Our research in this area is critical of top-down Development initiatives that reproduce rather than challenge global hierarchies of knowledge production. Instead, we use postcolonial and post-development frameworks to explore the merits and limitations of diverse development processes in different regions of the world. Using a range of in-depth qualitative methods, we aim to produce critical and transformative research on development within and between geographic spaces. We do so by studying relations that span the global north and south, working closely with scholars and activists across Latin America, South Asia, and East and West Africa.
Interests include research on the financial practices of migrants in the UK (Kavita Datta) in/formal work in Africa and the UK (William Monteith), illicit labour and the geographies of global production (Carlo Inverardi-Ferri), the geopolitics of WhatsApp and its relationship to questions of digital privacy and democracy in India (Philippa Williams), geographies of making, contesting and living infrastructures in India and the UK (Niranjana).
Research is also animated by interest into the politics of health in African borderlands, care among African diaspora groups in the UK, the effects of pandemic governance in Europe (Elizabeth Storer), and transport and ageing in Africa (James Esson).
We also have a longstanding interest in migration and development, including work on the post-COVID-19 scenario (Kavita Datta) and irregular migration and the politics of mobility (James Esson). There is strong interest in Latin American urban development through focus on grassroots initiatives and policies, such as slum-upgrading (Sam Halvorsen), as well as the global political economy of reproductive rights (Sydney Calkin).