Research Methods Summer School 2019
From ameliorative change to transformation: methodologies for 'doing participation' in development and humanitarian contexts.
The annual DSAI Research Methods Summer School took place in University College Cork on 5th-6th June 2019.
Summary:
The third DSAI Summer School was hosted by the UCC Centre for Global Development and focuses on innovative ways of doing development research which places participation and "citizen-driven" research at the centre of its practice. It explored the relationship between research and action, and the role of researcher activist. This summer school examined methodologies of citizen empowerment and ‘doing participation’ in the context of urban and rural poverty, displacement, and globalisation. It problematized the ‘expert stance’ and asked how the activist practitioner researcher can promote both equity and efficiency in development and humanitarian contexts through lay methodologies. It asked how we can scale this learning beyond micro settings to being embedded within the global development and humanitarian community.
Programme Contributors:
Dr. Patta Scott-Villiers, Institute of Development Studies
Dr. Patta Scott-Villers is a Senior Research Fellow, who convenes the Power and Popular Politics Cluster at theInstitute of Development Studies. She is a political sociologist whose research focuses on the political struggles of people on the margins of political and economic power, specifically in relation to food, land, work and other essentials of life. She works with action research and also undertakes larger scale qualitative participatory studies that link the local and the global. She co-convenes the action research methods and unruly politics courses for the Masters in Power, Participation and Social Change at IDS. Recent publications include Food Riots, Food Rights and the Politics of Provisions, published by Routledge.
Dr. Nita Mishra, Dublin City University/University College Cork.
Dr Nita Mishra is a part time lecturer with expertise on rights-based approaches to development, gender, role of non-government organisations, right to food, and international development. She has worked as a researcher and development practitioner with NGOs, funding organisations, and research organisations in India. In Ireland, Dr Mishra is the Convener of Academics Stand Against Poverty, a member of the Steering Committee of DSAI and the coordinator of the Civil Society Study Group, and is a member of many working group committees of community-based organisations. She has published research papers and field-study reports in peer-reviewed journals. Dr Mishra’s poetry reflects the lives of women she has met, and has been described as the future of Irish feminism.
Stephen Cassidy, PLAN International Ireland
Stephen Cassidy is the Development Education Officer at Plan International Ireland, where he delivers training and resources on global issues to Primary and Post-Primary school teachers, and works with the Plan Ireland Youth Advisory Panel. Prior to that, he was Head of Suas International, where he managed education programmes in India, Kenya and Zambia along with international youth volunteers. He is an experienced trainer, coach and facilitator and holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights.
Connell Foley, Concern Worldwide
Connell Foley is currently Director of Strategy, Advocacy and Learning at Concern Worldwide, an international NGO focused on eliminating extreme poverty and responding to humanitarian crises and known for its work in food and nutrition security, resilience building, health and education in fragile and conflict affected contexts.
Nimesh Dhunghana, London School of Economics and Political Science
Nimesh Dhungana is a Post-doctoral Fellow based at the Departments of Methodology and International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He recently completed his PhD in Social Research Methods from the Department of Methodology at LSE. His PhD research examines the politics of governance, and more specifically citizen-based participatory and accountability activism in the wake of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. His research interests lie at the intersection of international development, humanitarianism, and governance. Nimesh is originally from Nepal, where for many years he worked as both as a development practitioner and activist.