Researching with impact in the Global South? Impact-evaluation practices and the reproduction of 'development knowledge'

Glyn Williams

Contemporary Social Science, 2013, vol. 8, issue 3, 223-236

Abstract: Long-standing questions about the production and control of knowledge about 'the developing world' have been given new urgency through the deployment of impact-evaluation practices within UK universities, highlighting the need for careful ethical reflection on the role of Northern researchers in both academia and practice. In this context, this article takes up the three underlying themes of this special issue - the conceptualisation, evaluation and methods of knowledge mobilisation - to ask what 'researching with impact' might mean for academics whose work focuses on the Global South. With regard to the conceptualisation of knowledge, it argues that the Research Councils UK's definition of 'high impact' research sits uncomfortably with both critical scholarship on the power of 'development knowledge' and with 'alternative development' practices that call for knowledge co-production. With regard to the evaluation of knowledge mobilisation, it uses Northern researchers' reflections on their practice to argue that impact-evaluation practices are 'nudging' academia in directions that require our attention. Finally, with regard to methods of knowledge mobilisation, it investigates what an ethically engaged response to these pressures might look like, arguing for scholars working on the Global South to defend the production of 'development knowledge' that is both practically engaged and critically distant from policy-makers.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/21582041.2012.751495

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