Changing the world of development research? An insight into theory and practice

Abstract

Development research has been through many stages over the past few decades and during this time has experienced fluctuating appreciation by development practice. There is an increasing gap between different ways of doing development research. For some, the purpose of development research is primarily to influence policies, and in order to do this development research has to reframe its whole approach, language, and methodology. Others maintain that development research needs to distance itself, maintain an analytical and even critical approach towards development practice, and become an academic discipline in its own right.

Changer le monde de la recherche dans le secteur du développement ? Vue d'ensemble de la théorie et de la pratique

Les recherches en matière de développement ont traversé de nombreuses étapes au cours des quelques dernières décennies et, durant cette période, elles ont fait l'objet d'une appréciation variable de la part de la pratique du développement. On observe un écart croissant entre différentes manières de mener des recherches dans le secteur du développement. Pour certains, la finalité de la recherche dans ce secteur est principalement d'influencer les politiques générales et, pour y parvenir, les recherches dans le secteur du développement doivent reformuler leur approche, leur langage et leur méthodologie tout entiers. D'autres maintiennent que la recherche en développement doit se distancier, maintenir une approche analytique, voire critique, envers la pratique de développement et devenir une discipline universitaire à part entière.

Mudando o mundo da pesquisa de desenvolvimento? Um exame da teoria e prática

A pesquisa de desenvolvimento tem passado por várias fases nas últimas décadas, e durante este tempo tem enfrentado uma apreciação variável pela prática de desenvolvimento. Há uma lacuna cada vez maior entre as formas diferentes de se fazer pesquisa de desenvolvimento. Para alguns, o propósito da pesquisa de desenvolvimento é principalmente influenciar políticas e, para fazer isto, a pesquisa de desenvolvimento tem de sistematizar novamente sua abordagem completa, linguagem e metodologia. Outros sustentam que a pesquisa de desenvolvimento precisa distanciar-se, manter uma abordagem analítica e até mesmo crítica em relação à prática de desenvolvimento e tornar-se uma disciplina acadêmica por pleno direito.

¿Cambiar el rumbo de la investigación sobre el desarrollo? Lecciones teóricas y prácticas

En las últimas décadas, la investigación sobre el desarrollo ha pasado por varias etapas con desiguales niveles de aceptación por parte de quienes se dedican al tema. Existen además profundas brechas entre las diferentes maneras de investigar el desarrollo. Para algunos, la investigación sobre el desarrollo debe centrarse en la incidencia política, para lo cual se necesita reformular su enfoque, lenguaje y metodología. Sin embargo, para otros la investigación sobre el desarrollo necesita distanciarse de la práctica y adoptar una postura analítica y crítica a fin de convertirse en una disciplina académica por sí misma.

Keywords:

• Globalisation
• Governance and public policy
• Technology
• Western Europe

Notes

The findings of this workshop are available at http://www.kef-online.at/en/download/event-summaries.html (KEF-MDG + 5-Workshop, 29 November 2005: A Critical Look at the Role of Research in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals).

This workshop was about the role of science and research for sustainable development and capacity development; it took place in June 2004. The findings have been published in German at http://www.oefse.at/publikationen/analysen/liste.htm#bild

KEF Research for Development Roundtables took place in 2006 and 2007. They have been documented at http://www.kef-online.at/en/r4d-roundtables/index.php

In October 2007 a Symposium on Perspectives on Development Studies took place in Mattersburg. At the pre-conference before this Symposium, a presentation of our findings took place in German, a summary of which was included in proceedings of the pre-conference (http://entwicklungsforschung.at/vortagung/dokumentation/). More information about the symposium itself can be found at http://entwicklungsforschung.at

An extended version of this paper was presented as a working paper at the 12th EADI General Conference: Global Governance for Sustainable Development. The Need for Policy Coherence and New Partnerships, Geneva 24–28 June 2008.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Birgit Habermann

Birgit Habermann is an ecologist and agro-forester with experience in research funding and management. She is also a PhD student at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex on epistemologies in natural-resource management in East Africa.

Margarita Langthaler

Margarita Langthaler is a research assistant with the Austrian Research Foundation for International Development. Her research focuses on education in developing countries, the development of development research, and donor strategies in education and research. She is doing a PhD on education reforms in Venezuela. <[email protected]>