CSSI Partnerships Conference 2022

Announcement: The 9th Cross-Sector Social Interactions (CSSI) online Symposium on “Power and Inclusion in Cross-Sector Social Interactions" will be organized at the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business Cape Town, South Africa, 3-6 April 2024!

Hosted by the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, in collaboration with The Partnering Initiative and PRME Chapter Africa, CSSI 2024 aims to respond to calls from scholars, practitioners and policy makers that development can only be “inclusive” if it also considers intellectual traditions, philosophy, and experience from the Global South.

CSSI 2024 will focus on the theme of “Power and inclusion in cross-sector social interactions”. The ideal is for cross sector collaboration to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and foster inclusive social innovation. Despite some important successes, this ambition often remains elusive. Societal exclusion and power imbalances often shape who participates in cross-sector initiatives, what such initiatives focus on, and how they unfold. These patterns of exclusion include local manifestations of class, racial, and gender inequality, as well as global inequalities between the Global North and the Global South. Due to institutionalized privilege and routinized ways of working, both researchers and practitioners of cross sector partnerships risk perpetuating such power imbalances and exclusionary practices.

CSSI scholars are giving these themes of power and inclusion growing attention. The time is ripe to take stock of what we know and do not know, and to advance both theory and practice to enhance more inclusionary cross-sector social interactions. Questions worth considering include:

• Why and how do collaboration partners use or abuse power to enhance either inclusion or exclusion in cross-sector social interactions?
• What are the implications of such use or abuse of power for partnership objectives, emergent practices, and outcomes?
• What shapes the power of cross-sector collaboration initiatives as societal actors, and how is this power exerted for inclusionary or exclusionary outcomes?

Bringing CSSI to Africa is particularly appropriate for this symposium theme. Africa will have the most rapid population growth of all continents this century. This brings remarkable opportunities and risks for sustainable development. Much will depend on whether cross-sector collaboration can foster policies and practices that realize the opportunities – and mitigate the risks – of this demographic dividend, in sectors such as education, health, urban development, clean energy, and many others.

Through CSSI 2024, we seek to connect the CSSI community to this “African century.” We will ensure that the local context is foregrounded in symposium discussions through field trips, plenaries, and research-practice conversations. We will ensure that African researchers and practitioners are prominent participants in the event, with the broader intention of expanding the CSSI community’s African membership. And we will encourage and enable the CSSI community to give more systematic attention to Africa in its work.

We welcome you to mark the date on your calendars and keep an eye out for the call for papers which will be issued by April 2024. More information to come!