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- Convenors:
-
Catherina Wilson
(Radboud University)
Mirjam de Bruijn (Leiden University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- African researchers in the European academic system
- Location:
- Room 1228
- Sessions:
- Thursday 9 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
Co-creation in scientific knowledge production with African colleagues from within and outside the university is easier said than done. It is presented as a way to escape inequality relations based on colonial heritages. This panel compares different forms of co-creation as decolonization work.
Long Abstract:
Knowledge production through fieldwork is molded in Western epistemologies. Its rules and ethics follow specific standards that are not applicable to all settings. Within the decolonization debate, co-creation is a leeway. Co-creation is the collaborative development of new value (concepts, solutions) between knowledge creators from academia, artists, and others; and from different university environments. Within the ‘open source’ movement, co-creation is collaborative innovation.
Co-creation entrains African and European scientists, or artists, in a joint de-colonizing process of knowledge production. Digital environments that enable constant exchange over long distances and new forms of multi-modal research and publication facilitate co-creation.
However, in how far is co-creation a form of ‘decolonization work’? In other words, a process (action) that entails an ongoing reflection on hierarchies in knowledge production?
This panel focuses on the relationship between African and European knowledge producers/creators. We invite panelists to discuss their experiences with co-creation. We are interested in practices and forms of co-creation, in rules that are followed or subverted, and in solutions to ethical issues. Does co-creation develop epistemologies and lead to new ontologies?
Co-creation ties into the wave of intersectional decolonization. However, we are equally wary of the ways in which this debate increasingly runs the risk of radicalizing, and instead of opening science for other epistemologies, ends up blocking the discussion and creates more oppositions. How do we get past this blockade so that we can further decolonize and shed light on those practices that need yet to be decolonized? What form(s) of co-creation ‘work-s’?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 9 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
This paper critically examines the critical thinking curriculum of a UK transnational HEI in Ghana. It approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the critical thinking curriculum of a British transnational higher education (TNHE) institution in Ghana through a critical theory paradigm. It approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency. While critical thinking has many definitions, it is largely characterised in higher education as originating from European philosophical traditions and embodying a positivist, value-free, transferable, set of abilities (Wasser, 2021) and is the totem around which Western higher education (HE) has assembled (Song and McCarthy, 2018).
This definition is problematic because it ‘implicitly devalues “other ways of knowing”’ (Burbules and Berk, 1999: 49), resulting in a Western monopoly on knowledge being presented as universal, ‘othering’ the non-Western (Raghuram, 2012) and perpetuating distinctions between the centre and the margins of knowledge (Gandhi, 1998). This often leads to reductionist theorising of non-Western students (Ziguras, 2008) – in this context, primarily West African – and affects the student learning experience (Rodrigo, 2021). The tension between the specified, enacted and experienced curricula adds a layer of complexity (McCormick and Murphy, 2008), as learners are unable to experience specified and enacted curricula in a way that resonates with them.
This research approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency. The data gathered through narrative interviews and online forums on Padlet has been interpreted through thematic analysis.
Paper short abstract:
This is a reflection on the transcontinental process of co-creating and co-curating a recipe book with 8 forced migrant women in South Africa. The intention here is to explore opportunities and obstacles that emerge when collaborating with migrant communities despite and beyond the pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
Covid-19 is reframing critical engagement with migrant communities in South Africa. As the marginalization of migrant communities is been exacerbated, academic practices that aim to contribute to the societal inclusion of migrants face new challenges, especially when seeking respectful, reciprocal, and sustainable ways of collaborating in the local context. In this paper, I reflect on my own experience on seeking more critical engagement with migrants during the pandemic. The focus here is on Food for Change, an engaged project where eight forced migrant women based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, were encouraged and supported to share cooking recipes of their choice through online platforms. In response to the pandemic and with the objective to work as closely as possible with the women, we developed an online dialogue that resulted in a co-created and co-curated recipe book. Behind such initiative to share their culinary knowledge, the dialogue in Food for Change offers a layered experience on reimaging opportunities and obstacles to engage with migrant communities despite and beyond the pandemic. This enables reflections around how online means present alternatives of interconnection, while significant limitations highlight power imbalances that prevail despite good intentions in transcontinental collaboration. Moreover, this paper advocates for an emphasis on the interpersonal relationships built within co-creative processes as meaningful spaces on their own where the epistemological and ontological dimensions of decolonization can be grounded in daily practices of reciprocal care and solidarity.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on experiences with a one-year Community-Led Research and Action (CLRA) project conducted with sex workers in Kenya, this paper reflects on the epistemological ideals of co-creation and community leadership, and to what extent CLRA is a form of decolonization work.
Paper long abstract:
Community-led research and action (CLRA) is a practical and innovative community-centered approach to research that can support marginalized communities to reclaim the lead in research. CLRA is a relatively new and experimental research method. It is considered a decolonizing research method as it has potential to shift power relations between the North and South, and between academic- and community researchers. Grounded in a one-year CLRA project conducted with sex workers in Kenya, the paper illustrates that the academic ideals of co-creation and community leadership underlying CLRA regularly conflicted with sex workers everyday lived realities and did not always match community priorities. Moreover, although CLRA strives to be community-driven, and requires academic researchers to take up a facilitating and accompanying role, power differences between academics and community researchers continued to exist, which obstructed the CLRA process from being fully ‘community-led’. This leads to questions such as 'What does community-led mean in practice?'; 'Who was really in the lead?'; 'How did different forms of leadership affect the process'; and 'What does this mean for the design and implementation of future CLRA projects with sex workers?' In trying to answer these questions, I will also reflect on the scientific knowledge CLRA methodology produces, which in my experience is data otherwise difficult to obtain, and how this complements my academic knowledge production, and to what extent this can be considered a form of decolonization work.