Transforming North-South academic collaborations through collective reflexivity

By Adriana Moreno Cely, Kewan Mertens and Viola Nilah Nyakato.

How can we challenge entrenched colonial dynamics in North-South academic collaborations and foster meaningful transformation? How can we move away from power asymmetries where Northern partners assume roles as donors and agenda-setters, leaving Southern collaborators as recipients and implementers? How can we promote equitable knowledge production, allowing diverse voices to speak while being open to listening to them?

In grappling with these challenges in our own collaborations, we used collective reflexive dialogues to unpack our complicity in reproducing problematic power dynamics.

Collective reflexive dialogue

While self-reflexivity encourages researchers to reflect on their positionality and privilege, it often remains a solitary exercise, which tends to devolve into performative “confessional” practices that fail to disrupt entrenched systems of power.

Instead, relational reflexivity, where researchers actively engage with others to uncover and challenge the normative structures underpinning North-South collaborations, transforms self-reflexivity into a collective process. Drawing on Judith Butler’s (2005) concept of relational subjectivity, we developed a method that shifts reflexivity from a solitary exercise to a collective and dialogical process. We emphasize shared accountability and stress the importance of listening deeply and addressing one another’s narratives.

But how do we engage in a relational reflexivity process that goes beyond confessional tales? There is no single-way or readymade recipe, but we want to share some key elements that made these transformative dialogues work for us:

1. Building a relational space
   It is not a secret that academia is a very competitive environment where many researchers are in precarious positions, having little space and time to reflect on their work and the potential negative consequences of their actions and interventions. At the same time, mainstream academic culture privileges intellectual rationality and efficiency, disregarding affective and relational dimensions. Thus, starting a reflexive dialogue beyond the purely rational is challenging. It requires creating a safe space of support and solidarity where we can count on each other and are ready to learn from each other and where emotions and feelings are welcome.
2. Learning from failure
   Usually, academic environments are places where we must show the best of us, leaving little room to openly talk about failure and mistakes. The transformative dialogues we propose aim to allow honest discussions about failures and about systemic issues to illuminate possible pathways for change. We must learn to deal with discomfort and with our complicities in reproducing harmful power structures. Collective reflexive dialogues reveal the dual roles we often inhabit: as both victims and perpetrators within an inequitable system. Recognizing this duality is a crucial first step toward dismantling harmful dynamics.
3. Nurturing empathic listening
   Building a relational space is only possible by weaving strong emotional bonds of trust. In our case, nurturing empathic listening was the way to create these bonds. This meant paying attention to the experiences and feelings of the others involved and to how learning about one another affected ourselves. By listening empathetically, we can recognize our own fears and loneliness in each other’s stories. This reflection is necessary to break the isolation that often occurs in academic research. Our work is an invitation to learn to listen to oneself and others by sharing each other’s pain, creating space for new stories and overcoming past shame and powerlessness. The dialogues thus become a space of care where it is possible to be heard without judgment.
4. Recognizing complicity and acknowledging responsibility
   By listening to each other’s stories, we confront how well-intentioned actions can perpetuate neocolonial dynamics. This helps to understand the complexities and contradictions inherent to these North-South collaborations. Perhaps the most important thing about the reflexive dialogues is to acknowledge that, at times, we are victims, while at other times, we are perpetrators. Each of us may be reproducing power imbalances, depending on our positionality, frames of mind and the network of power relations in which we are involved. Recognizing this is the first step in assuming our responsibilities, and in starting the transformational process.

How reflexive dialogues work in practice

While there is no single way to implement reflexive dialogues, researchers and practitioners interested in engaging in a collective reflexivity process may find it useful to pay attention to the following aspects:

• Engaging in transformative dialogues is a long process which necessitates recurrent meetings over a period of time.
• Participants should be motivated by an imperative desire for change, or at least by a feeling of discomfort.
• The group should be small enough to create a safe space, but diverse enough to learn from other experiences and ways of thinking.
• Much depends on building trust during the first meetings, and then continuing to cultivate this trust. Therefore, careful listening without judgement should be prioritized at all times.
• It is not easy to begin this process, but it is even more challenging to keep it going. It is therefore necessary to identify a “puller” who motivates the group to meet regularly. This could be a rotative task, since everyone should feel entitled to pull the others.
• Participants should be ready to engage in difficult conversations that might bring feelings of pain and discomfort. If these feelings appear, it probably means you are doing well, so take the opportunity to dive into these feelings and try to find their causes. Being open and honest will help the group to learn and start the transformational process.
• The encounters will also bring some joy and pleasure of togetherness. The conversations should therefore not be limited to work; provide time to share about yourselves, your family, or current issues that concern us all.
• Dialogues can be messy and complex, as we are not always ready to recognize our privileges and complicities in reproducing inequalities. Keeping a record of the discussions and returning to these challenging moments will be helpful. For each session, someone could be assigned the task of summarizing the dialogue and presenting this summary at the start of the following meeting. Generally these summaries provide opportunities for launching a new round of dialogues.

While transformative dialogues do not come with a readymade formula, they thrive on listening, empathy and the courage to face uncomfortable truths about entrenched violence and injustice in North-South academic collaborations. They are also inspirational as they offer the possibility to build more respectful and caring relationships. We encourage readers to delve deeper into the potential that this collective reflexivity can bring within and beyond academic collaborations.

Concluding questions

What has been your experience with power dynamics in academic collaborations? Does this reflexivity process resonate with your experience? Do you have similar stories to share? Do you have other suggestions to enhance the collective reflexivity?

To find out more:

Mertens, K., Moreno-Cely, A. and Nyakato, V. N. (2025). Against self-reflexive confessions: Collective dialogues to progressively transform academic North-South collaborations. European Journal of Development Research, 37: 219-240. (Online) (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-024-00669-2

Reference:

Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself. Fordham University Press: New York, United States of America.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Generative artificial intelligence was not used in the development of this i2Insights contribution. (For i2Insights policy on generative artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence.)

Biography: Adriana Moreno-Cely PhD is a post-doctoral researcher at Liege University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. She is interested in collaborative and transdisciplinary research approaches and the crucial role of Indigenous and local knowledges in developing alternative pathways of change for epistemic, social, racial and environmental justice. To this aim, she explores the potential of decolonial and feminist thought in weaving diverse knowledge systems and its possibilities in de-centring, de-privileging and diversifying knowledge generation.

Biography: Kewan Mertens PhD is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher at the Center for the Sociology of Innovation (CSI) in Paris, France. His empirical work aims to generate intellectual advances concerning how environmental and social sciences can change human-environment relationships.

Biography: Viola Nilah Nyakato Ph D is a sociologist, senior lecturer and gender expert with a speciality in public health, affiliated with the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda and associated with the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. She has engaged in several research and development programming activities that delve into underlying gender barriers to equity, particularly in the agency for decision-making, women’s land rights, gender mainstreaming, and couple relations.