Fuzzy Borders and Comfort Zones

1
Fuzzy Borders and Comfort Zones

• Geof Wood
• Professor of International Development
• University Research Adviser
• February 2009
• University of Bath

2
Some Experience

• Development Anthropologist
• Agronomy and the Green Revolution
• Irrigation Management
• Rural Technologies
• The Water-Sellers
• Aquaculture
• Rural Works and Infrastructure

3
Disciplines and Praxis

• Working with NGOs
• Advising governments and donors
• Projects and teams
• Team leadership and diplomacy
• Contesting evidence and perspectives
• Learning from others
• Outside the comfort zones

4
Between the Sciences Some Examples

• Plunder without Danger
• Off the Page and into the Pond
• Contesting Water
• Appraising Multi-functional NGOs
• Urban Livelihoods
• Mountain development

5
Academic Social Science Teams

• Poverty-SCOPE/SDMIS
• Comparative Welfare Regimes
• Valleys in Transition
• Wellbeing in Developing Countries
• Security and Liberty
• Global Uncertainties

6
Issues

• Epistemologies
• Methodologies
• Data clashes
• Integration sequencing and triangulation
• Correlation, causation and explanation
• Trade-offs between inclusion and selectivity
• Desperately needing diplomacy