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Decolonising Research Impact: Lessons from the Decolonising Development Research Podcast 

The third episode of the IGDC’s Decolonising Development Research Podcast explored research impact. Like many institutions, the University of York defines impact as when the knowledge generated by research contributes to, benefits, and influences society, culture, the environment, and the economy. This broad definition has developed over time to account for the diverse benefits research … Continue reading Decolonising Research Impact: Lessons from the Decolonising Development Research Podcast 

Enhancing local ownership in international development

By William Harnden (Managing Director, Connected Development) Working for a range of international development organisations over the past 15 years, there has been one consistent issue which has been a challenge for all of them. Local people: the national staff, government members, and communities that are the target ‘beneficiaries’ of internationally funded programmes, often don’t … Continue reading Enhancing local ownership in international development

Working towards decolonising development research: partnerships, methods, and impact

This is the second blog arising from work on IGDC’s Decolonising Research Podcast series. How can researchers decolonise their work? What steps can be taken in terms of partnerships, methods, and impact? And what challenges does decolonisation raise for researchers? Researchers are increasingly encouraged to decolonise their research. This is particularly true in the field … Continue reading Working towards decolonising development research: partnerships, methods, and impact

Decolonising research: Why should we decolonise development research?

This is the first blog arising from work on IGDC’s Decolonising Research podcast series. This post discusses the colonial character of established research practices and explains why they should be decolonised. It provides background to the IGDC’s Decolonising Research podcast. In Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith called research ‘one of the dirtiest words in the … Continue reading Decolonising research: Why should we decolonise development research?

Interdisciplinary horizons and decolonial research in a digital age

Aasim Sheikh discusses the IGDC PGR students webinar in February 2024 where they discussed decolonial research in a digital age. With an agenda to promote conviviality within research, post-graduate researchers in Global Development at York have organised a seminar series, Breaking Disciplinary Barriers: Towards Interdisciplinary Horizons. Dr Hameed Chughtai, senior lecturer from Lancaster University Management School, was invited … Continue reading Interdisciplinary horizons and decolonial research in a digital age

Decolonising development research: Navigating positionality and power dynamics in the pursuit of equitable partnerships

IGDC PhD students Stella Nwawulu Chiemela, Luqman Muraina, and Aasim Sheikh give an overview of the IGDC Research Away Day. The decolonisation imperative In recent years, there has been a growing demand within the fields of international and global development to decolonise the knowledge production process. This imperative arises from critical examinations of the historical … Continue reading Decolonising development research: Navigating positionality and power dynamics in the pursuit of equitable partnerships

The environmental impact of mass tourism: A case study of Negril, Jamaica, 1970s-2023

Henrice Altink introduces her new article in Environment and History, Making Tourism Sustainable? Environment and Resort Tourism in Negril, Jamaica, 1970s–2002. Mass tourism has had severe environmental impacts but there are hopeful signs that sustainability is becoming central to the development agenda in the 2020s. Mass tourism generates jobs, brings in revenue and enhances cultural … Continue reading The environmental impact of mass tourism: A case study of Negril, Jamaica, 1970s-2023

Gender, education and a global view on the ‘crisis of care’

Dr Saba Joshi, Lecturer in Gender and Development at the Department of Politics and Deputy Director of the IGDC, explores the gendered dimensions of the chronic underfunding and devaluation of paid and unpaid care work in global economies in a report recently published for Education International, a global union federation of teachers’ trade unions. The … Continue reading Gender, education and a global view on the ‘crisis of care’

What’s wrong with water committees?

Written by Jon Ensor, Steven Johnson and Daniel Vorbach. “Rather than defining the particular characteristics of a decision making institution, perhaps the most important step towards sustainable water governance lies in supporting communities to work through alternative approaches.” A long-running interdisciplinary collaboration has seen two University of York staff working in the South Pacific island … Continue reading What’s wrong with water committees?

IGDC – UFBA Workshops: towards a decolonizing global development

In May and October 2023, the IGDC hosted two workshops in partnership with the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), at University of York. IGDC members from across the University of York and members from Insituto de Saude Colectiva (Institute for Collective Health- ISC), UFBA attended the workshop that focused on our shared interests in decolonizing … Continue reading IGDC – UFBA Workshops: towards a decolonizing global development