140200 AG Engaging development research into action: challenges and considerations (2009S)

There is a long standing debate within development studies on the level of engagement with development policy and action: whether to maintain its critical, self-reflexive position or to orient its program towards more practical concerns. From a latter position, the course encourages the students to critically look at the various ways in which scientific knowledge has been put to practical use - applied, transdisciplinary, participatory action research and engaged research. The course will introduce the students to these various forms of engagement, enriched by examples and case studies to illustrate a strong interplay between ethical responsibility, scientific objectivity and the power of development, setting the stage for a critical discourse on the role and limits of positivistic science. The course will also demonstrate (via group exercises) the effective use of opportunities and constraints in existing framework conditions with respect to individual and institutional action in the context of development.