Pawar’s (2014) Social and Community Development Practice; Patel’s (2015) Social Welfare and Social Development in South Africa; Midgley and Pawar’s (2017) Future Directions in Social Development, and Pawar and Cox’s (2010) Social Development: Critical Themes and Perspectives. About 10 books’ titles indicated the desire or direction to connect social work to social development. For example, Sanders’ (1982) Developmental Perspective in Social Work; Midgley and Conley’s (2010) book, Social Work and Social Development: Theories and Skills for Developmental Social Work; Hugman’s (2015) Social Development in Social Work: Practices and Principles; and Amadasun’s (2019) Social Work for Social Development in Africa. There are two handbooks related to social development: Handbook of Social Work and Social Development in Africa (Gray, 2017) and Handbook on Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South (Patel, Plagerson, & Chinyoka, 2023).

The vast literature on social development, articles published in the SDI and other journals, and in the form of books, has made a significant contribution to our understanding of societal developmental, non-developmental and problematic/uneven/unjust developmental processes and has raised critical awareness of the need to do better, need to do differently and need to look beyond myopic national borders with a global perspective. Admittedly, a challenge has remained as to communicating this effectively to not only social work scholars but also social science researchers generally to gain their traction and generate action. One way of summarizing this literature is in terms of its contribution to broad conceptual development, curriculum development, and theoretical development. These will be discussed in the next section.

Concepts of Social Development

As conceptual development and clarity are precursors to any theory development, many scholars have deliberated on the concept of social development. I do not think any other disciplinary scholars have delved into this area like scholars with social work and social policy discipline backgrounds. These social development concepts try to include the following interconnected variables to discuss and clarify the meaning of social development.

First, focusing on the goal and purpose, many scholars suggest that the social development approach helps to achieve welfare, well-being, quality of life, meeting needs, realizing human potential, participation, distribution of resources, creating opportunities, inclusion, eliminating social inequities, and ecological sustainability (Cox, Pawar, Picton, 1997a; Davis, 2004; Hollister, 1977, 1982; ICSD, 2021; Jones, 1981; Meinert & Kohn, 1987; Meinert, Kohn, & Strickler, 1984; Midgley, 1995, 2014; Mohan & Sharma, 1985; Paiva, 1977, 1982; Pawar, 2014; Pillai, 2017).

Second, purposeful planning and integration of, linking or balancing economic and social development is emphasized in the concept of social development by many scholars (e.g., Barker, 2003; Gore, 1973; Midgley, 1995, 2014; Palley, 1984; Pawar, 2014). Although Jones (1981, p. 3) stated that “The shift of emphasis to social development was not, however, intended to suggest a dichotomy between ‘social’ and ‘economic’ development.” In many nation-states it has been dichotomized to the extent that often social development outlays are perceived as a burden to the state (Midgley, 1995, 2014), though it should be reversed, and consequently many policies and programs have prioritized economic development. It is a critical variable in the social development concept as it has the potential to shift the paradigm of economic growth-focused development to human-focused multi-dimensional and multi-level development.

Third, the social development concept includes varying degrees of emphasis or need to initiate the planned capacity building of institutions and or change the structures or building new institutions. The means of doing so also varies from incremental to radical and or from corporation to confrontation depending upon the contexts and social development practitioners (Jones, 1981, p. 3; Mohan, 2010, pp. 205–221; Pathak, 1987; Todaro, 1997, p. 69).

Fourth, values as an important aspect of the social development concept, scholars have suggested that human and social rights such as equity, equality and social justice, environmental justice, and collectively, cooperation, freedom from oppression/exploitation, interdependence, global awareness, empathy, honesty, humanism, non-discrimination, open access to information, participation, redistribution, personal freedom/self-determination, self-examination, tolerance, peace, pluralism, healthy human ecology are values of social development (Cummings, 1982, 1983; Falk, 1981, p. 72–75; Farmer, 1983; Farris, 1982; ICSD, 2021; Jones & Pandey, 1977, p. 49; Richardson, Kairys, LaManna, & Krell, 1983; Spaights & Kenner, 1983) (Figure 1).

Figure 2

Concept of social development.

Source: Author.

Thus generally, the social development concept includes values and goals and a planned process of building/changing institutions/structures and balancing overall development and achieving the well-being of the whole population. Beyond these concepts, drawing insights from Hobhouse’s (1924) writing on social development, I would like to argue that social development is a philosophy, it is a philosophical concept with ethical connotations (Dean, 2010), and it is an epistemological framework. It is critical to distinguish between facts/knowledge/methods and prevailing reality and consciously unearth the links and delinks between the two and use that analysis for initiating planned change in societies and thereby change in facts. This inherent power and logic in the concept of social development is fascinating (to me).

Social development curriculum and training in social work

Along with developing the concept of social development and clarifying it (at least in terms of writing, presenting at conferences, and publishing), many social development scholars have contemplated the issue of how to incorporate the social development curriculum in social work so as to prepare social workers from a social development perspective at graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels (Cox et al., 1997a; Farris, 1982; Hollister, 1977, p. 17–18, 52; Hollister & Jones, 1981; Midgley & Conley, 2010; Sanders, 1982).

As noted earlier, it is important to acknowledge the significant contributions of John F. Jones (Jack Jones) to the ICSD and social development curriculum. During those early days, Jack Jones was already directing the School of Social Development and took brave steps to reaccredit the MSW program at the University of Minnesota (UM), Duluth as a specialized social development professional program. However, his efforts were not successful at the first attempt because CSWE could not accept anything that diverged from the standard MSW curriculum (Midgley, 2024). While discussing the accreditation report, CSWE asked, “what is this social development” to one of the accreditation commission members, Shanti Khinduka, and was not able to see beyond the dominant social casework/clinical practice model (Khinduka, 2024) at the time. However, CSWE did grant accreditation just 1 year later with essentially the same social development curriculum, and UM at Duluth produced MSWs in social development for many years afterwards (Hollister, 2024).

Such initial resistance and reactions have not discouraged some scholars. According to them, social development curriculum areas tend to include socio-economic, political context, institutional/structural change process; assessing human needs, rights, justice; social theory and social ethics, community organization and development, multisectoral and multi-level focus, policy planning, programing, implementation, and evaluation (Farris, 1982; Jones & Pandey, 1977, p. 51). There was also a focus on developing social development practice skills among intersectoral workers (Ssenkoloto, 1982) and addressing the inequality of women (Chandler, 1984; Lynch, 1983). Some schools offered a subject or a specialization or a concentration in international social work/social development and a few textbooks were used for that purpose (e.g., Bettman, Jacques, & Frost, 2012; Cox & Pawar, 2013; Estes, 1984, 1998, 2019; Hall & Midgley, 2004; Healy & Thomas, 2021; Hokenstad, Khinduka, & Midgley, 1992; Hugman, 2010; Lyons, 1999; Lyons, Manion, & Carlsen, 2006; Midgley, 2016; Ramanathan & Link, 1999; Tice & Long, 2009). A number of these scholars were associated with the ICSD. Drawing on Pawar, Hugman, Alexabdra, and Anscombe (2017) and Hugman, Pawar, Anscombe, and Wheeler’s (2021) work on virtue ethics, ICSD (2022) has developed a Statement of Ethics for social development professionals.

Another important variant in developing social development curriculum in social work is in relation to international social work or international social development, which involves at the minimum exposing social work students and educators to deprived conditions with cultural sensitivity beyond national borders. To achieve this, a range of study abroad programs involving short observation visits, full-length placements, and semester-length courses have been developed. Such programs differ from school to school, depending upon the school’s and or individual staff member’s interest, commitment, and resources. Some ICSD conferences have facilitated this type of activity, or some scholars have used ICSD conferences as part of such international social work/social development programs (Bell & Anscombe, 2013; Dominelli & Bernard, 2003; Pawar et al., 2004 Pawar, 2016; Ramanathan & Kondrat, 1994). ICSD may not claim full credit for international social work and social development practice activities within professional social work, but it has significantly contributed to it.

Theories of Social Development

Although social work knowledge, skills, and methods are critical and appropriate in some contexts, one of the main theories/hypotheses or propositions of social development is that professional social work’s remedial or clinical approach to solving societal problems or meeting needs is inappropriate and inadequate in vast local level contexts globally, and the social development approach provides an effective overall direction for the wellbeing of the whole population and their ecology. Whether this theory is tested or untested, proved, or disproved, I would argue that this is the theory that has birthed the ICSD. It appears this theory is based on the lived experience, insights, and wisdom of many social development thinkers who founded and tried to bring change in the social work curriculum and the profession with varied degrees of success and time, near and far (Hollister, 1977, p. 19). It appears that most of the ICSD founders listed above believed in this theory.

History of the ICSD suggests that MIUCISD appeared to be a brainchild of Paiva, though many colleagues joined hands to create it. So, it is important to consider his theory of social development. Paiva’s (1977) social development theory is based on three prerequisites—political will, an ideology of human focus, caring and relationships, and cooperation—and four core concepts: (1) Inter-systemic integration of social and economic institutions, (2) structural change to distribute and share, (3) development of or altering institutions, and (4) guarding continuously against obsolesce and focusing on innovation. Building on these concepts, Paiva’s social development approach includes the development of the capacity of people to work continuously for their own and society’s welfare; and the alteration or development of a society’s institutions to meet human needs at all levels (pp. 332–333). Paiva’s early theoretical conceptualization of social development has influenced the thoughts of many social development scholars.

James Midgley, a long-time supporter of the ICSD, who has been associated with it for several decades, is one of the most influential social development thinkers in the contemporary world. In his social development books (Midgley, 1995, 2014, pp. 212–213) and articles, Midgley has discussed his institutionalism framework for social development, which I rephrase as “institutional theory” of social development. The essence of this theory is that in pluralistic societies there is no sole player in social development. The state, communities, non-government organizations/civil society, and the business/market play critical roles as institutions in social development. The institutional theory requires these institutions to be mobilized and their varied practice strategies to be supported to work together in harmony under the stewardship/leadership of the state to facilitate social development. This theorization may be connected to one of the core concepts in social development, building/altering institutions, or structures, as discussed.

Under the leadership of Shanti Khinduka, one of the founders of the ICSD, then the dean of the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, St Louis, Michael Sherraden founded the Centre for Social Development in 1994 and directed it from the beginning to continue his research on assets and the poor. His “asset building theory” is based on the assumption that “welfare transfers that stimulate asset accumulation are ultimately more powerful antipoverty measures than those designed for immediate consumption” (Gilbert, 1991, p. XIV). Following the idea of “stakeholding”, it focuses on savings, investment, and asset accumulation. To overcome poverty, poor people must accumulate a stake in the system. A stake in the system means, in one form or another, holding assets. This theory-oriented research by Sherraden (1991) has influenced asset-based policies in the US and many other countries. Implementation of asset-based policies has helped over 5 million children in the US and 20 million globally to have child development accounts. Overall, it has enhanced the capacity and well-being of people.

While, at times, most of the social development literature appears to be normative and hortatory, Leila Patel from South Africa is the only scholar in the world, who has validated social development theory through her research on social welfare and social development (Patel, 2015) that has global implications. Her research shows that cash transfers as a social protection mechanism help to achieve social development of people in terms of enhancing health, education, housing, employment, and poverty alleviation, particularly for children, women, the disabled, and the elderly. Patel’s research work has helped to improve the social development theory that in some contexts, merely cash transfers are not enough, and such provisions should be buttressed by additional support and guidance to some individuals and families to make the assistance meaningful to them and thereby enhance their social development (Hunter, et al., 2021; Nnaeme, et al., 2020; Patel, 2015, 2024; Patel & Ross, 2022; Patel, et al., 2020; Patel, et al., 2023). In addition to the state as a prime player, there is a necessity to navigate other institutions to achieve social development (Plagerson et al., 2019), which confirms Midgley’s institutionalism discussed earlier.

Brij Mohan is one of the leading critical social thinkers in the social work and social development field. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed journal for about two decades (1984–2005), and it is currently published as Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy by Cambridge University Press, running 40th volume in 2024. He was the editor of the SDI. One of Mohan’s trilogies encapsulates his critical zeitgeist (ideas and beliefs of a particular period) in the field (Mohan, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2024). In his theorization, Mohan (2010, p. 205, 221) argues for a post-material process of human-societal transformation involving universalization of equality and justice on the one hand, and annihilation of violence, war, and disease on the other to ensure new social development substance, contours, and contents. His theorization hinges on the social development’s agenda of universal well-being. Mohan’s ideas have contributed to both, the initial construction and later, deconstruction of social development (Mohan, 2010, 2015; Mohan & Sharma, 1985). According to Mohan (2024a), “As European economists and the United Nations helped shape the agenda for Social Development’s future, an Algerian philosopher-psychiatrist’s explosion unleashed a tsunami of revolutionary consciousness unveiling the violent brutality of colonial exploitation that had far-reaching implications for the decolonization of the Global South”. In his preface to Frantz Fanon’s classic The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Jean-Paul Sartre wrote:

“The European élite undertook to manufacture a native élite. They picked out promising adolescents; they them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of western culture, they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. … From Paris, from London, from Amsterdam we would utter the words ‘Parthenon! Brother-hood!’ and somewhere in Africa or Asia lips would open“ … thenon! … therhood!’ It was the golden age. It came to an end; the mouths opened by branded themselves; the yellow and black voices still spoke of our humanism but only to reproach us with our inhumanity…. Just look at what we have made of them.! Then, indeed, Europe could believe in her mission; she had hellenized the Asians; she had created a new breed, the Graeco-Latin Negroes. We might add, quite between ourselves, as men of the world: ‘After all, let them bawl their heads off, it relieves their feelings; dogs that bark don’t bite.’” (Fanon, 1961: 7–8)

Drawing on such thoughts, Mohan (2024a) contends that Social Development grew out of Western guilt and institutional narcissism.

Pawar’s ideas are largely influenced by Midgley’s (1995, 2014), Gore’s (1973), and Cox’s (Pawar & Cox, 2010) writings on social development. To translate social development ideas, Pawar’s social development approach delineates interlinked seven composite variables. These are understanding current conditions in a range of social development dimensions, by following certain values and processes, setting goals, developing plans and strategies, and achieving change in those dimensions as per the goals (Pawar, 2014, p. 22–32). His theorization of social development does not juxtapose social development with economic development, rather economic development, howsoever crucial, is positioned as one of the dimensions of social development along with other dimensions. This theorization first calls for change in the cognition of individuals and societies about social and economic development and second altering institutions to value all dimensions without domination of any other dimensions to achieve social development. Among the multi-levels, it emphasizes social development at the local level as it has been most neglected (Cox & Pawar, 2013; Pawar & Cox, 2010).