Part II: How
DEP students select research topics for their MA DEP dissertations.
Centre for
Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) has
made available online all MA Development and Emergency Practice (MA DEP) dissertations
since 2012-13 that have successfully been awarded a Distinction or Merit.[1]
CENDEP’s strong background in particular research themes has been influential
in developing a strong resonance with students in determining their choice of dissertation
topic, though students are always encouraged to consider all possible areas and
themes for research. The theory of how a research topic is selected appears to
be true of themes researched at CENDEP and this influence is visible in dissertations
undertaken by MA DEP students.
Key
Geographical Research Areas
Reviewing a list of available dissertations, it is interesting to
note that the most researched geographical areas at CENDEP post 2012-13 are in
Asia, Europe, followed closely by Africa. Figure 1 shows all the key geographical
areas considered for research. Of all the countries researched in Europe, 68
per cent are based in the U.K. As the political and humanitarian discourse around
migration and Brexit intensified in the U.K. in the last 3 years, the number of
U.K. based dissertations increased. Post 2015, 37 per cent of all dissertations
based in Europe were covered under migration themes. IOM stipulated that by
2017, 18.28 per cent of the world population were international migrants[2]
and about 1.8 million had arrived in Europe since 2014.[3]
Over 60 per cent of all dissertations in Africa were based either
in Kenya or Sudan/South Sudan regions. This concentration in two regions could
possibly be influenced by accessibility and reach, proximity of the two regions,
protracted social conflict situations, and students’ own interests. Two most
researched geographical areas in the Middle East were Palestine, an area of
protracted social conflict that is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues
and, more recently, Syria. In Americas, 57 per cent of all dissertations were
based in Haiti as the recovery and rebuilding efforts strengthened post 2010 Haiti
earthquake. Research regions in Asia remained wide spread as the most urgent emergencies,
conflicts and disasters took priority.
Key
Research Themes
Figure 2 highlights sixteen key and diverse research themes studied
at CENDEP by MA DEP students post 2012-13. The most researched theme is ‘conflict’;
the worsening impacts of conflict around the world make students keen to study
possible solutions and interventions that could reduce the sufferings of the
people. Global Conflict Tracker lists 24 ongoing conflicts and eight different
types of conflicts in the world today. Of these seven are worsening, while seventeen
are unchanging, and none seem to be improving.[4]
At the end of 2017, over 275 natural disasters have been reported and
some 197 million people were thought to be internally displaced throughout the
world due to natural disasters.[5]
It is not surprising therefore that ‘resilience’ is a key distinct theme that
has been explored as part of conflict, disaster and community development
themes. 40 per cent of all conflict themes explore resilience of communities
affected by the conflict. ‘Community development’ and its ‘support systems’
like local community-based organisations and NGOs are the second most
researched themes which explore local impacts and interventions. This is closely
followed by ‘general humanitarian issues’, and ‘migration and displacement’. Over
the years, ‘gender’ has proven to be a strong theme studied by the students.
Many students at CENDEP are humanitarian practitioners and hence
show a keen interest in studying the impacts and effectiveness of the available
‘humanitarian tools’ that they often use in their work life. As CENDEP is part
of Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture, fair number of students from
architecture background study the impacts of emergencies and conflict issues on
the built environment or ‘architecture’. Furthermore, CENDEP’s unique shelter
programme leads to studying the impacts of ‘shelter’ on displaced populations
typically post natural disasters. All of the above themes also resonate strongly
with CENDEP’s particular strong experience in these research themes.
Figure 3
illustrates that ‘disasters’ themes have most been studied in Asia as this
region is most prone to natural disasters, followed by Americas. It is well-researched
that Asia Pacific region is most prone to natural disasters including storms,
floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires and landslides.[6] ‘Conflict’ theme is
explored in both Asia and Africa. Tractability especially, reach, and safety remain
important factors in determining geographical regions to research in terms of
conflicts. Impacts of disasters and conflicts on ‘communities’ and its subsequent
‘development’ is largely researched in Asia, followed closely by Africa.
Figure 4 illustrates timelines of
how research themes have developed and are influenced over a period of time
following global changes to humanitarian discourse, and the urgent global
humanitarian crises. Research themes sometimes re-emerge as political and
humanitarian discourse develops over time. For example, as safeguarding and
child protection policies became urgent in recent times and impacts of emergencies
on children needed better understanding, dissertation themes studying ‘child welfare’
in disasters and conflicts has been growing. As the call for ‘Leaving no one
behind’ became strong along with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)[7],
themes around ‘disability’ and ‘elderly’ welfare in emergencies started resurfacing
or newly developing. Similarly, SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, saw a rise in
exploring physical and mental ‘health’ issues in development and emergencies
sectors. Students studying health impacts were possibly also driven by the
Ebola crisis in 2014.
CENDEP has seen a diverse range of research themes and
geographical areas being studied by its MA DEP students greatly influenced by
the impacts of global humanitarian needs, humanitarian and political discourse,
CENDEP’s background, and students’ own experiences and interests. On-going protracted
humanitarian crises have crucially not been forgotten, and urgent and new humanitarian
issues are extensively researched by students as they hope to develop an understanding
of the impacts and possible interventions through their studies. As the nature
of humanitarian needs evolves, students are keen to research these new themes
to better appreciate its impacts on global, regional and local levels.
Available data illustrates that there are multiple reasons for MA
DEP students to choose a particular theme and geographical region, and it is
largely influenced by the ongoing and new humanitarian issues that demand
urgent attention. Furthermore, the new design studio as part of its unique
shelter programme will allow students, especially with a background in
architecture and urban planning, to introduce physical design interventions
like shelters. It would be interesting to see in a few years’ time how this
will influence geographical regions and research themes.
Many students arrive at CENDEP knowing in advance what they will
research, however for those that are looking for possible subjects, studying the
published dissertations may prove to be a good starting point, and possibly
help in identifying gaps that could be explored as new research themes.
Aparna
Maladkar
Post
Graduate Research Assistant
CENDEP
Notes:
This is Part II of a two-part article ‘What do students research
at CENDEP?’ Part II is based on analyses of MA DEP dissertations from the year
2012-13 onwards that have been awarded Distinction and Merit. Every year since
2012-13, over 89 per cent of dissertations achieving Distinction and Merit,
except in the year 2016-2017, when this was 71 per cent. It is possible that analysis
of all dissertations from 2012-13 may likely give different results and
identify additional research themes and areas.
Part I of a two-part article is based on the author’s personal
journey of studying at CENDEP and can be found here.
Links
CENDEP
dissertations are available here:
Short
interviews with CENDEP students can be found here:
[1]
Oxford Brookes University.
(2019). CENDEP student dissertations - Oxford Brookes University.
[online] Brookes.ac.uk. Available at:
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/dissertations/ [Accessed
21 Apr. 2019].
[2] International Organization for Migration.
(2019). World Migration. [online] Available at: https://www.iom.int/world-migration
[Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].
[3] Henley, J. (2018). What is the
current state of the migration crisis in Europe?. [online] the Guardian.
Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/what-current-scale-migration-crisis-europe-future-outlook
[Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].
[4] Global Conflict Tracker. (2019). Global
Conflict Tracker l Council on Foreign Relations. [online] Available at: https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/?category=usConflictStatus&vm=list
[Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].
[5] Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019). Natural
Disasters. [online] Our World in Data. Available at:
https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].
[6] O'Brien, A. (2018). Natural
disasters most likely to hit Asia-Pacific: report. [online] SBS News.
Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/natural-disasters-most-likely-to-hit-asia-pacific-report
[Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].
[7] Sustainabledevelopment.un.org.
(2019). Sustainable Development Goals.: Sustainable Development
Knowledge Platform. [online] Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
[Accessed 21 Apr. 2019]
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