Understanding Global Development Research

Investigates the effects of research in the field of international development.. Examines the consequences of 23 research projects funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre in developing countries. Shows how research influence public policy and decision-making and how can contribute to better governance.

Intended for aspiring and new practitioners of Participatory Research and Development (PR&D) as well as field-based researchers in developing countries. Highlights that agricultural research and development has become a joint approach to deal with diverse biophysical environments, multiple livelihood goals, rapid changes in local and global economies, and an expanded range for stakeholders over agriculture and natural resources.

Doing Development Research is a comprehensive introduction to research in development studies, that provides thorough training for anyone carrying out research in developing countries. It brings together experts with extensive experience of overseas research, presenting an interdisciplinary guide to the core methodologies. Informed by years of research experience, Doing Development Research draws together many strands of action research and participatory methods, demonstrating their diverse applications and showing how they interrelate. The text provides: · an account of the theoretical approaches that underlie development work · an explanation of the practical issues involved in planning development research · a systematic overview of information and data collecting methods in three sub-sections: · methods of social research and associated forms of analysis · using existing knowledge and records · disseminating findings/research Using clear and uncomplicated language – illustrated with appropriate learning features throughout - the text guides the researcher through the choice of appropriate methods, the implementation of the research, and the communication of the findings to a range of audiences. This is the essential A-Z of development research.

This energetic and thought-provoking book encourages a reflexive, non-nationalistic approach to doing world research and sets out how to understand, plan, do and use this research. Williams introduces a range of frameworks, from desk-based studies and traditional ethnography to the use of internet, satellites, robots, drones and ‘big data’, and provides exciting, interdisciplinary examples. This book is presented in a clear international style and uses creative approaches to researching peoples, places and world systems. It explains: desk-based research using international data including documentaries, museum objects, archives, data-sets and working with groups such as refugees, tourists and migrants distance research using online videos, surveys and remote methods such as video conferencing and crowdsourcing fieldwork abroad, including ethnography, street observation and mapping. The book is also accompanied by a website, with the following features: For Students Weblinks for each chapter Examples/summaries/templates related to text marked with Additional thinking zones An overview of data capture technologies For Lecturers Copies of all the figures and thinking zones for use in teaching material PowerPoint slides for each chapter Built upon the foundations of the author’s 30 years of research experience, and including original case studies from international students, this is an essential guide for anyone in the social sciences using or doing international and global research.

Setting out a new, path-breaking research agenda for global rural development, this timely book offers an innovative and embedded rural social science capable of both understanding and enacting progress towards diverse and sustainable pathways. It relocates rural development at the heart of global trends associated with widespread but uneven urbanization, climate change and severe resource depletion, rising population growth, density and inequality, and global political, economic and health crises.

How do we try to make the world a better place, when the challenges of poverty, disease, war, conflict, and climate change continue to impact millions of lives? Global Development: The Basics is a lively and engaging introduction to the shifting landscape of global development, right from its origins, to present-day problems, and on to what the future for global development might look like. Recognising global development as an economic, political, and social project, this book tackles a series of critical questions: asking ‘what’ development is and how it is measured, where and to whom it is assumed to happen, how its approaches are developed, and whose benefit do they serve? The book invites readers to consider the complexities and challenges of the concept of development, including its historical roots in colonialism, and the geopolitical power relations which continue to set much of the agenda. It investigates whose voices are included or silenced in dominant approaches to development, and the growing importance of ‘non-traditional’ development funding and approaches. Covering key topics in the field, from economics and politics, through to gender and climate change, Global Development: The Basics is perfect for readers starting out in their understanding of global development.

Interdisciplinary Qualitative Research in Global Development provides a sorely needed practical introduction to the interdisciplinary and increasingly complex field of global development research, and it does so in a concise format can easily be taken into the field.