Dr Gerard Prinsen.jpg "Gerard Prinsen")
MA (Groningen State University), PhD (Massey)
Lecturer, Development Studies Programme
Location: Manawatu Campus
Office: Social Science Tower 3.26
Phone: +64 6 356 9099 ext. 2524
Email: G.Prinsen@massey.ac.nz
Teaching
Research interests & networks
In the last 20 years I have mostly worked with development programmes in Africa, often as a manager, sometimes as a trainer and of late as a researcher and evaluator. Most of my activities are related to local governance, particularly the provision of education and health services. I completed my PhD in Development Studies at Massey in 2011, researching decentralisation policies in Uganda and Tanzania.
Perhaps not surprising, my principal interest lies in the linkages between practice and research; between development aid and development studies. I am interested in using and building bridges between the work of practitioners and the work of researchers. Also at a personal level, I keep moving back and forth between development practice and development research. For me, teaching at Massey and discussing development policies in forums like the New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues (NZADDs) are examples of these bridges.
I am very happy to have found Massey’s Development Studies programme willing to employ me part-time, which enables me to continue engagements with other professional environments. I would like to think that I bring ideas and experiences from these other environments to my teaching at Massey – and vice versa if students share their experiences and views in my classes! Some of my other part-time engagements are:
• Since 2007 I have also been teaching at Victoria University Wellington, in the two papers Development Practice and Development Policy.
• I am involved in a Marsden funded regional research project on the impact of aid on sovereignty in the Pacific with colleagues and students across the Pacific for the 2010-2013 period.
• I am also working as an adviser to the Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation (DCR), working in six post-conflict states in Africa for the 2011-2015 period.
With my principal interest focused on the connections between practice and research, my research and supervision interests are in the following areas:
• Africa, local governance, health and education services. This is driven by my past and on-going professional engagement with international aid policies and aid work. If you think of doing research in or about Africa; I will buy the first cup of coffee.
• Local polities and sovereignty. One of my personal discoveries in my research was the enduring resilience of local polities in Africa and I see a similar dynamic in the research on aid and sovereignty in the Pacific. ‘Small is beautiful’ needs an upgrade. If you want to research whether ‘small is strong’, please come and do some arm wrestling with me.
• Participatory research methods. Here I am not just interested in the creative and interactive application of participatory research, but also in the challenges posed by upscaling participatory methods to feed into policy-research. If you want to quantify qualitative research, let’s count some beans in my office.
Commentary
I value public debate. I found myself answering the question “How much overseas aid should a developed country give?” in Chris Laidlaw’s Sunday Morning on Radio NZ, with Jane Silloway-Smith (Maxim Institute) and Geoff Bertram (Institute of Policy Studies) in October 2011.
Internships
In cooperation with the Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation (DCR) we organise web-based internships. In 2012, three Massey and one Victoria postgraduate students are working as interns for the DCR. If you are interested, check out these slides. 
DCR Internship slides
Recent publications
Overton, J., Prinsen, G., Murray, W. E., & Wrighton, N. (2012, in print). Reversing the Tide of Aid: Investigating Development Policy Sovereignty in the Pacific. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 2 (135).
Murray, W.E., Overton, J., Prinsen, G. and Schott, C. (2011). ‘Bringing the World to the Classroom – Towards ‘Virtual Reality’ Pedagogies for International Education’ Journal of International Education and Business 2 (2), pp. 7-26
Prinsen, G and Overton, J (2011) Policy, Personalities and Pedagogy: The Use of Simulation Games to Teach and Learn about Development Policy. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 35 ( 2), pp. 281-297.
