TY  - CHAP
AB  - This chapter explores what counts as research on development and argues for a challenge to conceptions which continue to define it geographically rather than systemically. It is argued that, despite an apparent openness and fluidity, qualitative research on development tends to be understood as referring to ‘field research’ in the South.1This can constrain the boundaries of development research, what is understood to be development and also the critical capacity of qualitative approaches to development. Challenging the traditional definitions and boundaries of development research will open spaces for critical analysis and research, which can reshape development theory. It also allows for engagement with the widening set of practices, policies and social relations which have a bearing on development, but which have so far been largely excluded from qualitative research on development. However, for qualitative research to play a critical role in challenging these boundaries, we need to acknowledge the roles qualitative research on development already plays and has played, and the ways this is shaped by the contemporary and historical contexts, traditions and preoccupations of development research.
VL  - 8
SN  - 978-0-7623-1283-2, 978-1-84950-395-2/1042-3192
DO  - 10.1016/S1042-3192(06)08002-5
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1042-3192(06)08002-5
AU  - Humble Darryl
AU  - Smith Matt
ED  - Matt Smith
PY  - 2007
Y1  - 2007/01/01
TI  - What Counts as Development Research?
T2  - Negotiating Boundaries and Borders
T3  - Studies in Qualitative Methodology
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 13
EP  - 34
Y2  - 2024/05/09
ER  -