How do we determine when our research has impact? If our aim is to produce research that contributes to making a positive difference in the world, how do we measure and track achievements?

In this episode of Between the Lines, IDS’ Director of Communications and Impact, James Georgalakis, speaks with James Gow and Henry Redwood from Kings College London, who co-authored the book: Impact in International Affairs: The Quest for World-Leading Research.

They explore the concept of impact and the characteristics found in ‘World-Leading’ Impact, as identified by the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF). They discuss the limitations of such frameworks, that treat change processes as linear and miss some of the more difficult to measure positive impacts.

With thanks to:

• Kelly Shephard introduces the podcast.
• James Georgalakis is the interviewer.
• James Gow speaks first and Henry Redwood speaks second.
• Sarah King produces and edits the podcast series and created the artwork.
• Music credit: Crypt of Insomnia/One Day in Africa (instrumental version)/Getty Images

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Why is uncertainty so important to politics today? From finance and technology to climate change, pandemics, migration and security, what the future holds feels increasingly uncertain and demands alternative approaches. If hopes of much-needed progressive transformations are to be realised, then current blinkered understandings of uncertainty need to be met with renewed democratic struggle.

In this episode of Between the Lines, co-authors Andy Stirling, Sobia Ahmad Kaker and Ian Scoones. discuss their book: The Politics of Uncertainty,

Links:

Sussex Development Lecture on the politics of uncertainty

STEPS Centre conference: The Politics of Uncertainty: Practical Challenges for Transformative Action

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Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy, reveals the roots of structural racism that limit social mobility and equality within Britain for Black and ethnicised students and academics in its inherently white Higher Education institutions. It brings together both established and emerging scholars in the fields of Race and Education to explore what institutional racism in British Higher Education looks like in colour-blind ‘post-race’ times. It demonstrates how far we have come and yet how far we still have to go.

In this episode of Between the Lines, IDS Director of Teaching and Learning, Linda Waldman, speaks with the book editors, Jason Arday and Heidi Mirza.

References:

• Aiming Higher – Runnymede report

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An increasing number of countries around the world have been trialling a ‘basic income’ for their citizens, and the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for governments to reevalutate and strengthen social safety nets. The UN has called for a Temporary Basic Income, to provide a lifeline for the world’s poorest. Could something like a ‘Universal Basic Income’ help in Covid-19 recovery, and in the longer-term, help to address some of societies biggest challenges?

In this episode of Between the Lines, Phil Mader speaks with Guy Standing, a leading expert on the basic income concept, about his book, Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now.

• Basic Income Earth Network
• Other books by Guy Standing
• Massive Attack collaboration with Guy Standing

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In this episode of Between the Lines, IDS Head of Knowledge, Impact and Policy, Kelly Shephard, talks to author and broadcaster, Helen Lewis about her book, Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights.

In looking at the history of feminism and stories of rebel women, details are too often whitewashed or forgotten in our modern search for feel-good, inspirational heroines. In this book, Helen reclaims the history of feminism as a history of difficult women.

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Uprootedness, exile and forced displacement, be it due to conflict, natural disasters or even so-called 'development', affects the lives of millions of people across the globe. The numbers of people affected are increasing, as shocks and crises force people to flee their homes and find safe places to live.

In this episode of Between the Lines IDS researcher, Jaideep Gupte speaks with Lyla Mehta from IDS and Katarzyna Grabska from PRIO, Oslo and Institute of Ethnology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, about their co-edited book ‘Forced Displacement: Why Rights Matter’ - they reflect on their research and experiences from 2005 in Egypt and India, and how realising rights and amplifying voices of displaced people, matters even more today.

Book: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312067397_Forced_displacement_Why_rights_matter

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One of the most-discussed digital financial inclusion projects, M-Pesa facilitates the transfer of money and access to formal financial services via the mobile phone infrastructure and has grown at a phenomenal rate since its launch in 2007.

In this episode of Between the Lines. Serena Natile discusses her book, The Exclusionary Politics of Digital Financial Inclusion, which critiques mobile money as part of a historical succession of finance solutions and puts forward a strategy for gender equality, arguing for a politics of redistribution to guide future digital financial inclusion projects.

Interviewing Serena is IDS Digital and Technology researcher. Tony Roberts  

Serena Natile is a Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London     

Book: https://www.routledge.com/The-Exclusionary-Politics-of-Digital-Financial-Inclusion-Mobile-Money/Natile/p/book/9780367179588 

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At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has raised issues of welfare regimes higher up the global agenda, author Ferdinand Eibl discusses his book, Social Dictatorships: The Political Economy of the Welfare State in the Middle East and North Africa. Using mixed methods of study, the book presents an explanation as to why social spending in authoritarian regimes differ and presents case studies of the political origins of the Tunisian and Egyptian welfare state.

Interviewing Ferdinand is IDS Research Fellow, Max Gallien.

Ferdinand is Lecturer in Political Economy and programme director of the MA Politics and Economics of the Middle East at King’s College London.

Book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-dictatorships-9780198834274?q=eibl&lang=en&cc=gb

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The global pandemic Covid-19 is impacting people in many and varied ways. The effects on all our lives are immense and diverse, from rural and urban communities, young and old, from different geographic and economic groups. We are each living with different realities of a global crisis.

IDS' Melissa Leach, Hayley MacGregor,Annie Wilkinson and Ian Scoones discuss how we can learn from past epidemics and outbreaks and the need to understand social dynamics in order to respond to Covid-19.

Links:

• Book – ‘Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics’, Ian Scoones
• Book – ‘Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice’, Melissa Leach, Sarah Dry and Hayley MacGregor
• Blog - Covid-19 - a social phenomenon requiring diverse expertise
• Blog - Science, uncertainty and the Covid-19 response
• Pandemic Preparedness Programme

Twitter: @IDS_UK #IDSbetweenthelines

Discount code IDS50 offering 50% discount on the three titles listed below:

• Avian Influenza | Paperback | £33.99 £16.99
• Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice | Paperback| £39.99 £19.99
• One Health: Science, politics and zoonotic disease in Africa | Paperback| £35.99 £17.99

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Water is crucial to sustain life, food, ecosystems, human health and wellbeing. Still, millions of poor and marginalised women and men around the world face challenges in accessing water due to a range of ecological, socio-political, institutional and economic reasons.

The focus of this month’s episode of Between the Lines is a new book called ‘Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice’ . IDS researcher, Lidia Cabral interviews two of its authors IDS Fellow, Lyla Mehta and Claudia Ringler, who is Deputy Director of Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). They argue for the need to improve policy coherence across water, land and food and make the case for strengthening the relationship between the human rights to water and food, especially for marginalized women and men.

Book: https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/water-for-food-security-nutrition-and-social-justice/

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