Paper short abstract:

This paper critically reflects on experiences the authors made in the context of a collaborative research project. It shows how co-creation as collaborative field research can lead to epistemic opening, but also points to several limitations encountered when it comes to its decolonizing potential.

Paper long abstract:

Co-creation of knowledge takes place through intimate collaboration between actors from different backgrounds. It points our attention to an “epistemic surplus” which is not possible in hitherto mainstreamed forms of knowledge production. But what is this “epistemic surplus”? How and under what conditions does co-creation allow for it to evolve? And how does it relate to the aim of decolonizing knowledge (production)? This paper critically reflects on experiences the authors made in the context of a collaborative research project in which researchers from Burkina Faso, the Gambia and Germany conduct field work together, including data collection and analysis, and eventually, publish research results jointly. The project speaks to co-creation in a double sense: it explores new ways of collaborative research between African and European academics, but it also co-creates knowledge in a transdisciplinary sense by exploring everyday knowledges and perceptions of African regional interventions and demonstrating their relevance also as academic knowledge. Our contribution shows that in such a setting collaborative field research allowed for epistemic openings as it (1) adds another layer of reflexivity through ongoing and joint interpretation of research data and reflection on research practices; (2) allows for time and space to develop a common language and to work across disciplines. However, we also encountered that postcolonial hierarchies continue to limit the decolonizing potential of co-creation, especially where funding lines seek to enforce differences between “us” and “them” and are ignorant towards diverging incentive structures and education biographies for scholars from different contexts.