Sumários
Methods-in-practice panel: AfDevLives fieldwork insights
6 Fevereiro 2026, 18:00 • Janine Häbel
The final session consisted of a research-in-practice panel with AfDevLive's postdoc Ana Luísa Silva and PhD student Francis Ngure. Silva shared her experience of conducting PhD research under time constraints and during the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining how these conditions shaped her methodological choices, including the adoption of a mixed-methods approach in studying large-scale development interventions and networks in Mozambique and beyond. Ngure discussed the trials and tribulations of obtaining permits and gaining access to railway infrastructure and workers in Kenya, highlighting the bureaucratic and relational dimensions of fieldwork.
The session also addressed strategies for maintaining mental well-being during challenging fieldwork periods, the responsible use of AI tools in research, and final clarifications regarding the course essay.
Academic writing: representing development ethnographically
5 Fevereiro 2026, 18:00 • Janine Häbel
This session focused on academic writing as a critical and argumentative practice, with particular attention to how development interventions can be represented ethnographically. We discussed structure and coherence in academic texts, including how to move from empirical material to broader analytical claims. Using the “they say / I say” framework, students reflected on how to position their arguments within existing debates and how to clearly distinguish between summarizing others’ work and advancing their own perspective.
We also addressed key principles of scholarly writing, such as clarity, paragraph structure, engagement with sources, and proper referencing. The session emphasized writing as a process of constructing arguments, encouraging students to think carefully about how development contexts and interlocutors are represented in academic prose.
From empirical fragments to analysis
4 Fevereiro 2026, 18:00 • Janine Häbel
The third session focused on how to move from empirical material to analytical argument. This was explored through Janine Häbel’s two extended case studies conducted in Northern Tanzania: her doctoral research on conviviality and secrecy among women-centered networks, and AfDevLives research on the informal reuse of colonial, state-owned railway tracks.
Through these examples, the session examined how empirical fragments, such as life histories, everyday practices, material infrastructures, and local explanations, can be transformed into coherent analytical narratives. Students reflected on how specific observations lead to broader arguments about conviviality, secrecy, material trust and material value, and colonial legacies. The discussion also addressed practical aspects of analytical work, including transcription, organizing fieldnotes, and connecting empirical material to relevant literature.
Qualitative approaches to studying development interventions
3 Fevereiro 2026, 18:00 • Janine Häbel
The second session focused on qualitative approaches as a way to study development interventions beyond the framework of quantitative evaluations of success and failure. We discussed methods as choices, comparing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches, and reflecting on how different methods enable and limit particular forms of knowledge.
Core qualitative tools were introduced, including interviews (types, preparation, and ethics), participant observation, and fieldnote practices. Particular attention was given to positionality and the relational nature of data production. We also explored participatory and sensory approaches as complementary strategies for examining lived experiences, material traces, and everyday dimensions of development processes.
Students reflected on their own methodological experiences and research plans throughout the session.
Introduction: Development, traces, and afterlives
2 Fevereiro 2026, 18:00 • Janine Häbel
The first session introduced the central thematic framework of the course: studying development interventions through their traces and afterlives rather than solely through indicators or evaluations. Drawing on examples from Project AfDevLives, including material from the KEFINCO estate in Kakamega (Kenya), we explored how development projects persist through infrastructures, material remains, archives, memories, and everyday practices. An image-based analytical exercise invited students to reflect on materiality, temporality, appropriation, and the multiplicity of perspectives involved in development contexts.
Building on this thematic grounding, we discussed key principles of doctoral research design, including coherence between research questions and methods, feasibility, and analytical clarity. The session also included structured student introductions in order to align the course discussions with participants’ doctoral projects and research interests.