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Main CEDAR Research Interests

CEDAR staff members’ research falls broadly, but not exclusively, into the following areas:

Natural Resource Management

While the management of natural resources can explored from multiple facets, CEDAR members are particularly concerned with the relationships between natural resources and people. The interaction of people with natural resources occurs at global, national, regional, community and individual levels and varies with socio-cultural context.  CEDAR research presently engages with issues of good governance, social justice, sustainability and political ecology.  Resource foci include water and sanitation, climate, biodiversity, tourism, agriculture and food supply chains.

Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D)

Royal Holloway has one of the UK’s largest groups of researchers working on ICT4D and many of them are based in CEDAR. Research on the theme of ICT4D focuses on understanding how and why ICT can be used to improve the lives of marginal populations. There is a particular focus on the use of ICT in the fields of education (at all levels) and health, and as a tool to achieve rural development. Research considers the role of technologies such as the internet, computers, mobile phones, radio and television. Many members of CEDAR are also members of the ICT4D Collective and RHUL’s ICT4D Centre.

Gender

A number of CEDAR members look at development theory and practice in relation to gender in formal and informal spaces, such as domestic spaces, spaces of grassroots activism and workplaces. This research feeds into better understanding of issues related to empowerment, well-being, health and ageing. We also research on how current processes of economic, social and political transformation affect and are affected by identity formation, labour markets, privatisation, environmental governance and tourism.  Research also focuses on mobility at these times of transition, especially in relation to migration and transnationalism. Throughout our work, gender is considered in relation to other forms of social stratification, particularly age and socio-economic status.

Global Justice
Members of the group are committed to teaching and research that seeks to understand global injustice in its many forms whilst also working towards a more just world. Individual members work with a diverse range of groups to foster better understandings of ethical consumption, environmental justice, class, social inequality and the political economy of contemporary globalisation. Working in a range of locations around the world, members of the group seek to make connections between people and places through which a fairer globalisation (and another world) might be possible.

A ‘geographical perspective’

As geographers, CEDAR members approach key research questions from what might broadly be considered ‘a geographical perspective’. This includes:

• The importance of global connections: people and places in ‘Developing Areas’ are not separate from those elsewhere in the world; rather they are intertwined in flows and networks which often span the globe.

• A sensitivity to scale: human and environmental processes can be examined at a range of scales from the scale of the body to the global.

• Human – physical environment interactions: while those CEDAR members working on natural resource management engage directly with these issues, other CEDAR research recognises the role of the natural environment in understanding human geographical processes.

• The contested nature of ‘development’. While all CEDAR members conduct research in what is broadly identified as ‘Developing Areas’ or the ‘Global South’, ‘development’ both as a theoretical concept and a policy goal is not taken for granted. Some CEDAR members work directly on the histories and geographies of ‘development’.

CEDAR: Research Approaches and Methods

The multi- and interdisciplinary nature of CEDAR and its distinctive geographical approach to issues of development and environment is strengthened by the diverse range of methods applied in research and teaching. Recognised by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council as a centre for excellent research training, the qualitative and quantitative methods used by CEDAR staff give them a unique insight into the complex structures and processes in natural and social systems and the interactions between them.

Social science methods, including interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and participant observation, allow us to critically analyse the cultures, values and actions of societies. Participatory techniques, namely participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research (PAR), play a prominent role in the methods we employ, contributing to our commitment to making a difference to the people and environments where we work. Yet, unlike other PRA and PAR practitioners, CEDAR is an exemplary of the hybrid science approach, combining social, natural and technological methodologies. CEDAR staff are actively involved in the application of GIS and remote sensing, the assessment of ecosystem health through surveys of plant and animal biodiversity, soil quality, erosion and degradation, water quantity and quality, and the use of digital media such as audio, video and on-line resources.

Where do we work?

CEDAR members have wide experience in different developing regions and economies in transition, including Latin America (particularly Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru), the Caribbean (Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica), West Africa (particularly Ghana and Nigeria) East Africa (particularly Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania), North Africa (particularly Morocco), Southern Africa (particularly Namibia and South Africa), South Asia (especially India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia), East and South-East Asia (especially China, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam), the Middle East (particularly Jordan and Syria), and Antarctica and the Falklands/Malvinas.

Research funding

In recent years, CEDAR members have received research funding from a wide range of sources, including the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), The Leverhulme Trust, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Darwin Initiative, the Department for International Development (DFID), National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) and The British Academy.