Good morning, everyone,

大家早上好，

and welcome to your first lecture in Development Studies.

欢迎来到发展研究学的第一堂课。

Development Studies, as a discipline,

发展研究学作为一门学科，

can be boiled down to a couple of core objectives.

可以归结为几个核心目标。

Basically, we are trying to understand how it is that societies experience particular kinds of change and how they progress as they develop.

基本上，我们试图理解社会是如何经历特定类型的变革，以及它们在发展过程中如何进步。

We're also trying to go beyond that, however,

不过，我们还试图更进一步，

and work out how different sorts of action can facilitate or even encourage these changes to happen.

弄清楚各种不同的行动如何促进、甚至推动这些变革的发生。

To achieve these objectives, there are two key approaches that underpin Development Studies.

为实现这些目标，发展研究学有两套关键的支撑方法。

Firstly, there's a theoretical approach,

首先是理论方法，

which is all about the 'how' of change.

它关注的是变革「如何」发生。

with theory we can explore some of the big questions: What kind of change should we aspire to,

借助理论，我们可以探讨一些重大问题：我们应该追求什么样的变革，

and how can this be achieved?

又该如何实现它？

But we don't just talk;

但我们不能只是空谈，

we've also got to apply some of this thinking.

还必须把其中的一些思考付诸实践。

So through the applied approach we're looking at specific policies,

所以通过应用方法，我们研究具体的政策，

and trying to understand how they can most effectively be put into place.

并试图理解如何才能最有效地落实这些政策。

Although we try not to limit ourselves, we do focus on a few key areas.

尽管我们尽量不给自己设限，但确实会聚焦于几个关键领域。

Due to our location, for example,

比如，由于我们所在的地理位置，

the Asia-Pacific region is an important area of research for us.

亚太地区是我们重要的研究区域。

At the moment we're doing a lot of work on urbanisation, and there are two elements to this.

目前我们在城市化方面做了大量研究，这涉及两个要素。

One is employment, as urbanisation leads to major employment problems,

一是就业，因为城市化会带来严重的就业问题，

and the other is housing -with so many people moving to cities,

二是住房——随着大量人口迁入城市，

many of them struggle to find a place to live.

其中许多人很难找到住处。

Other issues of particular interest to our staff are migration and, of course, trade.

我们教职人员特别关注的其他议题是移民，当然还有贸易。

So what will you be able to do with a degree in Development Studies?

那么，拿到发展研究学学位后，你能做什么呢？

Well, firstly, you'll develop a full working knowledge of all aspects of development.

首先，你将全面掌握发展各个方面的实用知识。

You'll also learn how to gather data.

你还将学习如何收集数据。

We include sessions on how to gather statistics,

我们设有关于如何收集统计数据的课程，

but we mostly focus on textual data,

但重点主要放在文本数据上，

that is, policy briefings, research reports, and so on.

也就是政策简报、研究报告等等。

Once you've done your research,

一旦你完成了研究，

you need to know what it all means;

你需要知道这一切意味着什么；

after all,

毕竟，

there's not much point in collecting a whole lot of data if you don't know whether it is significant or not - so we're going to teach you how to critically evaluate your findings.

如果你不知道数据是否显著，收集一大堆数据就没多大意义——所以我们会教你们如何批判性地评估自己的研究结果。

And finally, teamwork is a big part of development work -your major piece of research work for this class is done in groups of four,

最后，团队合作是发展研究工作的重要组成部分——这门课的主要研究作业是以四人小组的形式完成的，

so you're going to learn how to cooperate as a team in order to plan and conduct this research assignment.

所以你们将学习如何作为团队协作，来规划和开展这项研究任务。

I want to move on now to give you a brief overview of how Development Studies has evolved as a discipline since it was first established.

现在我想接着为大家简要概述一下发展研究作为一门学科自创立以来的演变过程。

The first thing to note is that, unlike other subjects, such as mathematics or philosophy,

首先要注意的是，与数学或哲学等其他学科不同，

Development Studies is very young.

发展研究是一门非常年轻的学科。

It began taking shape as a formal discipline only in the 1950s.

它直到20世纪50年代才开始作为一门正式学科成形。

At that stage, economic concerns were at the forefront of nearly all research efforts.

在那个阶段，经济问题几乎处于所有研究工作的最前沿。

Researchers assumed that development in general could be measured by indicators such as Gross Domestic Product {GDP), or unemployment levels.

研究者们假设，总体发展可以通过国内生产总值（GDP）或失业率等指标来衡量。

In the 1970s, a new set of scholars took charge.

到了20世纪70年代，一批新的学者开始主导。

These researchers,informed by the social movements of the 1960s,

这些研究者受到20世纪60年代社会运动的影响，

brought a new set of issues to the table.

提出了一系列新的议题。

At that time, Development Studies grew increasingly critical of established practices,

那时，发展研究对既有做法越来越持批判态度，

and the assumptions that lay behind these practices.

以及这些做法背后的假设。

Questions were raised in three areas: the role of power in creating policy,

人们在三个方面提出了疑问：权力在政策制定中的作用、

the importance of environmentally sustainable change, and problems with inequalities in terms of gender.

环境可持续变革的重要性，以及性别不平等带来的问题。

From the 1980s onwards, the economy staged a comeback as a centrepiece of development practice.

从20世纪80年代起，经济作为发展实践的核心重新回归。

A key factor here was the reduced significance of national governments due to a number of market-led reforms in many countries around the world.

这里的一个关键因素是，由于世界许多国家推行了一系列以市场为主导的改革，国家政府的重要性降低了。

In contrast to the 1950s, however, researchers have recently shown a heightened interest in smaller-scale economic projects.

然而，与20世纪50年代相比，研究者们近来对规模较小的经济项目表现出更浓厚的兴趣。

One significant innovation here is the idea of making tiny loans, sometimes only a few dollars, to help women, in particular, to start up a small business.

其中一项重要创新是提供小额贷款，有时只有几美元，以帮助尤其是女性创办小企业。

And that brings us today.

这就把我们带到了今天。

So let's finish now by talking about...

那么现在让我们以谈论……来结束。