Duo developing social science success at Victoria

MEDIA RELEASE

13 January 2015

Duo developing social science success at Victoria

A Victoria University of Wellington programme examining the development of human societies has been recognised with $1.4 million in research funding grants.

Two projects, led by Professor Warwick Murray and Professor John Overton, have received prestigious 2014 Marsden Fund grants, just after the pair completed another three-year Marsden funded project together.

Professor Murray, Professor Overton and Dr Alan Gamlen from Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences have been awarded $710,000 to research whether educating and upskilling people overseas leads to higher levels of emigration or encourages local development.

Professor Overton says there are a number of debates about education policy in the Pacific Islands and other developing regions. “It’s seen as a double-edged sword—education is an effective means for promoting development within the region, yet it might also provide a means for people to get jobs overseas and leave.”

Another Development Studies team involving Professor Murray, Professor Overton and two distinguished academics from Latin America’s top ranked university, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, have received Marsden funding of $710,000 to investigate the ethics of fair and organic trade, how they are linked to Western consumers and if producers actually receive the profits or not.

The project focuses on Southern Africa, Australasia and Latin America. This is the first time research on Latin America has been funded by a Marsden grant.

“This is a great result not only for the programme, but also the Victoria Institute for Links with Latin America. It helps place us at the centre of Latin American studies in Australasia,” says Professor Murray.

Both projects will create PhD and Master’s scholarship opportunities at Victoria University.

“We are thrilled to be granted these opportunities, especially considering Development Studies is only a small programme,” says Professor Murray.

Development Studies is an emerging subject worldwide, as global interest in inequality, culture and poverty increases. It is offered as an undergraduate major subject at Victoria—one of only two universities in Australasia to do so.

The Marsden-funded research project recently completed by Professors Overton and Murray in the Pacific Islands looked at the way aid projects impose economic and logistical obligations on recipient countries, especially small island states, and how this relates to sovereignty.

For more information about the Development Studies programme at Victoria visitwww.victoria.ac.nz/science/study/subjects/deve

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