Equity-Based Research and Action
First of all, happy August readers! For those of you who have been subscribing for a while, you may have noticed that we have had a bit of a rebrand! Originally this newsletter focused primarily on education and international development issues; however, it quickly evolved to include events and readings beyond this. So, in the spirit of decolonising knowledge and discipline silos, in the future, this newsletter will include a rich diversity of resources and links relevant to anyone working in the international development and humanitarian field.
For my new subscribers, a quick introduction. My name is Jess, and I am the Director and founder of Equity-Based EiE consulting. After a decade working in the humanitarian sector, with experience in programme design, research, and participatory action research, I’m on a mission to support individuals, academic institutions, and organisations that design equity-based research and programmes. So do check out the website where you can find free resources and more information about the different services Equity-Based EiE consulting provides, including an upcoming membership for anyone interested in learning more about Socially- Just Research and Program Design. This will be a practical course/community, with a host of guest speakers, tools and resources to support you on your learning journey. Sign up here for more information
Five Things to Do this Month
- Listen: This month, I was delighted to chat with Linnea Rademaker on her podcast “ Action research: Global Conversations”. This podcast episode discussed critical youth participatory action research as a socially just method/practice for research and program design in humanitarian contexts. Do check out the rest of the series. In addition, I recently listed to Linnea’s episode with Mara Richards Bim, the founder of the youth theatre company, Cry Havoc Theater, where they merge action research with bold art, provoking dialogue around challenging issues like gun control, gender roles, and immigration.
- Sign up! Collective on Education, Decoloniality & Emergencies (CEDE!). This fall, CEDE! will hold our inaugural conference on the field of ‘Education in Emergencies’ (EiE) to examine the historic and ongoing forms of colonialism and imperialism that shape EiE policy, practice and research today. The conference will be arranged as a series of online events held between November 15-21st, and will focus on activities that centre lived experience, non-academic dialogue and collective reflection. We invite submissions of all kinds, including video pieces, artistic or theatre interventions, podcasts, panels, and presentations, to name a few. Conference proposals will be accepted until September 26. To learn more about CEDE! and our upcoming conference, please visit www.cedepowerinaid.com Additionally, if you would like to support CEDE! with conference planning and coordination, please write to us directly at info@cedepowerinaid.com. We are especially interested in hearing from people with a passion for digital media to help us build our social media presence across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and others.
- Watch: I really enjoyed the ‘Decolonising Development’ hosted by The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). I learned so much from Dr Eyob Balcha Gebremariam, Dr Rosalba Icaza, Dr Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, and Dr Althea-Maria Rivas's discussions around how they had taken practical steps to decolonise university courses and research by reframing course designing, reading selections, and classroom discussions. It was a really enriching discussion and relevant for those of you working outside of academia in the international development and humanitarian fields.
- Read: ‘Looking at girls’ education through a different lens’ by Angeline Murimirwa, Lucy Lake underlines the inherent risk in presenting girls’ education as a fix-it for the world’s problems, pointing out how this deflects from the fundamental, structural inequalities that are at the root of these problems and perpetuate girls’ and women’s marginalization.
- Share: The RSC-BIEA Fellowship in Refugee Studies will provide teaching, mentorship, and professional development to early-career social science and humanities researchers, who are mainly based in East Africa and have lived experience of displacement — for example, as refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers. There will be 12 positions available for the 2021–2022 academic year. Fellows will hold affiliated membership status with both the RSC and BIEA and will be awarded a certificate from the University of Oxford upon completion. Fellows will receive a stipend of 750 USD per month for the duration of the programme. For more information on the fellowship, including instructions on how to apply, visit the online form or write to us at opportunities@refugeeledresearch.org.
Reflection activity for the Month: Wheel of privilege/power
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s influential concept of intersectionality, in brief, recognizes that each person carries a number of identifications that shape their social experiences in different ways. For people working in research and programmatic design, incorporating intersectional thinking helps us to think through identity and social position variables and dimensions and processes of oppression, discrimination, privilege, and power that manifest in our work. In Equity-Based EiE consulting’s Embedding Equity into Programme Design workshops we support systems, processes and individuals critically reflect on these relational tensions and how they can influence the research and programme development cycle. Thinking intersectionally can help us identify subtle dynamics that disadvantage some people and advantage others, forcing us to think beyond one-dimensional interpretations of a problem. There are many ways of visualizing intersectionality, but I recently came across the diagram below in an article by Dr Greta Bauer about intersectional approaches to quantitative health research in Canada.
The diagram brilliantly illustrates identities and how different axes of privileges and disadvantages interplay with power within the Canadian specific context. Equity-Based Design thinking is interested in making sure that those at the margins are centred in humanitarian and international development programmes and research design as well as making sure that those of us who are more towards the centre of the circle, cede power. As Yancé- Myah Antonio Harrison of working on our power notes, “recognising positionality and the power present in our communities can be an important step to address both imbalances and future possibilities. They describe four ways we can think about power: power over, power with, power to, power with:
Power over is what we normally associate with domination, oppression and control. It is a type of power that always takes power, resources and agency from somebody else.
Power with is a form of shared power that emerges out of collaboration and relationships. Recognising where you have power with others, helps build bridges and strengthens the ability to act, build and respond.
Power to is about our unique ability to shape our lives and the surroundings we are in.
Power within means self-knowledge, self-worth, and having the capacity to imagine and help.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what this means for those who work in research and or/designing programmes:
- How do our positionalities influence the way we see the world, and therefore the way we approach our work?
- Reflect on the different types of power that play out in your work. Where is there power over? Where is there power with? Where is there power to? Where is there power within?
Please feel free to share your thoughts here.
Any thoughts, suggestions, or recommendations, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email jessoddy@info.com or catch me on twitter @jess_oddy. For work inquiries, please check out my website jessoddy.com to see a range of my work and potential areas of collaboration.
