Over the last two decades the expanding role of Southern countries as development partners has led to tectonic shifts in global development ideas, practices, norms and actors. Researchers are faced with new questions around identity, power and positionality in global development. Researching South-South Development Cooperation examines this rapidly growing and complex phenomenon, asking to what extent existing assumptions, conceptual frameworks and definitions of 'development' need to be reframed in the context of researching this new landscape.

This interdisciplinary book draws on voices from across the Global South and North to explore the epistemological and related methodological challenges and opportunities associated with researching South-South development cooperation, asking what these trends mean for the politics of knowledge production. Chapters are interspersed with shorter vignettes, which aim to share examples from first-hand participation in and observation of South-South development cooperation initiatives.

This book will be of interest to anyone conducting research on development in the Global South, whether they are a practitioner or policy maker, or a student or researcher in politics, international development, area studies, or international relations.

"This highly original and theoretically sophisticated collection by an unusually diverse group of contributors subjects the idea of 'south-south development cooperation' to the sort of critical scrutiny it has long demanded. In doing so they break important new theoretical ground and offer a new and potentially transformative activist agenda." — David Lewis, London School of Economics & Political Science, UK

"The economic and political rise of China and other Asian countries is profoundly reconfiguring international relations, including the knowledge production on South-South Development Cooperation. This volume presents an inspiring selection of perspectives, while self-critically questioning the positionality of the authors amidst increasing valorization and commodification of research." — Arndt Graf, Africa’s Asian Options (AFRASO), Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

"Rich in analysis and reflection, this kaleidoscopic volume brings together emergent and established voices to interrogate the ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies of South-South Development Cooperation. This result is a book that is novel in both form and content, and that breaks new ground by debating and deliberating how identity, power and positionality shape geographies of knowledge production concerning a key topic for contemporary development studies." — Jamie Doucette, University of Manchester, UK

"This creative volume traces, theorizes and reflects on changing research epistemologies following global shifts in economic and political power. Clearly, development studies has been waiting for this book, though its importance far surpasses the discipline. Decolonising knowledge (production) all in academia must: the discussions in this volume lead the way." — Bram Buscher, Wageningen University, Netherlands

"A bold questioning of what it means to research south-south development cooperation. Highly creative in form and content, this volume will greatly serve teachers, students, researchers and practitioners to reflect upon uncomfortable yet necessary questions of positionality and theory-building in globalization and development studies. I expect this book to be of great influence." — Valentina Mazzucato, Maastricht University, Netherlands

"This interesting collection offers an array of studies on ‘the politics of knowledge production’ in connection to South-South development cooperation, a rapidly emerging field and realigning global ideologies and processes of ‘development’. Indeed, virtually all chapters are written by scholars from the global South: the editors only wrote the Introduction and the Conclusion. They address a variety of relevant issues regarding social epistemology, development, and identity politics, and while here and there somewhat ‘Third-Worldist’ in approach the book provides essential and challenging reading, bound to evoke critical debate." — Jon Abbink, Professor of Politics & Governance in Africa, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Emma Mawdsley is a Reader in Human Geography, at Cambridge University, UK

Elsje Fourie is Assistant Professor of Globalisation and Development, at Maastricht University, the Netherlands

Wiebe Nauta is a Sociologist of Development, at Maastricht University, the Netherlands