Can Research Change the World? The importance of research in
addressing global development challenges
David Taylor,
Professor of Geography, School of Natural Sciences
Is research important in the field of development?
Isn’t development - like motherhood and apple pie, and especially when
applied to Less Developed Countries – essentially a good thing,
therefore we should just get on and do it?
Wouldn’t scarce funds be better spent on development programmes and
projects that target, e.g., poverty alleviation directly, rather than
research?
Can universities and other research organisations be trusted with
money that has been earmarked for development – is there a danger
that researchers will just muddy the water?
Research is important in identifying, for example
The form(s) of development required
How can the required development be delivered?
The most appropriate techniques for acquiring information upon which to
make decisions
Have development funds had their intended impacts?
Research is also important for examining more specific questions about, for
example:
livelihoods, governance and vulnerability
health and the emergence of new challenges to health
changing conditions and their implications
Participatory development research is a two-way process that is potentially beneficial
to all parties – and is an important tool in identifying problems (research questions)
and possible solutions, and in monitoring impacts
TCD MSc Environment and Development students, Rwanda, 2010
Major guiding research question: how we as humans relate to the nonhuman world, and how does that world influence us?
Political ecology
Human dimensions of
environmental change
Environmental
history
Food & Health
Common threads are water, natural resources and wetlands
Field-based research focuses on eastern Africa, Europe and southeast/east Asia
Locations for field-based research, 1984-present
A role for serendipity?
Cornflakes, Cellophane,
Gelignite, LSD, Penicillin,
Post-it notes, Superglue,
Viagra, Vulcanisation ......
All globally valuable
commodities that were
discovered while researching
something else
Aside from obvious examples
such as the discovery of
America, does serendipity
have any relevance to
development, and in
particular development
challenges?
Toscanelli’s map of the Atlantic, AD1474
Indonesia
Singapore
Kenya
Uganda
Accommodation: Bwindi Forest, Uganda-DR Congo border
Rwanda
Mexico
Yangtze Delta, China
Results describe a highly dynamic world, driven by both natural and human-induced
processes, enabling the contextualisation of current concerns, and providing a basis
for anticipating our futures
Lake Victoria
Source:
USDA
Foreign
Agricultural
Service
& therefore my serendipitous involvement in development discourse
Thank you!
Virunga volcanoes, Albertine Rift,
central Africa