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 am a political theorist interested in questions of development. As such, my research examines the two-way relationship between political normativity - ideas such as justice, democracy, and political realism/idealism - and development. I have published on this in journals such as Social Theory and Practice and Progress in Development Studies.

I teach mainly on IDD's politics of development modules, as well as leading our distance learning programme. I currently organise the 'Governance and Politics of Development' research group, and collaborated on the department's recent book.

Previously, at the University of Manchester, I was a research associate at the ‘Effective States and Inclusive Development’ research centre. My PhD, also 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. I am interested in how (and to what extent) normative-political ideas such as justice and democracy apply in the context of development and aid, in the question of political realism vs. idealism, and in the various normative dilemmas inherent in development. I have related interests in the philosophy of social science, regarding the social ontology and causal status of relations, groups, and structure. My research interests strongly inform my teaching, which 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 2024, 'Between Realism and Idealism in the Politics of Development', Progress in Development Studies.

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 (peer-reviewed)

Lyon, C & Chowns, E 2024, Power to the people? Social movements, popular participation, and deepening democracy. in C Mcloughin, S Ali, K Xie, N Cheeseman & D Hudson (eds), The Politics of Development. SAGE Publications, pp. 154-173.

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.

Working paper

Lyon, C 2025 'Relationality in Social Justice: Interactional or Structural?'.

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)