Author(s): Vandana Desai (Editor), Robert B. Potter
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Publication Date: 18 Mar. 2006
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Print length: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1412902851
ISBN-13: 9781412902854
Book Description
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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The collection is a tight volume containing the diverse insight of the many years of collective experience of a range of academics." -- Lauren Siegman and Jessica Dart Published On: 2008-09-19
The book, especially the parts that deals with practical preparation for and realisation of fieldwork and qualitative methods, will be very useful to our students. We present our students with a resource list rather than mandatory readings for the method course, and the book will be on the resource list from next course onwards. -- Dr Marit Tjomsland ―
drupal Published On: 2010-09-24
This book is an excellent resource for students thinking of undertaking research in developing countries at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. -- Dr Sarah Jewitt ―
drupal Published On: 2012-11-08
This very helpful book is packed with practical advice about the opportunities and dangers of undertaking research in a different cultural context. -- Jamie Harding ―
drupal Published On: 2013-08-22
This is a very comprehensive and useful book for anyone wanting to conduct research on development issues. -- Miss Hayley Wright ―
drupal Published On: 2010-05-04
This is an excellent book - find it valuable and have incorporated it into tow postgraduate research modules -- Ms Bernadette Snow ―
drupal Published On: 2013-11-20
From the Back Cover
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.
About the Author
My research involves an integrated strategy of cross disciplinary research collaboration combining my own background in development with the work of academics from geography, sociology, social policy, gerontology and international NGOs such as Practical Action and WaterAid in seeking to influence international policy making – focussing on theoretical and implementation issues in development policy, urban governance, and North-South donor relations in areas of low-income housing and infrastructural development (water and sanitation), ageing and gender issues. My work is organised in four particular themes. First, improved infrastructure and services and the threat that it creates for security of tenure for slum dwellers in Ghana and Bangladesh with Dr. Alex Loftus (Geography, Royal Holloway), Dr. Mansoor Ali (Practical Action) and Mr. Nick Bundle (WaterAid UK). Secondly, on ageing strategies among the urban poor in Mumbai. Thirdly, on ageing strategies, transnationalism and global health care with Dr. Deborah Price (Institute of Gerontology, Kings College). Fourthly, on cultural transformation and gender issues in India and Indonesia, in collaboration with the Dr. Shruti Tambe, University of Pune (India), and Dr. Harriot Beazley in Queensland University, Australia. Funded by DFID (UK) and a grant from the British Academy, I have carried out research on NGOs and development. The research was the first of its kind in focusing on a sample of 67 urban NGOs in one city i.e. Mumbai. This research led theoretical debates on how NGOs are increasingly called upon to fill the gap between the needs of vulnerable urban groups and the partial service delivery of the public sector. I have been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Progress in Development Studies for the last eleven years. I was appointed a member of the editorial board “The Urban World” a quarterly journal of the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES), All India Institute of Local Self Government, Mumbai in May 2009. I also hold external positions of responsibilities such as gender adviser to the Diversity Unit of the British Council, elected member of the advisory council of Global Think (Development Education Association - DEA) and research associate with Equality Research and Consulting Ltd I have co-edited two of the leading development text books. I teach on the undergraduate and Master’s programme and supervise PhD postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers. I did my Masters at Liverpool University and achieved a Wingate scholarship at Oxford University to do my DPhil supervised by Prof. Ceri Peach (Geography) and Prof. Marcus Banks (Social Anthropology). My thesis on Community participation and slum housing (Sage Publications, 1995) was awarded the Eileen Younghusband Memorial Award from the London School of Economics and Political Science. On completion in 1992, I was appointed as a Research Fellow for three years at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and in 1996 moved to a Lectureship to the Geography Department at Royal Holloway.
ProfessorRob Potter is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Reading. His research and teaching interests span development geography and development studies; urban geography; return migration; transnationality and issues of identity. He is author of the texts Key Concepts in Development Geography (Sage, 2012), Geographies of Development (Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2008), The Companion to Development Studies (Hodder, 2008), Doing Development Research (Sage, 2006) and The Contemporary Caribbean, Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary journal Progress in Development Studies and is currently a member of the International Editorial Boards of the journals Third World Quarterly, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, and Blackwell Geography Compass. Rob Potter was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences in 2006 and in 2007 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) by the University of Reading, in recognition of his contributions to the fields of Geographies of Development and Urban Geography.
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