Processes

Why scientific knowledge needs to be decolonised

By Alemu Tesfaye

alemu-tesfaye
Alemu Tesfaye (biography)

Is science inherently objective and immune to the influences of coloniality?

Here, I explore the role coloniality plays in scientific knowledge production, as well as intersubjectivity and scientific consensus. Finally, I suggest some strategies for decolonizing scientific knowledge.

Coloniality in knowledge production

Coloniality refers to the enduring patterns of power, control, and domination established during colonialism that persist in contemporary institutions. In knowledge production, this manifests as epistemic dominance, where Western ways of knowing are privileged over non-Western epistemologies. Despite the common belief among scientists that scientific knowledge is inherently objective and intersubjective, there are several critical issues that need to be addressed:

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Understanding exclusion, sharing benefits and building in reflection in transdisciplinary collaborations

By Annisa Triyanti, Corinne Lamain, Jessica Duncan and Jillian Student

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1. Annisa Triyanti (biography)
2. Corinne Lamain (biography)
3. Jessica Duncan (biography)
4. Jillian Student (biography)

How are ways of knowing excluded in transdisciplinary collaborations? How can transdisciplinary collaborations provide fair compensation for all who dedicate time and effort to the collaboration? How can transdisciplinary processes be made more fair, inclusive and equitable by including reflective processes?

Transdisciplinary collaborations aim to bring together different forms of knowledge, for example academic knowledge with knowledge of practitioners, activists, community groups, etc. Important questions to unpack the politics of transdisciplinary collaborations include:

  • Who decides which societal challenges are addressed?
  • Who has the most access and power to mobilize actions and resources?
  • Who decides who will be involved?
  • Who receives benefits?

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The collaboration planning framework

Edited by Gabriele Bammer

What is the collaboration planning framework? What kinds of collaborations is it suitable for? What does it involve?

The collaboration planning framework, described by Hall and colleagues (2019), aims to help research teams identify, discuss and make decisions about ten key influences that the team science literature has shown to affect teamwork. The aim is to “lay the groundwork for success by supporting effective team functioning, identifying needed changes, and preventing or mitigating what are often predictable challenges” (p. 588). A written collaboration plan is used to capture the decisions made.

While the collaboration planning framework is most useful for large, complex teams, it can benefit any team.

The ten key elements of the framework are:
1. Rationale for team approach and team composition
2. Collaboration readiness

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Towards fair transdisciplinary collaborations that honour epistemic justice

By Annisa Triyanti, Barbara van Paassen, Corinne Lamain, Jessica Duncan, Jillian Student, Jonas Collen Ladeia Torrens and Nina de Roo

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1. Annisa Triyanti; 2. Barbara van Paassen; 3. Corinne Lamain; 4. Jessica Duncan; 5. Jillian Student; 6. Jonas Collen Ladeia Torrens; 7. Nina de Roo  (biographies)

What principles need to be upheld to fund and support fair, inclusive, and equitable transdisciplinary collaborations? What competences and attitudes are required for transdisciplinary collaborations to foster epistemic justice? And what do mushrooms have to do with this?!

It is widely acknowledged that to address complex societal problems and harness plural ways of knowing, a wider range of actors, perspectives and types of knowledge are needed than is traditionally the case in other forms of knowledge creation. Transdisciplinary collaborations are different from traditional forms of science in:

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Practising responsible research within an Indigenous paradigm

By Norma Romm

norma-romm
Norma Romm (biography)

What might it mean to practise responsible research within a postcolonial Indigenous paradigm? What is distinctive in terms of the conception of responsible research practice? How does research informed by this paradigm include responsiveness to the voices/spirit of the more-than-human world?

A postcolonial Indigenous paradigm as defined by scholars from a variety of geographical regions is offered as a way of doing research that expressly draws out and tries to revitalise the relational knowing-and-being processes of Indigenous communities in Africa, the Indigenous peoples of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the USA (First Nations). These scholars (Indigenous, as well as non-Indigenous ones who can be regarded as allies) have tried to credentialise this research paradigm by expanding upon the underlying suggestion that processes of knowing are inextricably tied to ways of living (being in relation to others, human and more-than-human).

This implies a specific conception of responsibility to try to nurture (in all fields of our influence, including in research practices) relationships that can be considered reciprocal rather than exploitative (of other humans or of other species and of the land and its communities).

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Weaving knowledge systems: Honouring Indigenous knowledge

By Chels Marshall, Rosalie Chapple and Joanne Wilson

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1. Chels Marshall (biography) (photo credit: Michael Powers)
2. Rosalie Chapple (biography)
3. Joanne Wilson (biography)

What is Indigenous science? How can it be properly recognised? How can we overcome current practices where Indigenous knowledge-holders are generally not regarded as experts, their knowledge is not used as evidence or in decision-making, and non-Indigenous people think Indigenous knowledge needs to be ‘validated’ by Western science?

Lack of recognition of Indigenous data sovereignty raises concerns about the conduct of research – by and for whom? Indigenous cultural knowledge is often used without permission or proper protocols, and is used and appropriated under Western science.

What does successfully honouring Indigenous knowledge look like?

“Our culture is the science.”

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Navigating the complexities of decolonizing knowledge production

By Alemu Tesfaye

alemu-tesfaye
Alemu Tesfaye (biography)

Has the movement to decolonize knowledge production caught your attention in recent academic discussions? Do you recognize how colonialism has deeply influenced traditional knowledge systems, embedding biases and inequalities in our academic practices? Given the noble aspiration behind decolonizing knowledge, have you ever paused to critically examine its feasibility and achievability? Are we embarking on a realistic journey towards change, or are we chasing an idealistic endeavor?

Understanding the Challenge

My research journey into decolonizing knowledge production, particularly within the context of forced displacement, revealed stark contrasts between conventional academic narratives and the rich, nuanced perspectives of historically marginalized communities. This experience highlighted the deep-rooted biases and structural inequalities embedded within traditional knowledge systems.

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Decision support interventions

By Etiënne Rouwette and Alberto Franco

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1. Etiënne Rouwette (biography)
2. Alberto Franco (biography)

What are interventions to support team decision making? And how can interventions enable team decision making to become a rigorous, transparent and defensible process?

Interventions are procedures designed to improve a decision making process. Within the content of team decision making, an intervention is comprised of designed facilitated activities carried out in order to help a team achieve its goals. Team goals include generating a better and shared understanding of a situation of interest or concern, producing a recommendation on how to respond to the situation, or simply deciding what to do next regarding the situation.

Because team members are likely to have different views and goals regarding the situation, facilitation is central to an intervention. Specifically, facilitated activities are designed to encourage the active participation of team members in discussions, so that a mutual understanding within the team can be achieved. In addition, these activities also play a critical role in fostering the development of integrative solutions that create a sense of shared responsibility for their implementation.

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Eight tips for collaborations between researchers and visual artists

By Erin Walsh and Alice Wetherell

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1. Erin Walsh (biography) (photo credit: Kristina Kraskov)
2. Alice Wetherell (biography)

Visual abstracts, media releases, infographics, posters, and publications….

More and more often, to enhance their outreach, engagement and impact, researchers need to present their work in a visual way. For some, this can feel like being asked to present their work in a different language. Not everyone has the time or the skills to translate their research into visual form. Working with visual artists can help, but sometimes the barrier between metaphorical text and visual language can make effective collaboration difficult.

What are some easy steps for both researchers and visual artists to make this collaborative process work smoothly?

We are, respectively, a scientific illustrator and multimedia artist. Between us, we have over twenty years of experience helping researchers illustrate their work.

Here are eight tips that we’ve found can make collaboration between researchers and visual artists more efficient, productive, and enjoyable. Seven of the eight tips apply to researchers; five of the eight to visual artists.

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Improving how we do research with indigenous and local communities

By Roxana Roos

roxana-roos
Roxana Roos (biography)

How can we best include the perspectives of indigenous and local people in global change research? What are the major challenges in doing research with and within local and indigenous communities? How can we best deal with such challenges?

More and more, global challenges like climate change are being felt locally, and indigenous peoples are often the most vulnerable. The inclusion of the perspectives of indigenous and local people when developing ways to respond to societal challenges is increasingly the norm in the scientific world. For response strategies to be effective, communities need to be involved in their development. This is true for a whole range of topics, from social justice to climate adaptation. But getting local communities involved in research by ‘outsiders’ can be a challenge for a multitude of reasons.

I propose eight important barriers to the participation of local and indigenous communities, along with potential solutions, based on the experiences of practicing researchers who have worked with such communities in the Philippines, Mexico, Russia (Siberia), Greenland, Norway (Svalbard), Canada, Germany, Greece, Colombia, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bangladesh, France, and New Zealand.

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Change planning: Dreamer, realist, critic

Edited by Gabriele Bammer

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How can change be planned for in an effective way that creatively develops new ideas, plans the practicalities of their implementation and assesses risks?

The process described here is also referred to as Walt Disney circle, Disney creative strategy, and Disney brainstorming method, and is adapted from Nauheimer (1997).

Planning change involves four phases. The first three phases, in turn, are to 1) create new ideas, 2) plan the practicalities of their implementation and 3) assess the risks. Phase 4 is an iterative phase that reviews further input needed in each of the first three phases.

The process is conceived as involving three roles: dreamer, realist and critic. The idea of separating the process into these three roles is to ensure that each is fully considered without interference from the others. For instance the aim is to allow the creative ideas to be fully developed, without being stymied by criticism. One person or a group could take all three roles in turn or different people could take different roles. What is important is that all three roles are fully brought into play.

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Five questions for considering political context

Edited by Gabriele Bammer

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How can researchers rapidly assess the political and institutional environment in which they are trying to exert influence? Why does understanding context matter?

Developing a rich, detailed understanding of the political environment in which a problem needs to be addressed can be a never-ending research project, not only because of the depth of scholarship that can be brought to bear, but also because political environments are often unstable and rapidly-changing. Few research projects have the luxury of large budgets and long time horizons in which to fully comprehend the environments that they seek to influence. Instead, practical rapid assessment tools can be valuable and improve the effectiveness of research input and actions.

One such tool for rapidly assessing political context was published in 2014 as part of the Rapid Outcome Mapping Approach: A Guide to Policy Engagement and Influence by John Young and colleagues and a modified version is reproduced here.

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