This paper describes how we co-produced a Chichewa-English two-way translation glossary of development terminology with communities in Malawi through participatory workshops. It will reflect on the potential of the tool as a meaning-making activity for community activism for environmental justice.
Paper long abstract:
The fields of international development and academia have been Anglocentric for several decades, which has produced hegemonic norms, concepts and understandings that are inextricably related to an Anglo worldview. Ecolinguistics has helped to make the case for embracing linguistic diversity to address key ecological issues, but it rarely considers the practical questions of how researchers and practitioners could build bridges between different language groups to develop solidarities and a platform for change, which is particularly crucial for hard-to-translate terms. This paper discusses the early development of an innovative research tool to help achieve this goal. It describes how we co-produced a Chichewa-English two-way translation glossary of development terminology with communities in Malawi through participatory workshops. It will explain how the participants used the translation exercises to critically engage with key development terms, and it will reflect on the potential of the tool as a meaning-making activity for community activism for environmental justice.