by zefblog
The Center for Development Research (ZEF) is an interdisciplinary research institute with a focus on development issues. ZEF runs research projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In their blogs our researchers report about their work such as projects, conferences, scientific publications, field research, talks and other milestones. Authors express their own opinions, and ideas …
by ZEFeditor
ZEF researcher Arslan Waheed (from Pakistan) wrote his doctoral thesis on ‘Development Discourses and Urban Poor: A Comparative Study of Slums of Islamabad and Brasilia’. He defended his thesis successfully on August 27, 2021 and obtained his doctoral degree from Bonn University’s Faculty of Arts. His research was funded by the German Exchange Service DAAD). …
by ZEFeditor
By Alejandro Mora Motta, Carolina Tobón Ramírez, Emilia Schmidt, & Estefanía Montoya Domínguez *) The peace agreement signed in Colombia in 2016 between the government of former president Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) was celebrated worldwide. However, five years later, Colombia is still experiencing social crises, …
by ZEFeditor
Field research during pandemic times in Colombia: context and challenges By Daiana Castillo López After more than one year working on the research proposal, imagining every day how it would be developed, preparing the documents, permits, licenses, and hoping for the approval of the budget, my field research finally started on October 22, 2020. The …
by zefblog
In 2021, the need to engage and deepen our understanding of ‘the city’ increased due to the repercussions brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two junior researchers of ZEF’s Department for Political and Cultural Change, Amit Kumar and Maryoriet Rosales, decided to organize a virtual meeting on April 6, 2021 with researchers engaged in conducting …
by ZEFeditor
By Madiha Hussain, junior researchers at ZEF During the COVID-19 pandemic, political priorities have been shifted immensely in Germany. The situation offers a good opportunity to explore how the post-pandemic political participation could look like during elections. Moreover, the case of elections 2020 highlights the future of democracy, where politicians and citizens cannot have direct …
Looking back a bit… The “Waterfront Metropolis Abidjan” project [see project website here] ended in November 2019 after 24 months of intensive research. Thinking about the economic capital of the Côte d´Ivoire and the relevance of informal urbanization have continued, though. My book manuscript on Abidjan has advanced, but is not ready for publishing yet. …
Do you know how much am I fond of the Wright brothers ?? So much that I could spend the whole night talking about the endless documentaries, books and articles I read about them. The Wright brothers were nothing but genius entrepreneurs who where way ahead of their time. They began their experimentation in flight …
by Dennis Avilés and Tina Beuchelt
Blog post by Dennis Avilés-Irahola, Tina Beuchelt, Christine Schmitt, Sarah Nischalke, Eva Youkhana and Franziska Geiger. The authors are members of the Gender Group at ZEF. One would not have expected a vicious virus causing a respiratory disease to discriminate in its life-threatening passage. Yet, according to conventional wisdom, inequalities are revealed when disaster or …
by ZEFeditor
Blog post by Katelene Delgado*) When you think of the uninhabited Islands of Cape Verde, you probably immediately imagine large sandy beaches, blue sea and sun. However, the Raso and Branco Islets, both belonging to Cape Verde, look a bit different. There is an even greater treasure in these islets: the Cape Verde giant gecko …
Photos by Jorge Alberto Torres Castillo A couple of weeks ago, I finally landed in my home country, Honduras. I had spent 18 months as a doctoral researcher at ZEF, Bonn, Germany including two North Rhine-Westphalia winters in a row away from my tropical homeland. Like many others that choose to leave for better opportunities, …