Dr Chris Lyon

Dr Chris Lyon

International Development Department
Teaching Fellow in Politics of Development
Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes (Distance Learning)

Contact details

Address
IDD - School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Chris Lyon's research interests are at the meeting point between political theory and global development, and also involve related issues in the philosophy of social science and research methodology. In his teaching career to date, he has largely taught on the politics of development, critical approaches to poverty, and research methods and theory.

Qualifications

PhD Global Development and Political Theory, 2018, University of Manchester

Biography

I joined Birmingham in October 2021. I have taught mainly on IDD's politics of development modules, and participated in politics and democracy research groups, as well as collaborating on the department's forthcoming book on the politics of development. I arrived from the University of Manchester, where I taught in similar areas, as well as working as a research associate at the ‘Effective States and Inclusive Development’ research centre. My PhD, at Manchester, was “Towards a relational approach to social justice: liberals, radicals, and Brazil’s ‘new social contract’.” I took a somewhat unusual route to international development, studying philosophy and music at Edinburgh, but became interested in development and international politics through activism in the area of UK asylum policy.

Teaching

  • Global Development Challenges (1st year UG)
  • International Development (MSc)
  • Development Politics (MSc)
  • Democracy, Dictatorship, and Development (MSc)
  • Personal Academic Tutoring

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD work relating to: politics of development; democratisation; social justice; development ethics; and related areas.

Research

My research interests are at the meeting point between political theory and global development, and also involve related issues in the philosophy of social science. I am interested in political theories of justice and democracy, and how they apply in the context of development, and in related normative dilemmas faced by development actors. My teaching has tended to focus on the politics of development, democratisation, critical approaches to poverty, and research methods and theory.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Lyon, C 2022, 'Can social groups be units of normative concern? Normative individualism, futurity, causality, social ontology', Social Theory and Practice, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 553-581. https://doi.org/10.5840/soctheorpract202191135

Chapter

Lyon, C 2018, COMENTARIOS A “¿DISTRIBUCIÓN O RECONOCIMIENTO?". in P Aguayo Westwood (ed.), RECONOCIMIENTO,JUSTICIA Y DEMOCRACIA: Ensayos sobre John Rawls. Cenaltes, Santiago, pp. 119-135. <https://www.cenaltesediciones.cl/index.php/ediciones/catalog/book/27>

Book/Film/Article review

Lyon, C 2018, 'Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice: The Capability Approach Re-Examined', Journal of Development Studies, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 330-331.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Politics of development; foreign aid policy; political development; democratisation; international development; development ethics; Brazil; (politics, development of Brazil)