CEDIMES

Why join us

WHY JOIN CEDIMES ?

The name CEDIMES stands for ‘ Centre d' Etudes du Développement International et des Mouvements Economiques et Sociaux' (Centre for Studies in International Development and Economic and Social Movements). It was created in 1972 in Paris by Emeritus Professor Jacques Austruy. as an Institute within the University Pantheon-Assas (Paris II). Since then the Centre has developed its reputation through a network of university partners on five continents.

INSTITUT CEDIMES (The CEDIMES Institute) unites all these centres. Its expertise derives from its initial focus on countries in the developing world, and involves: examining their policies and strategies on development, analysing the problems of economic transition, looking at sectoral approaches (to agricultural production or industrial development), and at the impact of these on demography and social development, and finally, studying insular economies.

In recent years this approach has been modified by new global developments, in particular globalization, international trade, the emergence of regional economic zones, and co-operation between North and South.

Finally, in the field of entrepreneurship INSTITUT CEDIMES analyses the way businesses are set up, how the informal sector operates, and the impact on business of privatization, de-centralisation and strategic alliances between nations.

The CEDIMES network has several unique characteristics. It acts as an effective tool for development, forms a dynamic scientific community and has an acknowledged track record of action.

A Development Tool

The INSTITUT CEDIMES is above all a tool available to the scientific community to add value to research work and to the analysis of economic and social development carried out by the constituent teams or by their individual members.

• It is a means of improving the value of what the different centres of research and their staff have produced. It does this by acting as an intermediary for research work through symposiums, publications of individual or collective work, training courses or segments, and supporting or inviting proposals for thesis work.

• It has a common brand image. Through its international work, the INSTITUT CEDIMES has involved itself in the whole field of globalisation. This has allowed the acronym CEDIMES – now frequently used across the board in a variety of contexts -- to develop from an acronym into a distinctive brand name.

• The CEDIMES network has built its international economic expertise on the basis of a vision of development that has been generated within one of Paris' prestigious universities. So, CEDIMES is a network of French-speaking researchers and the working language is French. But the Institute has been built up with openness to other languages. CEDIMES centres in non-francophone countries are open to non-French speakers, whose scientific qualities contribute to the strength of the teams.

• The INSTITUT CEDIMES comprises several hundred members. They are mainly university professors, researchers, and young PhD. Students, but they also include non-academic professionals. This organisation of nearly 600 members enables its members to respond to research requests from international organisations, government departments and other institutions. One of its most effective assets is the fact that the CEDIMES partners already know each other and are committed to working co-operatively in the same scientific fields.

• The INSTITUT CEDIMES internet site shares information and facilitates discussions. It enables the network to meet the needs of the modern world, and it sets up a channel of dialogue between all its members around the world. The site presents an overview of the Institute, its organization and activities. In addition it allows each of the local centres to derive value from (and add value to) the whole network. The site allows CEDIMES to initiate new topics of discussion and share lines of inquiry with other researchers. It also makes the work of CEDIMES available to the public.

A Scientific Community

• The INSTITUT CEDIMES allows groups of researchers in different countries to have a regular link with each other. The participants are drawn from the highest levels in their respective fields, and there is potential for the young PhD students working with them to build for considerable influence in the future. The teams are multidisciplinary but their core is principally composed of economists and practitioners who exchange and compare their different observations and analyses from their direct experience of globalisation.

• CEDIMES is a valuable meeting place for researchers from the countries of both North and South, enabling them to undertake joint co-operative projects. It allows for various kinds of assistance to developing countries. It enables the representatives of the Third World to make the North aware of the realities on the ground and the actual developments taking place in the poorer economies of the South.

• The INSTITUT CEDIMES makes it possible for young researchers to be linked to teams of more experienced members, and to access professional networks that may both assist their careers and allow them to participate in work that is recognised internationally. The legal structure of Institut C edimes ensures that it is a uniquely constituted organisation with each centre being autonomous but with common objectives and access to logistical support that is co-ordinated on an overall basis.

• Once the team has been validated by CEDIMES, the director of the team becomes a full member of the Board of directors. An annual conference of directors allows for their participation in defining strategic directions, introducing new areas of co-operation and regulating the co-ordination between centres.

• A bi-annual newsletter is sent to all members of the network. This acts as a link between members of this scientific community and records the reports on activities and publications sent to the head office of the network by all CEDIMES members.

Action

• The INSTITUT CEDIMES brings together experienced researchers and PhD candidates. It allows for teams of researchers to be set up according to need and availability. Some projects generate resources while others do not. Available funds are used essentially to pay for premises and equipment, to help researchers with costs of transport and participation in scientific activities, to assist in publications, and to cover costs of running projects (eg: surveys, transport, and accommodation).

• CEDIMES offices can accommodate advanced researchers during their stay in Paris and young researchers during their training period or when they join active programs. The offices are equipped with computers and communication technology, allowing CEDIMES network researchers to work in good conditions and alongside the Paris-based CEDIMES team.

• CEDIMES provides opportunities for members to travel to countries, which have CEDIMES teams, whether these members are experienced professors or young researchers. The CEDIMES network has made many exchanges of this kind and has helped many PhD candidates to carry out fieldwork and complete their theses.

• The CEDIMES international symposiums. focus CEDIMES researchers on a topical issue selected from the network's fields of competence. Centres take it in turn to organise these events, which are opportunities to bring the network together regularly as well as to maximize the value of each research team's work. Non-member researchers can also take this opportunity to meet and compare their work, while this framework is able to encourage new researchers to join the network and for new teams to be created.

• The publications of INSTITUT CEDIMES enable its researchers to gain greater advantage from their work. An international committee of scientists acts as a guarantee for the quality of the research.

• The annual publication, “CONJONCTURE”, is the fruit of the work of some seventy researchers from about thirty different national backgrounds, and it helps build a solid reputation for CEDIMES. Published by LES EDITIONS BREAL (and introduced by the famous daily paper “LES ECHOS” this book of 1000 pages or so synthesises the annual political, social and economic data of nearly 200 countries. It also charts the development of markets and raw materials since 1995.

The network continues to develop in keeping with the wishes of the founder of the Parisian INSTITUT CEDIMES, Emeritus Professor Jacques AUSTRUY. He sought to create a grouping that would combine scientific excellence with the stimulation of friendly relationships. CEDIMES combines an opening-out to different cultures on a broad scale with a well-informed observation of international development -- from the perspective of national, sectoral and business development. In this way, INSTITUT CEDIMES has built up a uniquely original structure linked equally to the worlds of the university, entrepreneurship and international development.

INSTITUT CEDIMES does not exist in an ivory tower, but acts in the real world to co-ordinate many independent centres united on a common basis. The advantages of the network lie in:

• Applying scientific language to issues of development,

• Using to advantage one international language (French),

• Benefiting from the richness of approach that arises from the diversity of the cultures in which the centres are based, and

• Having the aim of working together to understand the complexity of the modern world at the dawn of the third millennium.

How to join INSTITUT CEDIMES?

A researcher who wants to join INSTITUT CEDIMES has two options:

• If the researcher lives in a country where an INSTITUT CEDIMES exists, irrespective of which city the CEDIMES centre is based in, he or she can join this team following the local procedures. He or she will need to fill in an application form correctly giving his or her contacts (so as to receive information from the rest of the network); as well as his or her qualifications, experience, and specialisation (so as to participate in projects). This form goes to the head office of the Institute for registration, and registration gives the applicant the right to vote during general meetings.

• In cases where there is no INSTITUT CEDIMES in the country where the researcher lives, the applicant will need to send his application form directly to the head office in Paris. This new member will then be informed directly of the various activities of the network and may be invited to be involved in research projects or publications, according to their area of expertise. The bi-annual newsletter is a means to inform members of symposiums, projects in progress and other scientific activities or exchanges. If the new member has the appropriate standing he or she may be able to propose creating a new team.

How to create a new CEDIMES ?

Where an expert researcher wants to create a new CEDIMES in a country, which does not have one, he or she should first form a team of experienced well-regarded researchers and then invite young PhD candidates to join. The team should be constituted according to the regulations and academic procedures in force in that country. There are two ways of forming a team.

• An existing research centre may offer to present its affiliation to the INSTITUT CEDIMES. Once the centre is approved, in addition to its previous name it will be able to use the name “CEDIMES”. In order to distinguish it from other centres in the network it is usual then to add the name of the city in which it is based (eg CEDIMES Sydney). The majority of CEDIMES centres have followed this procedure.

• A new team can be formed from a core of researchers from one university in a city, and then link it to relevant researchers in other universities. The naming procedures are the same as mentioned above. Most of the existing teams have followed this pattern.

In either case, the team must have the approval of the board of directors who will then grant the new team the right to use the acronym CEDIMES. The board of directors is composed of members elected by the whole group of researchers of INSTITUT CEDIMES and by all the directors who by right are members of the board.

The documentation to be presented for the authorisation of all the directors must be in a standard form:

• The leader must have recognised qualifications and expertise in the scientific field.

• The team must comprise a core of French-speaking economists and administrators; this nucleus could extend to researchers of related or complementary disciplines involved in projects of multidisciplinary research. Non-French speaking colleagues could back up the team by contributing their scientific expertise with an approach that is open to the French-speaking world.

• The group leader will need to send to INSTITUT CEDIMES the CV of each member of the team. His or her CV, with photograph should also be included. The Secretary General of INSTITUT CEDIMES will send a copy to each director and to the members of the board. The authorisation will be granted at the next meeting of the board of directors.

• The President sends the decision of the meeting to the leader of the group. If accepted he or she is then listed in the central database of members of the network. The membership cards, signed by the president, are then sent to the members of the new team. The leader of the new team must sign them before they are given to each new member.

• The new director will ask members to fill in a standard membership form in order to have an updated operational file ready to be used in case for example an invitation is to be extended to them. Apart from the authorisation of new centres, the voting power of each centre depends on the actual number of its members.

CEDIMES groups are not subsidiaries of the original CEDIMES, but are joint-teams working in the same spirit and united within a common organisation, managed by all the participants during the General Meetings and by the Board of Directors.