LSE - Small Logo
LSE - Small Logo

Keith McDonald

June 2nd, 2015

Development with a “human face”? – Portia Roelofs wins Research Festival Prize

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Keith McDonald

June 2nd, 2015

Development with a “human face”? – Portia Roelofs wins Research Festival Prize

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Portia Roelofs, International Development, LSEPortia Roelofs, a PhD student in the Department, has taken the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) prize from the 2015 LSE Research Festival.

The prize is awarded to the best entry from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded student.

Portia works on African politics (with particular attention to Nigeria), and is interested in issues surrounding gender, corruption, and governance and accountability.

The photograph she submitted for the exhibition was taken during a visit to Nigeria in 2013, which she explains below. (Select the image for a larger version.)

Portia Roelofs, Abeokuta: Development with a ‘human face’?

  • Title of Photo – Abeokuta: Development with a ‘human face’?
  • Title of Research – Governance and Accountability in Oyo State

“I took this photo during a study visit in 2013 to South West Nigeria as part of the ESRC’s Overseas Institutional Visit scheme.

“I was hosted at the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Oyo State. Whilst visiting Abeokuta in nearby Ogun state, I saw the striking image of houses sliced in half along the expressway.

“Many of the state governors in the South West have embarked on urban renewal programmes in the last decade, dualising major roads and ‘beautifying’ the surroundings with flowers and landscaping. This often involves  partially demolishing nearby buildings and removing informal traders from the roadside.

“My research looks at how different groups conceive of ideas like development and progress. Who is development for? Who gets left out?”

Congratulations to Portia from everyone in the Department.

About the author

Keith McDonald

Posted In: Featured | Fieldwork and Travel

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RSS Justice and Security Research Programme

RSS LSE’s engagement with South Asia

  • Climate Change, Internal Displacement and Public Health in Sindh
    While climate change is discussed widely across disciplines, the internal displacement of peoples directly affected by it — and the short and longer term impact of such displacement — is equally worrying. In this brief post, Dorien Braam highlights some of the critical issues affecting these people — invariably amongst the poorest — in Sindh. […]
  • ‘Smart Bangladesh’: What about ‘Smart Politics’ and ‘Smart Thinking’?
    As the ruling Awami League pushes forth with its vision of a ‘Smart Bangladesh’ by 2041, focusing on increasing digitalisation and reliant on widespread subscription, Ratan Kumar Roy asks a crucial question: can a ‘smart’ policy alone bring about societal change, or does it require something more?      A short video-clip of the dramatic […]