Understanding Global Development Research

Fieldwork Issues, Experiences and Reflections
First Edition
Gordon Crawford - Coventry University, UK
Lena J. Jaspersen - University of Leeds, UK
Nicholas Loubere - Lund University, Sweden
Rosemary morgan - Johns Hopkins University, USA
Understanding Global Development Research
January 2017 | 288 pages | Sage UK
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ISBN: 9781473906662
Available from January 0001

Description

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

Following an interdisciplinary and intergenerational 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 marginalized people
  • Fieldwork in development practice
The experience-led discussion of each of the topics conveys a sense of what it truly 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. 

Contents

Chapter 1: Global Development Fieldwork: A Relational Perspective

Chapter 1: Global Development Fieldwork: A Relational Perspective

Section I: Encountering the Field

  • Chapter 2: Liberating Development Inquiry: Freedom, Openness and Participation in Fieldwork
  • Chapter 3: Democracy of the Ground? Encountering Elite Domination During Fieldwork
  • Chapter 4: Combining Participatory Tools with Ethnography in Rural Cambodia

Section II: Gender and Fieldwork

  • Chapter 5: Gender is not a Noun, It’s an Adjective: Using Gender as a Lens within Development Research
  • Chapter 6: Encounters with Diversity: Reflecting on Different Perceptions of Gender in the Field
  • Chapter 7: Gendered Agency in Constrained Circumstances: Researching Women Selling Sex in Kenya

Section III: Fieldwork at the Margins

  • Chapter 8: On the Margins of World Society: Working with Impoverished, Excluded and Marginalised People
  • Chapter 9: Encounters at the Margins: Situating the Researcher Under Conditions of Aid
  • Chapter 10: Marginalisation(s) at the Margins: Studying Identity, Ethnicity and Conflict in Rural Bolivia

Section IV: Engaging with ‘Elite’ Actors

  • Chapter 11: Encounters with the Powerful: Researching Elites
  • Chapter 12: The Ups and Downs of ‘Studying Up’: Researching Elites in China
  • Chapter 13: The Nature of Power in Elite Interviews: Researching Environmental Politics in the Southern Cone of South America

Section V: Danger in the Field

  • Chapter 14: Under Threat: Working in Dangerous Environments
  • Chapter 15: Perceiving Threats to Health in the Field: Researching Zoonotic Diseases at the Human-Animal Interface
  • Chapter 16: Children in the Streets: Activism and Representation in Dangerous Fields

Section VI: Development in Theory and Practice

  • Chapter 17: Beyond the Ivory Tower: Researching Development Practice
  • Chapter 18: Multipositionality in the ‘Field’
  • Chapter 19: Irrelevance Dressed as Success?: Dis-spirited Reflections on Knowledge-based Development
  • Chapter 20: Towards a Relational Understanding of Development Research

Description

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

Following an interdisciplinary and intergenerational 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 marginalized people
  • Fieldwork in development practice
The experience-led discussion of each of the topics conveys a sense of what it truly 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. 

Contents

Chapter 1: Global Development Fieldwork: A Relational Perspective

Chapter 1: Global Development Fieldwork: A Relational Perspective

Section I: Encountering the Field

  • Chapter 2: Liberating Development Inquiry: Freedom, Openness and Participation in Fieldwork
  • Chapter 3: Democracy of the Ground? Encountering Elite Domination During Fieldwork
  • Chapter 4: Combining Participatory Tools with Ethnography in Rural Cambodia

Section II: Gender and Fieldwork

  • Chapter 5: Gender is not a Noun, It’s an Adjective: Using Gender as a Lens within Development Research
  • Chapter 6: Encounters with Diversity: Reflecting on Different Perceptions of Gender in the Field
  • Chapter 7: Gendered Agency in Constrained Circumstances: Researching Women Selling Sex in Kenya

Section III: Fieldwork at the Margins

  • Chapter 8: On the Margins of World Society: Working with Impoverished, Excluded and Marginalised People
  • Chapter 9: Encounters at the Margins: Situating the Researcher Under Conditions of Aid
  • Chapter 10: Marginalisation(s) at the Margins: Studying Identity, Ethnicity and Conflict in Rural Bolivia

Section IV: Engaging with ‘Elite’ Actors

  • Chapter 11: Encounters with the Powerful: Researching Elites
  • Chapter 12: The Ups and Downs of ‘Studying Up’: Researching Elites in China
  • Chapter 13: The Nature of Power in Elite Interviews: Researching Environmental Politics in the Southern Cone of South America

Section V: Danger in the Field

  • Chapter 14: Under Threat: Working in Dangerous Environments
  • Chapter 15: Perceiving Threats to Health in the Field: Researching Zoonotic Diseases at the Human-Animal Interface
  • Chapter 16: Children in the Streets: Activism and Representation in Dangerous Fields

Section VI: Development in Theory and Practice

  • Chapter 17: Beyond the Ivory Tower: Researching Development Practice
  • Chapter 18: Multipositionality in the ‘Field’
  • Chapter 19: Irrelevance Dressed as Success?: Dis-spirited Reflections on Knowledge-based Development
  • Chapter 20: Towards a Relational Understanding of Development Research
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Understanding Global Development Research

Fieldwork Issues, Experiences and Reflections

Gordon Crawford , Lena J. Jaspersen , Nicholas Loubere , Rosemary morgan
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January 2017 | 288 pages | Sage UK

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Hardcover 31/03/2026 9781473906662 $195.00
Paperback 31/03/2026 9781473906679 $106.00

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

Following an interdisciplinary and intergenerational 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 marginalized people
  • Fieldwork in development practice
The experience-led discussion of each of the topics conveys a sense of what it truly 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. 

Table Of Contents:

  • Chapter 1: Global Development Fieldwork: A Relational Perspective
  • Section I: Encountering the Field
  • Chapter 2: Liberating Development Inquiry: Freedom, Openness and Participation in Fieldwork
  • Chapter 3: Democracy of the Ground? Encountering Elite Domination During Fieldwork
  • Chapter 4: Combining Participatory Tools with Ethnography in Rural Cambodia
  • Section II: Gender and Fieldwork
  • Chapter 5: Gender is not a Noun, It’s an Adjective: Using Gender as a Lens within Development Research
  • Chapter 6: Encounters with Diversity: Reflecting on Different Perceptions of Gender in the Field
  • Chapter 7: Gendered Agency in Constrained Circumstances: Researching Women Selling Sex in Kenya
  • Section III: Fieldwork at the Margins
  • Chapter 8: On the Margins of World Society: Working with Impoverished, Excluded and Marginalised People
  • Chapter 9: Encounters at the Margins: Situating the Researcher Under Conditions of Aid
  • Chapter 10: Marginalisation(s) at the Margins: Studying Identity, Ethnicity and Conflict in Rural Bolivia
  • Section IV: Engaging with ‘Elite’ Actors
  • Chapter 11: Encounters with the Powerful: Researching Elites
  • Chapter 12: The Ups and Downs of ‘Studying Up’: Researching Elites in China
  • Chapter 13: The Nature of Power in Elite Interviews: Researching Environmental Politics in the Southern Cone of South America
  • Section V: Danger in the Field
  • Chapter 14: Under Threat: Working in Dangerous Environments
  • Chapter 15: Perceiving Threats to Health in the Field: Researching Zoonotic Diseases at the Human-Animal Interface
  • Chapter 16: Children in the Streets: Activism and Representation in Dangerous Fields
  • Section VI: Development in Theory and Practice
  • Chapter 17: Beyond the Ivory Tower: Researching Development Practice
  • Chapter 18: Multipositionality in the ‘Field’
  • Chapter 19: Irrelevance Dressed as Success?: Dis-spirited Reflections on Knowledge-based Development
  • Chapter 20: Towards a Relational Understanding of Development Research

Recent Product Reviews:

This is an up-to-date, thought-provoking and well-balanced publication that brings together the best insights of leading and young scholars at the nexus of development and participatory field research. Its relational, ethics- and power-sensitive perspective makes this book special.
Michael Schönhuth, Chair of Anthropology, University of Trier
A must read for all students, researchers and aid workers contemplating field work in emerging economies.
Admos Chimhowu, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester

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