School of International Development
Encyclopedia
The School of International Development (formerly The School of Development Studies) is a department at the University of East Anglia
, Norwich
, England
. Situated within the Faculty of Social Sciences, the School of International Development (DEV, pronounced ‘devh’) has 250 undergraduates, 150 taught postgraduates, 80 PhD students, 13 associated researchers and 36 academic staff. DEV provides a research and teaching environment (encompassing social, political, natural and environmental sciences and economics) for its staff and students. DEV graduates have careers in academia, government, non-governmental organisations, research institutes, consultancies and private business. The school is ranked in the top three British ‘development studies’ departments.
DEV undertakes problem-centred research with involvement of end-users to facilitate change, which is guided by the framework of research areas and themes. DEV has a research reputation in the fields of political ecology, gender, agricultural/rural development and livelihoods, and emerging research profiles in health, HIV/AIDS, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance, and education and literacy.
DEV publications are located in leading journals, such as Journal of Development Studies, Science, World Development, Journal of South Asian Development, African Affairs, Journal of Human Development and Economic Journal, as well as in books, research reports and working papers. DEV policy impacts are found within key development institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department for International Development (DFID), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID, World Bank
, World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). DEV has a strong presence in national and international agendas through membership of ESRC panels, DFID committees and key UN policy forums; journal editorial positions, such as co-editor of Global Environment Change and book reviews editor of Journal of South Asian Development; high-level appointments, such as the former President of the Development Studies Association (DSA), Scientific Adviser on two major DEFRA projects on climate impacts and adaptation in China and India, and Vice-Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environment Facility; and by attending, presenting at and organising seminars, workshops and conferences. Many faculty are members of the DSA, as well as other professional bodies, such as the International Society for Agricultural Economics. In recent years, DEV has awarded honorary degrees to Bob Geldof
, Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, Sorious Samura
and Dr Naresh Saxena.
Theme 1: Gender and Development
Theme 2: Education and Literacy
Theme 3: Health Policy and Practice
Theme 1: Globalisation and Development
Theme 2: Conflict, Governance and Development
Theme 3: Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction
Theme 1: Understanding Environmental Change
Theme 2: Livelihoods
Theme 3: Environmental Governance and Management
Within DEV there are several cross-disciplinary research groups, which hold meetings, and organise seminars and conferences:
students from varied backgrounds, countries and disciplines working closely with academic staff on diverse issues covering social, political, natural and environmental sciences and economics. PhD students are funded from a range of sources: self-financing, research council awards, charitable/international scholarships and UEA/DEV scholarships. PhD students join one or more research groups and attend UEA and DEV trainings to ensure personal and professional development. They are encouraged to be professionally active within their field: attending and presenting at in-house seminars, national and international meetings and conferences; publishing working papers, books chapters and articles; teaching on undergraduate and taught masters courses; organising seminars, workshops and conferences; and undertaking consultancies. Support is provided by the Postgraduate Research Student (PGR) director, two academic supervisors, a pastoral supervisor, peer-organised informal workshops and a buddy system.
DEV masters courses are composed of core and optional modules, which include:
Students are taught by academic staff with experience of different countries and disciplines to ensure a variety of approaches and case studies, using lectures, seminars and videos. Students are funded from a range of sources: self-financing, research council awards, charitable/international scholarships and UEA/DEV scholarships. Course work assessment includes written assignments, such as essays, an examination and dissertation. Students are encouraged to pursue their professional and personal interests whilst at DEV, and to enjoy the experience of learning in a culturally diverse environment.
DEV also offers joint degrees with the School of Environmental Sciences (ENV) and the School of Linguistics, Language and Translation Studies (LLT), which include:
, e.g. visiting schools, giving talks, running workshops, and acting as a school ambassador.
; vulnerability and adaptation to natural hazards/disasters and climate change; and conservation, development and livelihoods, with an emphasis on Marine Protected Areas, small islands and climate change.
The ODG 2009 UK-based training courses include:
ODG also houses the UK Secretariat Office of the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) and the Social Action Research Centre (SARC). SAIN addresses the link between agriculture and climate change in a China-UK partnership on sustainable agriculture and fisheries. SARC is a research, training, consultancy, service and professional development agency. It runs the CBA/DFID Broadcast Media Scheme through a Programme Development Fund and a Travel Bursary Fund to improve and increase coverage of international development on UK mainstream TV.
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
, Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Situated within the Faculty of Social Sciences, the School of International Development (DEV, pronounced ‘devh’) has 250 undergraduates, 150 taught postgraduates, 80 PhD students, 13 associated researchers and 36 academic staff. DEV provides a research and teaching environment (encompassing social, political, natural and environmental sciences and economics) for its staff and students. DEV graduates have careers in academia, government, non-governmental organisations, research institutes, consultancies and private business. The school is ranked in the top three British ‘development studies’ departments.
Research centre of excellence
The School of International Development (DEV) was founded in 1973 and along with the Overseas Development Group (ODG) has built a reputation as a centre of excellence for research, teaching and consultancy in international development, within the UK. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), DEV was ranked in the top three British ‘development studies’ departments, which is a 5-star department using the old RAE 2001 grading method. At the time of the 2008 RAE, all 32 academic staff were included in the RAE, which means that the outcome applies to the whole department. More than 60 percent of research outputs were considered as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Within DEV, faculty members work as researchers, consultants and advisers on a wide range of development projects, and their experience feeds back into research and teaching.DEV undertakes problem-centred research with involvement of end-users to facilitate change, which is guided by the framework of research areas and themes. DEV has a research reputation in the fields of political ecology, gender, agricultural/rural development and livelihoods, and emerging research profiles in health, HIV/AIDS, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance, and education and literacy.
DEV publications are located in leading journals, such as Journal of Development Studies, Science, World Development, Journal of South Asian Development, African Affairs, Journal of Human Development and Economic Journal, as well as in books, research reports and working papers. DEV policy impacts are found within key development institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department for International Development (DFID), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). DEV has a strong presence in national and international agendas through membership of ESRC panels, DFID committees and key UN policy forums; journal editorial positions, such as co-editor of Global Environment Change and book reviews editor of Journal of South Asian Development; high-level appointments, such as the former President of the Development Studies Association (DSA), Scientific Adviser on two major DEFRA projects on climate impacts and adaptation in China and India, and Vice-Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environment Facility; and by attending, presenting at and organising seminars, workshops and conferences. Many faculty are members of the DSA, as well as other professional bodies, such as the International Society for Agricultural Economics. In recent years, DEV has awarded honorary degrees to Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
, Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, Sorious Samura
Sorious Samura
Sorious Samura is a Sierra Leonean journalist. He is best known for two CNN documentary films: Cry Freetown and Exodus from Africa . The self-funded Cry Freetown depicts the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone with RUF rebels capturing the capital city . The film won, among other...
and Dr Naresh Saxena.
Research areas and themes
Research in DEV addresses the current challenges of international development through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in the social, political, natural and environmental sciences and economics. Research is organised into three areas, which each comprise three research themes, with some overlapping topics:Area 1: Social and Human Development
This area looks at social and economic policies, poverty reduction and empowerment of vulnerable groups to improve people’s quality of life and to promote social change.Theme 1: Gender and Development
- Gender and developmentGender and DevelopmentThe Gender and Development approach is a way of determining how best to structure development projects and programs based on analysis of gender relationships...
epistemologies- Relational and subjective approaches to well-being
- Intra-household relations, inter-generational relationships and shifts in subjective notions of well-being
- Linkages between gendered social relations, reproductive rights and well-being
Theme 2: Education and Literacy
- Ethnographic insights on literacy as social practice, on thresholds and measurement
- Interdisciplinary understanding and theoretical innovation in poverty reduction and human development
Theme 3: Health Policy and Practice
- AIDS and development
- Risk, susceptibility and vulnerability
- The socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS
- Antiretroviral treatment
- Health service provision
- Age-related vulnerability
Area 2: The Political Economy of Development
This area looks at economic, legal and political processes and issues affecting developing countries, and responses to these by the state and civil society.Theme 1: Globalisation and Development
- Social justice and environmental sustainability
Theme 2: Conflict, Governance and Development
- Understandings of stress experienced in relation to governance
- Governance and aid conditionalities
Theme 3: Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction
- The importance of initial conditions in explaining growth and poverty reduction at the macro-level
- The role of health and labour for growth and poverty reduction
- Problems of money-metrics in the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty
Area 3: Livelihoods and Environmental Change
This area looks at the interface between science and society, particularly in relation to the environment, natural resources and livelihoods.Theme 1: Understanding Environmental Change
- Research on development and climate change
- Equity and development dimensions of climate changeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
mitigation in developing countries - Development priorities relating to vulnerability, resilience and risk reduction
- Linkages between poverty and vulnerability
- Equity and development dimensions of climate change
- Non-equilibrium environments and their management in Africa
- Land degradation
Theme 2: Livelihoods
- Micro livelihoods and poverty reduction
- Fishing livelihoods
- HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and livelihoods - Migrant livelihoods
- Livelihood impacts of local taxation
- Social protection
- Innovative experimental economic techniques for studying risk
- Urban livelihoods
Theme 3: Environmental Governance and Management
- Decentralised/democratised natural resource management
- Political ecologyEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
- Systems and theories of natural resource and agricultural management
Within DEV there are several cross-disciplinary research groups, which hold meetings, and organise seminars and conferences:
- Ageing and Development Research Group
- Climate Change and Development
- HIV and Development Group (HIV UEA)
- Latin American Research Group
- Literacy and Development Group (LDG)
- Natural Resources, Environment and Livelihoods Group (NRE)
- Political Ecology Reading Group
- Social and Human Development Research Group
- UEA Water Research Group
Academic staff
DEV has 36 lecturers, who are from a wide variety of countries, backgrounds and disciplines, and at different stages of their academic careers. Approximately 8-11 scientists comprise each of the three broad disciplines of social and political science; natural resources and environment; and economics to support multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and collaborative research.Associated researchers
DEV/ODG has 13 fellows and associates working on an extensive range of development projects. A British Academy postdoctoral fellow is undertaking a trajectory study examining the vulnerability of coffee growing migrants in Vietnam over a five year period. DEV also has 12 honorary appointments, including several retired faculty members with over 30 years of expertise in international development.PhD students
DEV has nearly 80 PhDPHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
students from varied backgrounds, countries and disciplines working closely with academic staff on diverse issues covering social, political, natural and environmental sciences and economics. PhD students are funded from a range of sources: self-financing, research council awards, charitable/international scholarships and UEA/DEV scholarships. PhD students join one or more research groups and attend UEA and DEV trainings to ensure personal and professional development. They are encouraged to be professionally active within their field: attending and presenting at in-house seminars, national and international meetings and conferences; publishing working papers, books chapters and articles; teaching on undergraduate and taught masters courses; organising seminars, workshops and conferences; and undertaking consultancies. Support is provided by the Postgraduate Research Student (PGR) director, two academic supervisors, a pastoral supervisor, peer-organised informal workshops and a buddy system.
Taught postgraduates
There are 150 taught postgraduates in DEV from a wide range of countries and backgrounds undertaking Graduate Diplomas and MA/MSc/MRes courses. Two taught Graduate Diploma courses are offered: Graduate Diploma in Development Studies (DIPDS) and the Graduate Diploma in Development Studies and English Language (DIPELDS). Seventeen taught masters courses are currently available:- MA in Conflict, Governance and International Development (MACGD)
- MA in Cultural Heritage and International Development (MACHD)
- MA in Development Economics (MADE)
- MA in Development Studies (MADS)
- MA in Education and Development (MAED)
- MA in Gender Analysis of International Development (MAGAID)
- MA in Globalisation and International Development (MAGID)
- MA in International Development and Business (MAIDB)
- MA in International Relations and Development Studies (MAIRDS)
- MA in International Social Development (MAISD)
- MA in Media and International Development (MAMID)
- MA in Rural Development (MARD)
- MA in Theatre and Development (MATD)
- MSc in Climate Change and International Development (MScCCID)
- MSc in Environmental and International Development (MScEID)
- MRes in Development Practice (MResDP)
- MRes in International Development (MRes)
DEV masters courses are composed of core and optional modules, which include:
- Climate Change Policy for Development (CCPD)
- Conflict, Peace and Security (CPS)
- Contemporary World Development (CWD)
- Contemporary World Theatre (CWT)
- Development Perspectives (DP)
- Development Studies Epistemologies (DSE) – MRes students only
- Dissertation (DIS)
- Economic Methods for Development (EMD)
- Educational Policy and Practice in Development (EPPD)
- Environmental Economics for Development (EED)
- Food Systems and Rural Development (FSRD)
- Gender and Rural Livelihoods (GRL)
- Gender Concepts for Development (GCD)
- Gender, Difference and Social Policy (GDSP)
- Globalisation, Industrialisation and Development (GID)
- Governance, Democracy and Development (GDD)
- Health and Development (HD)
- International Economic Policy (IEP)
- Introduction to Education and Development (IED)
- Introduction to Social Development (ISD)
- Macroeconomics of Development (MACROD)
- Media and International Development (MID)
- Media and Society (MIS)
- Methodologies for Education Research and Evaluation (MERE) – MADE students only
- Microeconomics of Development (MICROD)
- Perspectives on Globalisation (PG)
- Political Ecology of Environment and Development (PEED)
- Research Skills for Social Analysis (RSSA)
- Research Skills Workshop: Design and Writing (RSW:DW) – MRes students only
- Research Skills Workshop: Presentation and Field Works Skills (RSW:PFW) – MRes students only
- Research Techniques and Analysis (RTA)
- Rural Policies (RP)
- Tools and Skills in Environment and Development (TSED)
- Understanding Global Environmental Change (UEC)
Students are taught by academic staff with experience of different countries and disciplines to ensure a variety of approaches and case studies, using lectures, seminars and videos. Students are funded from a range of sources: self-financing, research council awards, charitable/international scholarships and UEA/DEV scholarships. Course work assessment includes written assignments, such as essays, an examination and dissertation. Students are encouraged to pursue their professional and personal interests whilst at DEV, and to enjoy the experience of learning in a culturally diverse environment.
Undergraduates
DEV has 250 undergraduates from a variety of countries and disciplinary backgrounds studying five BA/BSc degree courses, which include:- BA Hons International Development
- BA Hons International Development with Overseas Experience
- BSc Hons International Development
- BSc Hons International Development with Overseas Experience
- BA/BSc Hons (deferred choice) International Development
DEV also offers joint degrees with the School of Environmental Sciences (ENV) and the School of Linguistics, Language and Translation Studies (LLT), which include:
- BA Hons French with International Development
- BA Hons Spanish with International Development
- BSc Hons Environmental Geography with International Development
Skills training
DEV also offers a variety of courses and training seminars to strengthen employability/key skills for all students. At present DEV covers: research skills; study skills; IT skills; employability skills; development practice; and skills innovation.Outreach
Outreach is designed to increase awareness of opportunities at UEA for school pupils in the region. DEV provides opportunities for undergraduate, taught postgraduate and research students to become involved with school outreach activities in East AngliaEast Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, e.g. visiting schools, giving talks, running workshops, and acting as a school ambassador.
Overseas Development Group
ODG was founded in 1967 and it has made a significant contribution to international development though consultancy activities and training programmes within and outside the UK. ODG is the institutional mechanism for producing funded research and for policy engagement. All members of DEV faculty belong to ODG and they can generate research and applied work, which is sectoral, cross-themed or through partnerships with other organisations. ODG has 8 research staff working on a variety of projects, including adaptation to climate change in transboundary river basins in AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
; vulnerability and adaptation to natural hazards/disasters and climate change; and conservation, development and livelihoods, with an emphasis on Marine Protected Areas, small islands and climate change.
The ODG 2009 UK-based training courses include:
- Climate Change and Development
- Gender and Development (Gender and Organisational Change)
- Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Activities
- Professional Development Programmes
ODG also houses the UK Secretariat Office of the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) and the Social Action Research Centre (SARC). SAIN addresses the link between agriculture and climate change in a China-UK partnership on sustainable agriculture and fisheries. SARC is a research, training, consultancy, service and professional development agency. It runs the CBA/DFID Broadcast Media Scheme through a Programme Development Fund and a Travel Bursary Fund to improve and increase coverage of international development on UK mainstream TV.