Paper short abstract:

Much research in international development remains extractive and exclusionary, posing a fundamental challenge to both relevance and impact in the Anthropocene. Who has agency in multi-institutional research teams and how can accountability for responsible research be embedded and sustained?

Paper long abstract:

On the face of it, much research in international development remains extractive and exclusionary in relation to its loci of conception, and its modes (including research methodologies and production of outputs) and models of working (including allocations of responsibilities for 'work packages', informal alliances and working groups, and lines of authority) over time. Where multi-country research 'partnerships' for 'rethinking connection and agency' in the Anthropocene are regarded by all actors as a sine qua non of research that is at once ground-breaking AND responsible, the extractive and exclusionary nature of such research poses a fundamental challenge to its legitimacy/relevance, multi-scalar impact and its integrity. But who has agency in multi-institutional research teams, and how can broad accountability for research integrity be embedded and sustained over time, ensuring that it goes beyond the narrow, managerialist requirements of the university research ethics processes? These complex issues, of concern to many researchers in international development, are explored through reflections on relevant aspects of a recently completed, multi-year and international UK-funded research programme into climate change in Africa, where the author was a research associate.