In line with IOB’s vision of a just and sustainable world, we strive to help build such a world through multidisciplinary academic research in close connection with academic education and political engagement as well as by allying with different types of partners.

Our research group positions itself in the field of development studies—a field, not a discipline as such. This means that the ‘field’ of development studies is per definition quite varied and heterogenous.

At IOB we cherish a plurality of disciplinary and methodological approaches. This vision is rooted in the idea that combining different perspectives on a particular development issue helps understand it in better ways. Researchers focus on different levels and actors, interface with other disciplines, and work within particular research paradigms that guide the type of questions they ask, the type of evidence they find valid, the type of method they prefer and, eventually also, the way in which they define their societal engagement.

We position our research and outreach activities as a contribution to the reflection on historical and contemporary processes of marginalisation—in view of exploring the space for development alternatives.  This allows us to also study the histories of exploitation, inequality, and invisibility that crop up at the very intersection of global, regional, and local development dynamics. More importantly, by shedding light on the intricate, multi-scalar specificities and commonalities and the ways in which processes of marginalisation create their own knowledge and governance infrastructures, we can arrive at a better understanding of our own positioning and capability to engage in the development process.

We propose to stimulate work in function of three research lines. Each of these lines clusters existing research activities carried out by different academic staff members of IOB, while also opening up space for new and innovative research that is at the forefront of major development challenges.  We also foreground two transversal themes, one on digitalisation and informational citizenship in line with an ERC-project, and  one on the Great Lakes of Africa (GLAC), supporting researchers working in and on the Great Lakes Region.

​For a more elaborate explanation of our research identity, see IOB’s research strategy.