Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development
The Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) research programme brings together research conducted within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences that focuses on the Global South using a transnational perspective. The Global South refers to developing countries as well as recently emerging economic powers such as China and India. While its geographic grounding is the Global South, GTD’s research approach centres on exploring North – South and South – South linkages and flows of people, goods, capital and ideas. Researchers use a transnational perspective to investigate such linkages, giving GTD its distinctive profile. A commonality is that research is strongly grounded in empirical, primary data collection work using mixed methods ranging from anthropological qualitative fieldwork to sociological quantitative surveys.
Director: Dr. Brigitte Le Normand
Key research themes
Research in GTD focuses on three areas: transnational migrant families and networks; transnational knowledge exchanges for development; state capital and global development.
Transnational migrant families and networks
Research projects investigate the linkages that are created between people, places, things and events in migrant sending and receiving countries. This research aims to re-frame migration research that is usually conducted within a nation-state framework and does so by focusing on the every-day lived experiences of migrants and the people they are tied to in their countries of origin as well as elsewhere, paying particular attention to transnational families and social networks. Research is based on empirical investigations and multi-sited research designs mainly focused on Africa and Europe.
Transnational knowledge exchanges for development
Projects study new actors influencing the way development is thought about and conducted. Examples include the role of civil society institutions and their use of transnational platforms to influence development outcomes locally and the role of emerging economies in setting development agendas and providing role models for policy makers and elites in the Global South.
State capital and global development
Research projects investigate the more visible role of the state across the global economy and in global development as promoter, supervisor, regulator, and owner of capital. This research moves beyond state-centric accounts of state capital(ism) to explain the multiple interconnections between different repertoires of state intervention and organizational forms (e.g. SOEs; SWFs) that transcend the territorial boundaries of nation-states. The aim of this research is to expand conceptual frontiers to better explain contemporary change in the global political economy.
Laura Ogden, postdoc researcher in the MO-TRAYL project, was one of four finalists for the NWO's Synergy Award '22, which gives PhD students an opportunity to explore the potential social impact of their research.
During the Synergy event, Laura presented the project 'From Generations to Trajectories: Rethinking the Way We Categorise Migrant Youth'.
In this short video, she explains the MO-TRAYL research and proposed Synergy Award project.
News
Prestigious European grant for two UM researchers
Two researchers from Maastricht University (UM) have received a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. This will allow them to set up a scientific research team in the coming years for studies on bioprinted models of a human kidney and on female guest workers from...
Valentina Mazzucato awarded NWA-ORC grant
With a consortium, she will research how early action and adaptation can effectively build on local at-risk populations’ resilience needs and strategies and how their knowledge can best be included in large-scale climate modelling to better reflect their needs.
Lauren Wagner receives NIAS fellowship
Lauren will spend February-June 2025 in Amsterdam at NIAS among a group of international fellows who are working independently in a wide variety of disciplines, problems, and research perspectives.
2 NWO PhD in the Humanities grants for FASoS
Max Boutell and Sharon Anyango will work on separate projects on the role adaptive architects in the neoliberal turn, and on gender expectations of Somali and Eritrean refugees in the Netherlands.
Pablo Del Hierro wins FASoS Valorisation Prize
Pablo Del Hierro has been awarded this year’s Valorisation Prize for his outreach activities following the project "(Neo)Fascist Metropolis: Madrid and the Transnational Far Right Networks since the end of the Spanish Civil War". The honourable mention this year goes to Elsje Fourie’s and Christin...
