Understanding Global Development Research: Fieldwork Issues, Experiences and Reflections

For experienced and inexperienced researchers and practitioners alike, this engaging book opens up new perspectives on conducting fieldwork in the Global South. 

Following an inter-disciplinary and inter-generational approach, Understanding Global Development brings into dialogue reflections on fieldwork experiences by leading scholars along with accounts from early career researchers. Contributions are organised around six key issues: 

• Meaningful participation in fieldwork
• Working in dangerous environments
• Gendered experiences of fieldwork
• Researching elites
• Conducting fieldwork with marginalised people
• Fieldwork in development practice. 

The experience-led discussion of each of the topics conveys a sense of what it actually feels like to be out in the field and provides readers with useful insights and practical advice. A relational framework highlights issues relating to power, identity and ethics in development fieldwork, and encourages reflection on how researcher engagement with the field shapes our understanding of global development. 

Gordon Crawford is a Research Professor in Global Development at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, United Kingdom. He has a B.A. in Sociology, an M.A. in Development Studies and a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Leeds. He joined Coventry University in October 2015 after teaching and researching at the University of Leeds from 1993, where he was Professor of Development Politics. He was previously Director of the Centre for Global Development (CGD) at Leeds. His research examines issues of human rights, democracy and development, especially in countries of the Global South, and he has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Ghana. His current research includes work on natural resource politics and on social movement struggles for right-based development. Recent publications include Human Rights, Power and Civic Action (co-edited with Bård A. Andreassen) (2013). He is an Editorial Group member of the journal Africa Spectrum.

Lena J. Jaspersen is a University Academic Fellow in Innovation Management at the University of Leeds, where she co-developed and teaches the flagship interdisciplinary Innovation Thinking and Practice module with Tony Morgan and teaches qualitative research methods at the PhD level. Her main research interests include collaborative research and innovation, and the role of partnerships in addressing global development challenges.

Lena’s background brings an international and interdisciplinary dimension to her writing, teaching and research. She holds Masters’ degrees in Sociology and International Relations and was awarded a PhD with Recommendation of Research Excellence from the University of Leeds. Lena is also currently part of the team at the Leeds Institute of Teaching Excellence carrying out pedagogical research into interdisciplinary team-based teaching and learning with a focus on digital and employability skills.

Lena has a strong interest in innovation and research methods. She’s a co-author of the 7th edition of the bestselling Management and Business Research (Sage, 2021), which provides readers with a clear and comprehensive overview of methods for conducting management and business research. Lena’s other publications include a recent article in the British Journal of Management, containing a systematic overview of methods for qualitative network research, Understanding Global Development Research (Sage, 2017) and the UN-real World of Human Rights (Nomos, 2012).

Nicholas Loubere is a contemporary Sinologist and a Development Studies scholar whose research focuses on patterns and processes of local socioeconomic development in China. Currently, he is involved in projects examining the implementation and outcomes of microcredit programmes in rural China; the organisation and management of Chinese cooperatives; the provision and utilisation of internet finance in China; and Chinese migration to Africa. He is also the co-chief editor of www.chinoiresie.info. Before joining the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University, Nicholas was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University. Nicholas completed a Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds, an M.A. in International Relations at Xiamen University and a B.A. in English Literature at Northern Illinois University.

Rosemary Morgan is an Assistant Scientist at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health on the project ‘Research in Gender and Ethics (RinGs): Building Stronger Health Systems’. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Rosemary was a Lecturer in Global Health Policy for the Global Public Health Unit at the University of Edinburgh, and a Research and Teaching Fellow at the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development at the University of Leeds, where she worked on two international health projects: ‘Health System Stewardship and Regulation in Vietnam, India and China’ (HESVIC); and the ‘Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa’ (CHEPSAA). She holds a Ph.D. in International Health and Development from the University of Leeds, an M.Sc. in Policy Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia.