Livelihoods Research Group

Development research addresses major challenges facing the world in which we all live – poverty, inequality and social justice. The livelihoods research group comprises staff and postgraduate students from a range of social science disciplines who study human and social dimensions of economic, institutional, environmental and technological change. They work in both rural and urban areas, and are interested in change across scales, from the individual, household and community, to organisations and national and international policy. They use a mix of quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods in their analysis and often work in collaboration with colleagues from other disciplines at Reading and elsewhere in interdisciplinary teams. Members of the group are engaged in research in over 20 countries around the world.

Current research within the group includes:

Livelihoods adaptation and transformation:

• Climate change adaptation (with the Walker Institute for Climate System Research)
• Disaster risk reduction and poverty alleviation
• National and International Climate Policy
• Agricultural and livestock transformation
• Livelihood diversification
• Poverty traps, structural adjustment and the expansion of artisanal mining

 

Governance and the management of natural resources:

• Social-ecological systems Resilience (scalar dimensions of practice)
• Gendered dimensions in development practice
• Identity, power, inequality and cultural issues
• Social, cultural and economic impacts of environmental change
  

Micro-Finance:

• Financial services for rural and urban poor
• Micro-enterprise development
• Remittances and migration

Knowledge , communication and information systems:

• Social learning and innovation
• environmental awareness, technological development and pollution abatement in artisanal mining communities.
• Participatory approaches in farming development
• ICTS
• Health

If you would like to find out more about our research or are interested in pursuing training or research in these areas then we would like to hear from you - please contact us by following the links in the box on the right.