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Photo of Danny Burns, IDS Participation, Power and Social Change Team leader

Danny Burns - Team Leader

Participation Power and Social Change
T: +44 (0)1273 915612
E: d.burns@ids.ac.uk

Administrator:
Stephen Wood

Thematic Expertise:
MDGs and Post 2015; Post MDGs; Participatory methodologies; Participation Power and Politics; Unruly Politics.

Danny Burns is Team Leader of the Participation, Power and Social Change team at IDS. His work focuses on participatory learning for social change with a strong emphasis on systems thinking and complexity.

Between 2002 and 2010 he was Professor of Social & Organisational Learning at the University of the West of England (UWE). At UWE, he co-directed the SOLAR action research centre. Prior to this he was a lecturer, then senior lecturer, at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. There he was Programme Director of the M.Sc. in Management Development and Social Responsibility. Previously, Danny worked as the Director of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service for Scotland and prior to that as Director of the Decentralisation Research and Information Centre. Over the past eight years he has directed or co-directed more than fifteen action research projects.

Research

Currently Danny is currently working on three research projects:

  • He is co-directing the Participate initiative (2012-13) with Joanna Wheeler. Participate is a collaboration between IDS and the Beyond 2015 campaign. It is supporting a major global programme of participatory research which will contribute to global debates on the future of international development post 2015 as well as laying the foundations for an international participatory research network. The project is funded by the UK Department of International Development.
  • He is working in Bangladesh (2012-13) with Katy Oswald on Voices of the Marginalised: Piloting participatory methods with people with disabilities and older people. This is funded by HelpAge, ADD, and Sightsavers.
  • He is working with Joanna Wheeler and Katy Oswald on the Valuing Volunteering project (2011-14). Funded by VSO, this is a five country systemic action research project in the Phillipines, Nepal, Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique looking at the impact of volunteering on poverty.

Previously, Danny was a member of the leadership team for the Bellagio Initiative on the Future of International Development and Philanthropy (2011-12).

He also led a major action research programme for the National Co-ordination Centre for Public Engagementin Higher Education.

Danny is widely published, most recently on systemic approaches to action research. Key texts include:

Danny's interests include participatory methods, systemic action research, community development and community action, the significance of complexity and systems thinking to development and systemic conflict transformation.

Supervision

Danny currently supervises three research students:

  • Alfredo Ortiz
  • Jody Aked
  • Eric Kasper

Participate: Knowledge from the margins for post-2015

Ensuring that the most vulnerable and marginalised communities have the opportunity to shape post-2015 policymaking

More details

The Bellagio Initiative
The Bellagio Initiative is a series of global consultations that aims to explore trends and opportunities in philanthropy and development.

More details

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Education as Active Citizenship: Children and Young People as Agents of Change in the Development of Sustainable Communities

 Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (2012)
Percy-Smith, B., Burns, D.

Practitioner Reflection on Systemic Action Research in Climate Change

 In 'Action Research for Development and Social Change' (2012)
Burns, D.

Action Research for Development and Social Change

 IDS Bulletin 43.3 (2012)
Burns, D.

The Future of Philanthropy and Development in the Pursuit of Well Being: Global Dialogue on Urbanisation - Delhi

 (2011)
Burns, D.

A Methodological Strategy for Reimagining Development: Enabling Complex Systemic Patterns to Surface through Multiple Voices

 IDS Bulletin 42.5 (2011)
Burns, D.

Embedding Public Engagement in Higher Education: Report of the Action Research Programme

 (2011)
Burns, D., Squires, H.

Facilitating Systemic Conflict Transformation Through Systemic Action Research

 In 'The Non-Linearity of Peace Processes - Theory and Practice of Systemic Conflict Transformation' (2011)
Körppen, D., Ropers, N. and Giessmann, H.J.

Evaluation in Complex Governance Arenas: The Potential of Large System Action Research

In 'Systems Concepts in Evaluation: An expert anthology' (2007)
Williams,B. and Imam,I.

Systemic Action Research

 (2007)
Burns, D.

Interim Evaluation of Communities First

 (2006)
Burns, D., Hirst, A., Tarling, R.

What works in assessing community participation?

 (2004)
Burns,D., Heywood,F., Wilde,P. and Wilson,M.

Community Self-Help

 (2004)
Burns,D., Williams,C. and Windebank, J.

Making Community Participation Meaningful: a Handbook for Development and Assessment

 (2004)
Burns, D., Heyward, F. and Taylor, M.

Mind the Gap

 (2003)
Percy-Smith, B., Burns, D., Walsh, D., Weil, S.

Empowering Communities: The Impact of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) on Social Capital

 (2001)
Burns, D., Flint, J., Forrest, R., Kearns, A.

People in Communities Initiative: An Evaluation Report

 (2001)
Burns, D.

Can Local Democracy Survive Governance?

 Urban Studies 37.5-6 (2000)
Burns, D.

Can Large Scale Stock Transfer Deliver Community Ownership?

 In 'Stock Transfer: The Means of Creating Sustainable Communities?' (2000)
Robertson, D. (ed.)

Auditing Community Participation

 In 'Reflecting Realities: Participants' Perspectives on Integrated Communities and Sustainable Development' (2000)
Anastacio, J.

Auditing the Capacity of Institutions and Communities to Deliver Democratic Participation

 Voluntary Action Journal 2.3 (2000)
Burns, D., Taylor, M.
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