Professor Dorothea Kleine
PhD
School of Geography and Planning
Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development
+44 114 222 7954
Full contact details
School of Geography and Planning
Room: E20
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
- Profile
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Dorothea Kleine is Professor in the Geography Department and Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD). She also leads the Research Theme on Data and Digital Innovation at IGSD.
Professor Kleine’s research investigates sustainable human development, global justice, and the potential role of digital technologies in making progress towards these aims.
She has published widely on the potential and the ethical challenges of digitalisation in sustainable development in both the global South and North, focusing in particular on the perspective, agency and creativity of the more marginalised. Prof Kleine is well-known for her theoretical work, proposing to apply the capabilities approach to digital development (as laid out in ‘Technologies of Choice?’ (MIT Press)). She argues for a sustainable approach which centers people, justice, and the environment.
Prof Kleine combines conceptual and policy-level work with ongoing empirical research, including participatory action research and co-design. She has undertaken research in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Her research has been supported by UKRI, ESRC, EPSRC, GCRF, Newton Fund, DFID, the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD, Robert Bosch Foundation, Zeiss-Stiftung, Studienstiftung (ddV), the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the EU.
Current roles:
- Director, Institute for Global Sustainable Development
- Co-Investigator, IDRC Ge-JuSTA Project (2022-2025)– Gender Justice in STEM Research in Africa - https://gejusta.net/.
- Principal Investigator, UKRI Livelihoods for Refugees Project (2022-2023), leading an interdisciplinary team across Geography, Engineering, Planning and Chemistry to co-design with Syrian refugee co-researchers an open access innovation space at a local partner university in Jordan (AABU)
- Member of the AHRC International Equitable Partnerships Champions Group
- Co- Principal Investigator (2022-2023) Malala Fund: A Strategic Approach to Digital Learning for Adolescent Girls (free download)
- Co-Investigator, EU AfriCultuRes - Earth Observation for Food Security in Africa
- Member of the International Expert Panel - Digitalisation for Sustainability (D4S) (Robert Bosch Foundation) analysing the negative and positive sustainability impacts of digitalisation. See report here: https://digitalization-for-sustainability.com/digital-reset
- Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Consumer Ethics; Information Technologies and International Development
- Advisory roles for UNCTAD, ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UN-DESA, UNEP, EuropeAid, DFID, GIZ, BMZ, IDRC, private sector organisations (Deutsche Telekom; GSMA) and NGOs.
- Reviewer for funders including the UK, German, Swiss, South African and Canadian National Research Agencies
Previous roles:
- Founding Chair of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Digital Geographies Research Group (DGRG)
- Principal Investigator (2020-2021) GCRF UKRI - www.gedia-network.org – Gender-Justice in Digital Innovation in Africa, which centers women as changemakers in digital futures- with 17 partners in 6 countries
- Principal Investigator and Convenor, ESRC Digital Development GCRF Strategic Network with 29 partners in 13 countries In Latin America, Africa and Europe
- Co-Investigator, ESRC SCArFE (£670k) Ethical Consumption in Brazil, South Africa and China
- 2015-2017 Faculty Associate, Harvard University, Berkman Centre for Internet and Society
- Since 2013 Senior Programme Committee, ICTD (IEEE/ACM), International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
- Lead Author on UNICEF commissioned Methodology Toolkit for participatory research with children and young people. Free download.
Before joining Sheffield in 2016, Dorothea Kleine was Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she was Director of the interdisciplinary ICT4D Centre. Prior to this she held posts at the University of Cambridge and Bonn University. Educated at the University of Munich (LMU and TUM) and the University of Oxford, she holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Research interests
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My key research interests are:
- Sustainable and just development futures in the global South (and North)
- Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D)
- Digital geographies and digital participatory methods
- Ethics of ICT-related development interventions, inclusive innovation and data ethics
- The capabilities approach and sustainable development
- Sustainable/ethical consumption research, food geographies, trade justice and Fair Trade
Themes such as participation, gender, justice and choice run strongly through my work.
I have conducted research in Latin America (Brazil; Chile), Europe (UK, Germany), South Asia (India), Africa (Kenya; South Africa, and more) and the Middle East (Jordan).
I am strongly committed to research which is both academically excellent and can have a positive impact in the context of the global challenges we face today.
Thus my work includes participatory action research in partnership with local communities and marginalised groups, theoretical reflections on the need to redefine “development”, policy advice at UN level, strategic advice to NGOs, and speaking at global policy conferences.
- Publications
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- Books
- Edited books
- Journal articles
- Chapters
- Conference proceedings papers
- Reports
- Theses / Dissertations
- Working papers
- Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
Books
- Digital reset: Redirecting technologies for the deep sustainability transformation. Munich: oekom Verlag. View this article in WRRO
- Technologies of Choice?: ICTs, Development, and the Capabilities Approach.
- Surfen in Birkenstocks? Das Potential des Internets für den fairen Handel. München: Oekom Verlag.
Edited books
- The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, 3 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons.
Journal articles
- Access, health, re‐conhecimento: Co‐crafted Brazilian discourses on sustainable food. The Geographical Journal. View this article in WRRO
- Digitalization and sustainability: a call for a digital green deal. Environmental Science & Policy, 147, 11-14. View this article in WRRO
- Data science for empowerment: understanding the data science training landscape for women and girls in Africa. Gender, Technology and Development.
- Theory and practice in social innovations in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Revista de Administração da UFSM, 15(1), 123-136.
- Developing capacity for impactful use of Earth Observation data: lessons from the AfriCultuReS project. Environmental Development, 42. View this article in WRRO
- Interdisciplinarity, self-governance and dialogue: the participatory process underpinning the minimum ethical standards for ICTD/ICT4D research. Information Technology for Development, 27(2), 361-380. View this article in WRRO
- Beyond the “deficit discourse”: Mapping ethical consumption discourses in Chile and Brazil. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 48(5), 891-909.
- Health Advice from Internet Discussion Forums: How Bad Is Dangerous?. JMIR, 18(1). View this article in WRRO
- Repoliticising and scaling-up ethical consumption: Lessons from public procurement for school meals in Brazil. Geoforum, 67, 135-147. View this article in WRRO
- The value of social theories for global computing. Communications of the ACM, 58(9), 31-33.
- Ethical consumption in Brazil and Chile: institutional contexts and development trajectories. Journal of Cleaner Production, 63, 84-92.
- Using the Choice Framework to Situate Cases of Collective Action in Capabilities Thinking:
the Example of Public Procurement. Maitreyee - e-bulletin of the Human Development and Capabilities Association, 22, 15-18. View this article in WRRO
- Sobre Palavras e atos no consumo sustentavel no Brasil: os 'aparentes paradoxos' de uma pesquisa qualitativa. Sustentabilidade em Debate, 4, 185-207.
- Signifiers of the life we value? – considering human development, technologies and Fair Trade from the perspective of the capabilities approach. Information Technology for Development, 18(1), 42-60.
- The capability approach and the ‘medium of choice’: steps towards conceptualising information and communication technologies for development. Ethics and Information Technology, 13(2), 119-130.
- ICT4WHAT?-Using the choice framework to operationalise the capability approach to development. Journal of International Development, 22(5), 674-692.
- Performing Charlotte: A Technique to Bridge Cultures in Participatory Design. International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development, 2(1), 36-58.
- Technological Revolution, Evolution and New Dependencies: what's new about
ict4d ?. Third World Quarterly, 30(5), 1045-1067.
- The ideology behind the technology – Chilean microentrepreneurs and public ICT policies. Geoforum, 40(2), 171-183.
- Negotiating partnerships, understanding power: doing action research on Chilean Fairtrade wine value chains. The Geographical Journal, 174(2), 109-123.
- Striking a balance [high-tech development]. Engineering & Technology, 2(2), 30-33.
- Striking a balance: The role of Technology in Development. Engineering and Technology, 2(2), 30-33.
- Research assessment and the production of geographical knowledge. Progress in Human Geography, 30(6), 747-782.
- Open Access Publishing and the Creative Community. Information Technologies and International Development, 2(4), iii-iv.
- Moving Beyond "The Real Digital Divide". Information Technologies and International Development, 2(3), iii-v.
- Fairtrade.com versus Fairtrade.org—how Fairtrade organisations use the Internet. Interacting with Computers, 17(1), 57-83.
- Book reviews. Regional Studies, 39(3), 387-394.
Chapters
- Inclusion numérique, entrepreneuriat féminin et sujets néolibéraux In Leterme C (Ed.), Impasses Numériques - Points de Vue du Sud Paris: Centre Tricontinental et Éditions Syllepse.
- Digital Development In Leszczynski A, Ash J & Kitchin R (Ed.), Digital Geographies Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing.
- Digital Inclusion, Female Entrepreneurship and the Production of Neoliberal Subjects—Views from Chile and Tanzania In Graham M (Ed.), Digital Economies at Global Margins Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- How fair is fair enough? Negotiating alterity and compromise within the German fair trade movement, Interrogating Alterity: Alternative Economic and Political Spaces (pp. 113-130).
- Putting ethical consumption in its place: Geographical pespectives In Shaw D, Newholm T, Chatzidakis A & Carrington M (Ed.), Ethics and Morality in Consumption: Interdisciplinary Perspectives London: Routledge.
- ICT4D: Editor's Introduction to the Section In Mansell R, Ang PH, Steinfield C, van der Graaf S, Ballon P, Kerr A, Ivory J, Braman S, Kleine D & Grimshaw D (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society New York: Wiley-ICA.
- Children, ICT and development: Innovation for equity on the basis of participatory prcatice In Gasser U & Cortesi S (Ed.), Digitally Connected: Global Perspectives on Youth and Digital Media (pp. 93-96). Cambridge, MA: Berkman Center, Harvard University. View this article in WRRO
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Development In Desai V & Potter R (Ed.), Companion to Development Studies (pp. 195-200). London: Hodder Arnold.
- Placing and scaling ethical choices: ethical consumption and ethical public procurement, The ethics of consumption (pp. 29-31). Wageningen Academic Publishers
- Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (ICT4D), Informationsgerechtigkeit (pp. 194-214). DE GRUYTER
- "The men never say that they do not know": Telecentres as Gendered Spaces In Steyn J, Van Belle J-P & Villanueva Mansilla E (Ed.), ICTs for Global Development and Sustainability: Practice and Applications (pp. 189-212). IGI Global
- How fair is fair enough? Negotiating alterity and compromise within the German fair trade movement, Interrogating Alterity: Alternative Economic and Political Spaces (pp. 113-130).
- How Fair is Fair Enough? Negotiating Alterity and Compromise within the German Fair Trade Movement In Fuller D, Jonas AEG & Lee R (Ed.), Interrogating Alterity - Alternative Economic and Political Spaces (pp. 153-170). Abington: Routledge.
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ICT4D (pp. 1-9). Wiley
Conference proceedings papers
- A decade of applying the capabilities approach via the choice framework : practical tools and critical reflections. Proceedings of the 2019 HDCA Conference. London, UK, 9 September 2019 - 9 September 2019. View this article in WRRO
- The role of the marginalized and unusual suspects in the production of digital innovations: Models of innovation in an African context. Locally Relevant ICT Research, Vol. 933 (pp 261-278). Tshwane, South Africa, 23 August 2018 - 23 August 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Minimum ethical standards in ICTD/ICT4D research: A participatory process and a co-created document. Proceedings of the 10th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information anf Communication Technologies and Development. Sheffield
- Ethical standards for the ICTD/ICT4D community. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
- Minimum ethical standards for ICTD/ICT4D research. Published Standards. Sheffield View this article in WRRO
- Dialogue interaction as a design tool for academic research. A case study of UFRJ's extension project on future of food with the youth from the periphery. Processdings of the SBDS+ISSD Conference 2017
- Internet discussion forums: Maximizing choice in health-seeking behaviour during public health emergencies. 2016 International Conference On Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics And Assessment (CyberSA), 13 June 2016 - 14 June 2016.
- Keynote: Placing and scaling ethical choices: ethical consumption and ethical prublic procurement. Proceedings of the 11th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics - EurSafe, 2013.
- ICT4What? - using the Choice Framework to operationalise the capability approach to development. 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD), 17 April 2009 - 19 April 2009.
Reports
- Digital Learning: A Girl-centred Approach
- Digital Reset. Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation View this article in WRRO
- A human-centred approach to innovation to accelerate progress towards the SDGs
- Your Word Counts - Using Digital Feedback Data in Oxfam's Humanitarian Response
- Participatory methods: engaging children’s voices and experiences in research View this article in WRRO
- Children, ICTs and Development: Capturing the Potential, Meeting the Challenges View this article in WRRO
- What are the key lessons of ICT4D partnerships for poverty reduction (DFID Report)
Theses / Dissertations
- Conscientisation and Human Development: The case of digital inclusion programmes in Brazil. View this article in WRRO
- Empowerment and the limits of choice: Microentrepreneurs, information and communication technologies and state policies in Chile.
Working papers
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
- Digital Divide Wiley.
- Research group
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Dorothea leads the Digital, Data and Innovation Research Theme at the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD).
- Grants
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Current Research Projects:
IDRC (Canadian International Development Research Centre)- GeJuSTA – Gender Justice in STEM Research in Africa (2022-2025, C$1.4m). The project examines barriers and enablers for women in STEM and Data Science, while challenging the rigid definition of STEM subjects. It examines and develops best practice in gender analysis and gender-just design processes. Further, through GeJuSTA academy we support early-career female researchers in digital-related subjects in Africa. Leading team tackling Work Package 3 on gender-just co-design in digital innovation. The overall project unites colleagues in South Africa (University of Cape Town), Uganda (Makerere University), Kenya (Dedan Kimathi), Zambia (Asikana Network for Women in IT), Sweden (Stockholm University)and UK (Sheffield University) see https://gejusta.net/
UKRI EPSRC Livelihoods for Refugees Project (2022-2023), leading an interdisciplinary team across Geography, Engineering, Planning and Chemistry to co-design with Syrian refugee co-researchers an open access innovation space at a local partner university in Jordan (Al Al Bayt University). This is linked to the work of Sheffield University’s Makerspace IForge [insert link https://iforgesheffield.org/] and the Desert Garden Project [insert: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/giving/causes/desert-garden] Principal investigator with a large team exploring sustainable innovation, including Dr Mohanad Masad, Dr Moaed El Meselmani, Prof Tony Ryan, Dr Pete Mylon, Dr Steve Connelly and the community of 18 participatory co-researchers. UK Dept Ambassador Fazey called the project “an outstanding example of UK-Jordanian cooperation”.
UN-DESA (United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, New York) Conceptualising Innovation (2022-2023) Policy Work as a Senior Expert with the UN Inter-Agency Group on Science, Innovation and Technology (STI) for Sustainable Development. Proposing a more people-centred and sustainable approach to innovation (with Dr Jaime Echavarri, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).
EU Horizon 2020 AfriCultuReS Project (2017-2023, overall €8m): This large African-European scientific collaboration project aims to design, implement and demonstrate an integrated agricultural monitoring and early warning system that will support decision making in the field of food security (in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Mozambique, Niger and Tunisia). Prof Dan Brockington and Prof Dorothea Kleine are Co-Investigators leading on the user engagement strand.
Malala Fund - Digital Learning for Adolescent Girls (2022-2023). Strategic Research Partnership to carry out primary research and develop, based on this, a strategy paper in time for the CSW67 UN Summit: A Strategic Approach to Digital Learning for Adolescent Girls (free download) Co-Principal Investigator with Fiona Ssozi (Makerere University, Uganda)
Robert Bosch Foundation: Digitalisation for Sustainability (D4S) (2022-223)– Member of the International Expert Panel. This collaborative project combined analysis of the negative and positive sustainability impacts of digitalisation across disciplines, and at a national, regional and global level. The collaboration by senior experts resulted in Policy Proposals to EU and other policy makers - See report here: https://digitalization-for-sustainability.com/digital-reset as well as a joint book. Co-Investigator leading on the analysis of global justice issues. PI Prof Tilman Santarius (Einstein Center for Digital Futures and TU Berlin).
Selected previous projects:
- ESRC Large Grant Sustainable Consumption and Agri-food Ethics among Middle Class Consumers in the Global South (South Africa, Brazil, China) (overall £679k). Co-Investigator on a cross-cultural multi-method study, led by Prof Alex Hughes (PI, Newcastle). Prof Dorothea Kleine, together with Prof Roberto Bartholo, Prof Rita Afonso (both Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ) and Dr Stefania Vicari (Sheffield) is leading on the Brazilian study and on innovative digital methods in studying sustainable consumption. We combine interview data on online activity with observation, digital ethnographies and longitudinal social media analysis.
- GCRF Global Challenges Research Fund/ESRC Strategic Network Gender-just digital innovation in Africa (GeDIA) (2020-2021, overall £150k) Principal Investigator convening a new research network https://gedia-network.org/ bringing together 22 researchers and practitioners (academics, NGOs and business partners) from 6 countries to develop joint cutting-edge research agendas. Partners included Oxfam, Malala Fund, Asikana Network for Women in IT, and Codespace South Africa. Working and supporting each other through Covid-19, this project held eight online workshops and co-developed the proposal that became https://gejusta.net/. See short video interviews with all partners here [insert link: https://gedia-network.org/interviews]
- GCRF Nosso Mapa Project (2019-2020): Exploring the role of digital tools in the social innovation and environmental innovation landscapes in Brazil and the UK. Mapping initiatives and co-producing a joint research agenda. With Prof Rita Afonso, Gabriel Orsi, Dr Lee Crookes, Mike Henline.
- Global Challenges Research Fund/ESRC Strategic Network on Digital Development: Leveraging Data Science and Digital Participatory Practice for Development Impact (2017-2018; overall £150k): Principal Investigator and convenor of a network bringing together 29 participants (academics, NGOs and business partners) from 13 countries to develop joint cutting-edge research agendas.
- #ICTDEthics (2016-2018): Prof Andy Dearden (Sheffield Hallam University) and Prof Dorothea Kleine (TUoS) are co-facilitating a process of co-producing minimum ethical standards across disciplines for research in the field of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D).
- 2015-2016 UNICEF “Cross-cultural toolkit for participatory engagement with children in debates about digital futures”. Lead author, with Dr Sammia Poveda and Gemma Pearson on a UNICEF-commissioned methodological toolkit on participatory methods with children and young people in digital social research. Free to download.
- 2015-16 ESRC-CONFAP Newton Grant “Food 2.0: Using participatory film to express visions of sustainable food futures – Youth views from Rio and London” (overall £89,546); Joint PI with Prof Bartholo and Prof Afonso (UFRJ, Rio). Participatory digital action research project with community organisations in London (Ovalhouse Theatre) and Rio (Observatório de Favela) to work with disadvantaged young people to develop digital participatory films to express their views on sustainable food consumption and food justice issues.
- 2014-15 TECH4RIED Project “Technology for rural innovation and education”. Collaborated, as Senior Scientific Advisor, with the Council for Scientific and Industrial research (CSIR) in South Africa, in applying the Choice Framework (Kleine 2013) in participatory ways in the design and evaluation or agricultural innovation projects.
- 2012-2013 UNICEF “ICT4D for child-focused development work”; Lead author, with Dr David Hollow and Sammia Poveda; on a report produced in collaboration with UNICEF Office of Research, Florence. The study interviewed 35 experts in youth and child-related ICT4D projects and distilled key lessons learned. Among the issues that emerged a key focus was gender inequality. Free download.
- Teaching activities
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Undergraduate
GEO11004 Why Geography Matters
GEO11005 Geographical skills, methods and techniques
GEO21010 Sustainable Development and Global Justice
GEO287 Field class to Berlin
GEO282 Global Sustainable Development: Interventions, Goals, Policy and Advocacy
GEO288 Research Design for Geography and Environmental Science
Masters
GEO61004 Environment, Society and Development: Key issues, debates and concepts
GEO6805/10 Research Foundations with Placement – Shaping a Dissertation Topic, Methods, Data Analysis
- PhD supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD students on topics in sustainable development, digital geographies, ICT4D, critical development theory, and sustainable consumption.
Particularly, in the following areas:
- Sustainability and Digitalisation – negative and positive impacts
- Digital transformation, gender and intersectionality
- Digital learning for marginalised girls
- Conceptualising innovation – emancipatory maker spaces and transformation
- Theorising engaged digital geographies
- The capability approach and ICT4D
- Big Data and new digital tools for citizen participation and co-design
- Ethical consumption and digital tools
- Conceptualisations, translations and digital representations of fairness and justice across spatial and cultural distance
Current PhD students:
- Hannah McCarrick (funded as a Grantham Scholar), Contextualising e-agriculture: Strengthening rural livelihoods through information and communication technologies in Tanzania, first supervisor, co-supervised with Prof Dan Brockington and Dr Anna Krzywoszynska
- Chisenga Muyoya (Commonwealth Fund Scholar), A gender-focused approach to data science, first supervisor, co-supervised with Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar
- Aishwarya Bhuta (University of Sheffield scholarship): Interrogating NGO-isation: The contemporary Indian Women’s Movement revisited, co-supervised with Dr Sammia Poveda
Past PhD students:
- Gemma Pearson (2019, ESRC funded): Responsibility, work and transitions on the street. A grounded theory study of street-involved children and young people in northern Tanzania, co-supervised with Prof Katie Willis
- Vera Hoelscher (2019): Ethical consumption in online and offline spaces, co-supervised with Dr Andreas Chatzidakis (Management)
- Felicity Butler (2018, ESRC Collaborative Funding Award): Empowerment through valuing women’s unpaid care work? An examination of an innovative Fair Trade and Community Trade pricing model in Nicaragua, co-supervised with Christina Archer (The Body Shop) and Prof Katie Willis
- Jennie Cole (2017): The Role of Online Discussion Forums During a Public Health Emergency, co-supervised with Prof Chris Watkins (Computer Science)
- Ronda Zelezny-Green (2017): The Role of Girls’ Mobile Phone Use to Increase Access to Educational Content After School: A Capabilities-Based Evaluation in Nairobi
- Sammia Poveda (2016): Conscientisation and Human Development: The case of digital inclusion programmes in Brazil
- Tony Roberts (2016): Critical Agency in ICT4D: a case study of Zambian women's use of participatory video technology to challenge gender inequality
- Wouter Geertz (2014): Business travel, hotels, and environmental sustainability: An exploration of business travellers' environment-related practices at the travel destination, co-supervised with Dr Mary Dengler
PhD students of mine have won Fulbright Field Research scholarships (1) and Royal Geographical Society Prizes (2). After their PhDs they have gained posts including at United Nations University, Oxford University, Sheffield University, Royal Holloway, University of London, the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex), or they have gone on to research-related careers in the private and NGO sector.