The Centre for Development Studies (CDS) research is deeply rooted in moral and political discourse over what development means, should mean and can be changed. This embraces critical reflection on ideals of modernity and emancipation rooted in both the Western Enlightenment and colonial history. It also draws upon more recent formulations of international development as the pursuit of social justice, human capability, wellbeing and ecological sustainability.

Current research projects

• Business Power and Climate Policy: Countering: Fossil Fuel Industry Policy Interference
• Hidden Costs of Global Supply Chains
• Sowing the seeds of the ´good city´: urban agriculture, sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing in Freetown, Sierra Leone
• The Political Economy of Meat System Transformation
• Action on Children's Harmful Work in African Agriculture

Past research projects

• Standing Seminar of Critical Theory
• Displaced populations’ access to mental health services in Uganda and Bangladesh
• Mapping opportunities for improving the environmental sustainability of artisanal gold mining in Sierra Leone
• Transnational Transformations in Social Protection Concepts, Instruments and Context
• International & Interdisciplinary Research Network: Labour in Transition (LITTINet)
• Implementing sustainable social work interventions in low and middle income countries
• Combatting modern slavery through business leadership at the bottom of the supply chain
• The transition from orphanages to foster care in Thailand: a study that explores how child welfare interventions are transferred internationally and implemented across cultures
• Mapping informal financial flows in the artisanal mining sector: the cases of Sierra Leone and Liberia
• Opening the door to formalization: small-scale diamond mining and rural economic development in Sierra Leone
• Deepening governance and widening 'spaces' for change: community participation and natural resources transparency in post-conflict West Africa
• Blazing the path to formalization: Artisanal Mining, Wealth Creation and Rural Livelihoods in Ghana
• Wellbeing Research in Developing Countries
• Urban inequality and youth wellbeing in Latin America's informal settlements
• Youth livelihoods, activism and extractive industry in Sierra Leone
• Urban growth, domestic fuel choices and sustainable forestry in Kano, Nigeria
• Wellbeing and Poverty Pathways

Social justice, sustainability and wellbeing researchers

• Frances Amery
• Michael Bloomfield
• Louise Brown
• Mel Channon
• Aurelie Charles
• James Copestake
• Alejandro De Coss-Corzo
• Joe Devine
• Ana C Dinerstein
• Eleonora Fichera
• Alinka Gearon
• Jennifer Golan
• Neil Howard
• Rana Jawad
• Joel Lazarus
• Roy Maconachie
• Britta Mathes
• Lizzi Milligan
• Ben Radley
• Yixian Sun
• Harry Rutter
• Jennifer Thomson
• Geof Wood