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.

Liberating Development Inquiry: Freedom, Openness and Participation in Fieldwork

Liberating Development Inquiry: Freedom, Openness and Participation in Fieldwork

Robert ChambersNicholas Loubere

The text of the following conversation is based on an audiotaped interview held in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK, on 6 June 2014.

Biographical Note

Professor Robert Chambers has conducted fieldwork in different capacities and in different parts of the world. After graduating from university, he joined a scientific expedition to Gough Island in the South Atlantic. He was then a District Officer in Her Majesty’s Overseas Civil Service in Kenya during decolonisation. This expedition was followed by Ph.D. research on settlement schemes in Kenya. In 1969 he became an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, and conducted research in Kenya, Botswana, Sri Lanka ...

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