Urban Research Agendas, Modes of Financing Research and Considerations of Quality

Abstract

This article consists of three parts. The first is a brief presentation of the research agendas drawn up by African participants in a project on urban research in the developing world called the Global Urban Research Initiative. The second part is a critical discussion of a dominant mode of donor financing of African urban research—the research consultancy—which often has negative implications both for the building of research capacity and for quality in research. It is argued that development agencies neither look for quality in commissioned studies nor do they honour quality. The third part is a discussion of what we as researchers can do to influence aid agencies and other funding bodies to be more constructive in the way they channel resources to social research and in their use of researchers and their work.

Keywords:

• African urban research
• commissioned studies
• aid donors
• knowledge production
• quality in research