Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World: Canada and Research Development

by Harpelle, Ronald N.

• ISBN13: 9781554582235
• ISBN10: 1554582237
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-15
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr

Summary

This book demonstrates the complexity of the challenges that poor countries face and introduces the readers to the concept and impact of participatory research for development. Participatory research requires researchers to work with communities, governments, and other relevant actors to deal with common problems. Finding solutions requires participants to reflect critically on the cultural, economic, historical, political, and social contexts within which the issue under investigation exists. The book contains a collection of essays from development researchers and professionals, each of whom is an activist who has made significant contributions to the struggles of the poor in their own societies. Essays are presented as case studies and, in each, the contributor explains the specific development problem, the paths followed to solve the problem, lessons learned as a result of the research, and the development challenges on the horizon in his field of research. Together, these essays present a fascinating picture of how some of today's most pressing development issues are being dealt with through research, demonstrating how interdisciplinary and alternative approaches can be implemented in new and innovative ways.

Author Biography

Ronald N. Harpelle is a historian and filmmaker. He is the co-author, with Bruce Muirhead, of IDRC: 40 Years of Ideas, Innovation, and Impact (WLU Press, 2010). Harpelle and Muirhead's research on IDRC appears in Citoyens du Monde/Citizens of the World, a six-part educational documentary series on Canada's role in international development. Bruce Muirhead is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo and the associate dean, Graduate Studies and Research. He is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He has Written extensively on post-Second World War Canadian commercial, economic, and political history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction: The International Development Research Centre and Research for Development	p. ix
The Underpinnings of Canadian Development Assistance	p. 1
IDRC: Forty Years of Research for Development	p. 27
Development Dharma and International Co-operation in a Changing World	p. 49
The Rebirth of the Argan Tree, or How to Stop the Desert While Giving a Future to Amazigh Women in Morocco	p. 71
Under Fire: Doing Research in Warlike Conditions	p. 87
Informal Waste Recycling and the Landfill in Dakar	p. 109
Digital Technologies and Learning: Their Role in Enhancing Social and Economic Development	p. 127
Past, Present, and Future of Biological Control of Malaria with Community Participation in Peru	p. 153
Participatory Research on Information and Communication Technologies for Development and the Logic of the Network Approach	p. 167
The Role of Private Academic Centres and Foreign Aid in Developing Social Sciences during Military Dictatorship	p. 187
Conclusion Long-Term Solutions	p. 195
General Bibliography	p. 201
Contributors	p. 211
Index	p. 217
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