Month: August 2024

Three spaces of change for reorienting North-South research partnerships

By Geetika Khanduja, Peter Taylor, Andrea Ordóñez, Erica Nelson and Tracy Mamoun

authors_khanduja_taylor_ordonez_nelson_mamoun
1. Geetika Khanduja; 2. Peter Taylor; 3. Andrea Ordóñez; 4. Erica Nelson; 5. Tracy Mamoun (biographies)

What are some of the challenges that researchers from the Global South face when engaging in development research initiatives, and how can resetting the relationships that underpin North-South collaborations help? What are the pivotal areas where change is needed?

Challenges

The main concerns for many researchers in Global South-based institutions are around the deep-rooted structural challenges that underpin the research for development space, such as:

  • funding dependence on external sources,
  • insufficient national expenditures on research,
  • lack of agency in the design and implementation of research projects,
  • publication pressures built on problematic Global North “output”-driven demands,
  • competing incentives for promoting and achieving policy uptake.

Read more

Three lessons for mainstreaming transdisciplinarity

By Lisa Andrews, Bárbara Willaarts, Andreas Panagopoulos, Radhika Kanade, Nelson Odume, Bodil Ankjær Nielsen and Ingrīda Brēmere.

authors_andrews_willaarts_panagopoulos_kanade_odume_ankjaer
1. Lisa Andrews; 2. Bárbara Willaarts; 3. Andreas Panagopoulos; 4. Radhika Kanade; 5. Nelson Odume; 6. Bodil Ankjær Nielsen; 7. Ingrīda Brēmere (biographies)

Are there similar challenges, responsibilities, and methods in transdisciplinarity across countries, scales, contexts and actor types?

In exploring five transdisciplinary case studies from projects on the topics of the water-energy-food-environment nexus and climate change adaptation, we identified three main lessons learned. These were common across the cases from South Africa, India, Greece, Latvia and Denmark, despite their different contexts, types of actors and project structures. These lessons were shared in a workshop at the 2024 Sustainability, Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress in Finland.

Read more

Metalogues and their role in communities of practice

By Janet J. McIntyre-Mills

janet-mcintyre-mills
Janet J. McIntyre-Mills (biography)

What is a metalogue? How can metalogues support the work of communities of practice?

A metalogue is a series of asynchronous, iterative conversations, and commentary on transcripts from dialogues, to enable exploring diverse ways of knowing in a community of practice (Wenger et al., 2009).

The term ‘metalogue’ draws on the work of Gregory Bateson (1972) and Nora Bateson (2021) to encourage people to think ecologically and to avoid what Shiva (2012) calls ‘monocultures of the mind’ when addressing areas of concern. In other words to think about relationships within context and to foster ‘an ecology of mind’ with members of a community of practice. The aim is to address an area of shared concern by pooling ideas in a reciprocal manner in order to achieve an agreed goal with people from similar or diverse backgrounds spanning spaces and places.

How can metalogues support the work of communities of practice?

Read more

A process for applying intersectionality

By Zdena Middernacht and Laurène Bounaud

authors_zdena-middernacht_laurene-bounaud
1. Zdena Middernacht (biography)
2. Laurène Bounaud (biography)

What is intersectionality? What are the structural elements that limit its application? How can intersectionality be applied as a useful lens, especially in strategy development?

A recap of intersectionality

Intersectionality offers a framework to understand how particular identities, (eg., black and female) are tied to particular inequalities (eg., violence against women) in different historical times and locations.

The material conditions which produce economic, social and political inequality in peoples’ lives are structured by the converging and simultaneous ways in which the ever-changing logics by which society is organised, interact (Mirza 2013). These logics include race, class and gender, as well as other social divisions such as sexuality, age, disability, ethnicity, culture, and religion.

As such, different dimensions of social life cannot be separated out into discrete and pure strands.

Read more