The network evolves

For the 19 young scholars brought together by the Poverty Research Network, the rewards have been substantial.

Lu Ming, who describes his experience with the group as “just fantastic,” likens the network to a bridge – connecting China to Canada, and linking researchers to each other and to scholars beyond the group.

He cites the poverty network’s role in catalyzing the formation of another collaborative group: the China Labour Economists Network.

Launched recently by Lu Ming, along with Yin Heng and Xing Chunbing of Beijing Normal University – all labour-market specialists who met through the poverty network – the new group already numbers about 20 scholars. They held a first conference at Fudan University in October 2008, and plan another symposium for spring 2009.

“The labour economists’ group is one of the fruits of the Poverty Research Network, so it has really been very helpful,” Lu Ming says. “The network is a bridge, and it could be expanded to more people.”

Indeed, the young economists and their mentors have helped lay the groundwork for a possible next phase. Plans are underway to broaden the network to include support for high-quality applied research on wider development issues, with the findings to be communicated lucidly to policy audiences both in China and Canada.

Kelly Haggart is a senior writer at IDRC.


Previous: "The good work is collaborative"

Back to China Scholars Home