Research of the Sociology of Development and Change Group
International development is in an important but difficult moment. On one hand, there is much critique of development aid and institutions, while ‘sustainable development’ has not worked out the way it was envisioned. On the other hand, more people than ever seek means to escape poverty and aspire a good life in a green, healthy and safe environment. Studying development processes and finding new ways to critically assess what does not work, while promoting just, convivial, and sustainable ways forward, is therefore more important than ever.
The research of the Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) group sits at the heart of these important dynamics. We investigate international development practices, why and how these change over time, and how these relate to natural and human-made crises, conflicts and disasters. Many of us connect development to environmental issues around biodiversity conservation, climate change and the urgent need for an energy transition. Our ‘academic homes’ are in the fields of development studies, political ecology, and crisis and disaster studies, but we link these to other cutting-edge discussions in geography, anthropology, politics, sociology and beyond.
Our research: improving the quality of life
Our research takes a critical-constructive approach. This means that we actively collaborate with our networks to contribute to finding equitable, sustainable and peaceful solutions to urgent problems while not shying away from speaking truth to power. Special attention in our research goes to why our world has become so extremely unequal, and how this impacts the lived realities of people around the world.
At SDC we consider that improvement in the quality of life — following WUR’s mission — can be realised only if development contributes to overcoming global inequalities and the process of marginalisation they entail. In our research, teaching and engagement with the broader public, we therefore unpack and study the structures and practices of how inequalities are (re)produced in different institutions, policies and dynamics. We look at the ways in which they develop and transform over time or in periods of crisis; and what pathways, politics, and strategies people – across gender, race, class, age and other differences – and social groups develop to resist and respond.
Research themes & projects
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The politics of nature
Critical in development is how people relate to the rest of nature. Development processes have drastically changed ecosystems, biodiversity, waterways and landscapes around the world, but natural environments also shape how we practice and think about development. This also means that nature is always political: how we understand nature, use or conserve it, depends on power relations that are connected to knowledge, information and heritage.
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Disaster and conflict in times of crisis
Disasters, conflicts and other crises represent major challenges to peoples’ lives and livelihoods. While their ‘shock value’ routinely occupies news headlines, their embeddedness in longstanding patterns of social change, marginalisation, and reorganisation, requires much deeper analysis and context which we are committed to contribute to.
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Inequality and social-environmental justice
Our world is extremely unequal, more so than it has ever been before. Many privileged people see the world as a place of unlimited connection and possibility, making use of myriad national and international opportunities for work, leisure, and (tourist and other) interactions with nature and other people. The majority of the world’s population, however, lives in a world of strict borders, boundaries and a deep lack of possibilities.