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

Human dimensions of environmental change

Political ecology

Environmental history

Food & Health

Major guiding research question: how we as humans relate to the non-human world, and how does that world influence us?

Common threads are water, natural resources and wetlands

Locations for field-based research, 1984-present

Field-based research focuses on eastern Africa, Europe and southeast/east Asia

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

Singapore Kenya

Indonesia

Accommodation: Bwindi Forest, Uganda-DR Congo border

Uganda

Rwanda

Mexico

Yangtze Delta, China

Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service

& therefore my serendipitous involvement in development discourse

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

Virunga volcanoes, Albertine Rift, central Africa

Thank you!