July 23, 2009
Prof. Dr. Andreas Obrecht

Prof. Obrecht is the new KEF-coordinator since the beginning of July.
In his new role he likes to address a few words to you:

Dear KEF-partners and colleagues,

It is since the beginning of the month that I have received the honour to coordinate the “Commission for Development Studies” and to build up a new focus area for “Development Co-operation” within the organizational structure of the OeAD Ges.m.b.H.  Due to the fact that KEF has left the Austrian Academy of Sciences and become part of the OeAD by January this year, internal restructuring and reorientation processes have become necessary.  Prof. Gerhard Glatzel, former chairman of the commission, and my predecessor Birgit Habermann have done an excellent job together with the entire KEF-team – Beatrix Summerer, Maiada Gassan Hadaia, Matthias Weissgram – to strengthen the awareness for the importance of development studies in national and transnational scientific contexts and to empower academic research for development.  Thanks to all of them, and in particular thanks to the members of the commission, whose engagement and interest have guaranteed relevant research and open scientific discussions at a high academic level. The work of all the people involved in the past - and hopefully in the future – has provided an excellent basis for further research activities. 

I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself briefly.  I studied at the University of Vienna to become a sociologist and a social and cultural anthropologist.  After nine years as an assistant professor at the University of Vienna I worked for many years as an independent researcher and consultant for various national and international organizations and agencies – mainly in the field of Development Co-operation and Development Research.  After my Habilitation in Sociology – with special focus on Development Research – I have been in charge of the “Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Development Co-operation” (IEZ) of the Johannes Kepler University in Linz/Upper Austria, where we were able to realize quite a number of interesting research programmes in collaboration with international partners in the areas of development studies, appropriate technologies, socio-cultural transformation processes and cultural globalisation.  Starting my own research activities by the end of the 1980s in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea), I continued during the 1990s by working in African countries, especially in the sub-Saharan zone (Tanzania, Senegal, Republic of South Africa, Namibia) and from the year 2000 on, in South-Asian and South-East-Asian regions (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lao, Bhutan). The interconnection between the theoretical foundation, which is obligatory for any responsible research, and reliable qualitative and quantitative surveys based on relevant and “grass-root” related problems and questions, has always been a special challenge for me - no matter in which organizational or institutional context the research is embedded.  Another matter of concern for me is the visibility of the research – not only for the scientific community but also for the broader public.  Making development research activities and the connected development political issues accessible to a broad general public can be seen as precondition for higher awareness and also for the increase of the national political importance of the issue. In recent years I have produced more than 20 hours of radio programs based on sociological and ethnographic material from various regions of the world.

I am looking forward to the cooperation with our colleagues, partners and friends within the KEF-network.  Due to the tense economic situation that affects most parts of the academic sectors, the KEF-budget has decreased and for the rest of the year only a few further research activities can be funded.  Nevertheless, we are optimistic for the future and we are confident that we will strengthen the institutional basis for development research together with our partners within Austria and abroad.

Andreas Obrecht

KEF-Team: http://www.kef-online.at/en/wer-wir-sind/kef-team.html