Large Grant-Funded Research Centres and Concept Generation in Development Research.

Research centres are increasingly an integral part of the institutional and organisational infrastructure of knowledge production in development studies. However, whilst other components of the knowledge production have been problematised for their role in reproducing the hierarchies of the 'global-...

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Published in:Journal of Development Studies Vol. 61; no. 7; pp. 1024 - 1042
Main Author: Roelofs, Portia
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jul2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul2025
      vid: 61
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/00220388.2024.2420022
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        atl: Large Grant-Funded Research Centres and Concept Generation in Development Research.
      aug:
        au: Roelofs, Portia
        affil: King's College London, London, UK
      su:
        International economic assistance
        Grants (Money)
        Information economy
        Political knowledge
        Research grants
      sug:
        subj:
          International economic assistance
          Grants (Money)
          Information economy
          International assistance
          International Affairs
          Administration of General Economic Programs
          Other Grantmaking and Giving Services
          Political knowledge
          Research grants
      keyword:
        development research
        development studies
        large grant-funded research centres
        overseas development aid
        political economy of knowledge production
        political marketplace
        development research
        development studies
        large grant-funded research centres
        overseas development aid
        political economy of knowledge production
        political marketplace
      ab: Research centres are increasingly an integral part of the institutional and organisational infrastructure of knowledge production in development studies. However, whilst other components of the knowledge production have been problematised for their role in reproducing the hierarchies of the 'global-north-dominated science and research ecosystem' (Gebremariam, 2022), centres have received little direct attention. This paper identifies a new generation of large grant-funded research centres (LGRCs) as on object of study in themselves. These are large in terms of both ambitions and budgets, yet are distinguished from more permanent departments or institutes in their reliance on fixed-term grant funding. It unpicks how LGRC's internal organisational dynamics and their location within the British and global political economies of development research encourage the dissemination of concepts coined by their Principal Investigators (PIs), through centre-branded grey literature. Whilst research grants commonly release scholars from contractual teaching and administration obligations, two case studies of LGRCs at a UK university show how this process of 'buy-out' can be conceived more broadly as a buy-out from peer-review, with consequences for maintaining what Hountoundji (1990, p. 6) calls 'the North's monopoly on theory'.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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