Bringing together about 100 people, these conferences offer a space for dialogue and debate on recent research. They provide members and other involved people a chance to meet one another and exchange ideas. They allow for the valorisation of research through the APAD Journal and books.
Next conference
Through the lens of work
Capitalism, development, and social change
in the global South
APAD international Conference 2024
Liège, Belgium, 22-24 May 2024
Call for panels open until 15 June 2023

Circulations in the global South: Ethnographic explorations of globalized exchanges
Lomé, Togo, 29 November-3 December 2021
This 14th APAD international colloquium focused on the multiple forms of large-scale circulation of goods, ideas, techniques, information and models that are increasingly crossing the countries of the South and linking them together. The aim was to revisit the fields and themes that are at the heart of the “global shift” that has taken place in the social sciences over the past two decades, to discuss the place of development anthropology in this process and, conversely, the way in which it takes into account the dynamics of globalisation.
130 people, half in person, half at a distance, participated in this conference, organised in partnership with the University of Lomé (Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences (FSHS)), with the support of UNDP Togo, AFD, IRD and the French Embassy in Togo.

Migrations, développement et citoyennetés
Rosklide, Danemark 23-25 May 2018
This conference will broaden our understanding of contemporary migrations, at various levels, and connect it to the issue of social change, development, and aid intervention, highliting the different ways by which migrants’ access or denial to services produces new practices and conceptions of citizenship.
The Conference is organised with Roskilde University (Department of Social Sciences and Business) and the University of Copenhagen (Department of Food and Resource Economics).
La fabrique de l'action publique dans les pays 'sous régime d'aide'
Cotonou, Benin 17-20 November 2015
he conference is co-organized with LASDEL (Laboratory for Studies and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development, Niger and Benin) and LADYD (Laboratory for Analysis of Dynamic Development, Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Abomey Calavi, Benin), in partnership with the University of Abomey Calavi and with the support of the ANR APPI project “A fragmented public action? Production and institutionalization of public action” and in cooperation with the Beninese Ministry for Public Policies Evaluation. It is funded by the French Agency for Development (Research dpt), the Netherlands Royal Embassy in Cotonou and the French Institute for Development Research (IRD).
More than 160 abstracts have been received, from 23 countries.
The conference will take place from the 17th to 20th November 2015 in Cotonou. It will be opened by an inaugural lecture on the campus of the University, given by Philippe Zittoun, professor of political sciences and General secretary of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA).The working session will take place in Cotonou at Hôtel du Lac.
Fieldwork relations in the Context of Development or Emergency. Access, risks, knowledge, restitutions
Montpellier, France 13-15 june 2013
For its 2013 conference, the Euro-African Association for the Anthropology of Social Change and Development proposes to deepen the methodological, epistemological and ethical questions which are inherent to the relationships of research in humanitarian or development aid situations.
The Conference took place from Thursday June the 13th to Saturday June the 15th at noon. It has been open by two Key Note Speeches (with simultaneous translation) :
– Pr Tania Murray LI (Toronto University, Canada) : How do development institutions think : anthropological fieldwork inside development institutions.
– Pr Loïc WACQUANT (University of California-Berkeley/CESSP-Paris) : Un sociologue français dans le ghetto noir américain: entrer, circuler, sortir.
Around 80 communications from more than 20 countries have been presented and discussed, in 20 panels covering the following main topics :
- Field relations: ethic and epistemologic issues
- Fieldwork in/on margins
- Anthropology in/of institutions
- Knowledges : confrontation, negotiation, co-production
French and english were working langages. English-speaking panels were organized each half-day.
- Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | 2010
- Louvain la neuve, Belgique | 2007
- Yaoundé, Cameroun | 2005
- Leyden, Pays-Bas | 2002
- Saint-Louis, Sénégal | 2000
- Cotonou, Bénin | 1998
- Louvain la neuve, Belgique | 1997
- Stuttgart, Allemagne | 1996
- Bamako, Mali | 1994
- Montpellier, France | 1992
- Paris, France | 1991