Abstract
We often come across theories and aspects related to
'knowledge', but seldom do we try to understand its hidden implications.
Knowledge as understood generally is about the information of facts
and understanding of a subject. This article essentially argues against
this understanding. It explores the multiple dimensions of 'knowledge
through a literature review and illustrations of practical examples. It
makes a case for how important the process of knowledge creation is,
especially given current societal challenges. It also outlines the importance
of co-creation of knowledge, through acknowledgement and valuation
of alternate paradigms of knowledge. Further, it discusses the concept
of 'knowledge democracy', and how institutions of higher education, by
abiding by its principles, can help achieve 'excellence in engagement'.
The article concludes with the findings of two studies undertaken by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Chair, which were based on the principles of 'knowledge democracy' and
'excellence in engagement'.
Keywords: knowledge, democracy, co-construction, decolonisation,
engagement.
1 Introduction
'There are key opportunities for a transformative knowledge agenda that is co-constructed with those who are experiencing inequalities and are in a position to influence change through policies, practices and politics… In a world in which knowledge shapes power and voice, and vice versa, the fundamental inequality in the production of knowledge about inequality itself must be addressed.'
World Social Science Report (ISSC, IDS and UNESCO 2016: 275)
The 2016 World Social Science Report (WSSR), Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World (ISSC, IDS and UNESCO 2016) is a welcome addition to the literature on inequality. Inequality has become a global concern for citizens, activists, scholars and policymakers over the past 20 years, as it is inexorably linked to issues of planetary survival, health, gender justice, cultural justice and more. One of the most interesting chapters is 'Transformative Knowledge for a Just World'. In this chapter, the editors of the report note that, 'Inherent in this challenge is knowledge inequality itself, and how knowledge inequalities link to other intersecting inequalities. These include inequalities in the construction of knowledge – which kinds of knowledge are produced, by whom and where' (ISSC, IDS and UNESCO 2016: 274).
It is also a welcome addition to our understanding of knowledge democracy. It supports and draws from not only work that those of us associated with the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education have been doing, but also the work of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Enrique Dussel, Paulo Wangoola, Shiv Visvanathan, Vandana Shiva and others, including John Gaventa at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and his colleagues.
This article draws from the early work of Tandon and Hall in
developing and extending the theory and practice of participatory research beginning in the 1970s, from years of linking knowledge and practice
in India, Canada and elsewhere, and more recently under the umbrella
of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research (CBR) and
Social Responsibility in Higher Education. The history of participatory
research owes a great deal to the praxis of Freire, Horton, Fals Borda,
Robert Chambers, John Gaventa, and others. In this article, we move
beyond that history to share thoughts on knowledge and its relevance to
the global challenges of our times, movements towards decolonisation
of knowledge and the increased recognition of subaltern knowledge,
the emerging discourse of knowledge democracy, the contemporary
opportunities for Community University Research Partnerships (CURPs), and the challenge of building capacity in both civil society
and the academy for a transformative co-construction of knowledge.
2 Knowledge
What is knowledge? How it is created? Are there multiple traditions
and cultures of knowledge? Has today's dominant positivistic
knowledge system been the only one in history? Or is it seen as
something subjective – one which is under construction and steadily
changing? (Walsh and Rastegari 2015). How does knowledge relate
to contemporary societal dynamics? Such varied conceptions of
'knowledge' have continued to intrigue scholars and philosophers of
all times. In the growing discourse of both the knowledge economy
and the knowledge society, it is fruitful to be aware of diversities and
pluralities of knowledge, modes of knowledge production, and forms of
knowledge dissemination. Escrigas et al. argue that:
Knowledge is defined in several ways: the facts, feelings or experiences of a person or a group of people, a state of knowing or awareness, and/or the consciousness or the familiarity gained by experience or learning. Knowledge is created through research, through the experience of the wise, through the act of surviving in the world, and is represented in text, poetry, music, political discourse, social media, speeches, drama and storytelling. Knowledge is linked to practical skills, to our working lives and to universal and abstract thought. Knowledge is created every day by each one of us and is central to who we are as human beings (Escrigas et al. 2014: xxxiii).
During the last years of the twentieth century, there has been an
increased importance given to the role of knowledge. The dominant
discourse has been on the knowledge economy. The digital world
is making a bigger contribution to the global knowledge economy.
However, the growing inequality in the world of knowledge has been a
persistent phenomenon. Certain dominant knowledge institutions and
knowledge perspectives have been shaping the global socioeconomic
order in contemporary society. This assumes special importance in light
of the challenges of current times. Today, humanity is faced with the
co-existence of both great achievements and failures. Although it has
achieved enormous prosperity in the past 50 years, one fifth of all people
live in poverty on less than US$1.25 a day. In the midst of plenty, there is
entrenched poverty and scarcity: 40 per cent of all children in the world
are malnourished; more people have mobile phones than have access to
toilets. Rapid economic growth has also been associated with growing
environmental degradation (Tandon 2014a: 2).
Clearly, these global trends affect different regions, communities and
households differently. The cumulative impacts of these trends imply that
humanity as a whole faces enormous global challenges. These challenges
have arisen out of certain global forces, models and approaches
being adopted around the world. Hence, the solutions to these global
challenges have to be approached using a global lens. Although specific
solutions to these challenges have to be contextually devised, it is critical
that efforts at finding solutions are both local and global. New models of
human development and wellbeing that place human happiness at the
centre have to be consensually evolved (Tandon 2014b: 5).
Therefore, there is a need to collectively find new and innovative
ways for people to work together to take action on the deep issues that
confront us all. It is here that equality and co-creation of knowledge
becomes extremely important. This is because the democratic
process of co-creation of knowledge for social change is an important
contribution to the far-reaching transformations that we all desire. The
critical role of knowledge has also been outlined by the emphasis
placed by the UN in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One
of the targets under achieving SDG 4, relating to inclusive and quality
education, states:
By 2030, [it needs to be ensured that] all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development (UN 2016).
Society's future directions have to be based on universally accepted values
of equity, justice, inclusion, peace and sustainability. The pursuit of these
values has to be integrated into the very design of the productive economy,
settlement planning, community development, democratic governance
and knowledge creation, recognition and sharing. The invention of such
models, approaches and formulations has to include at the forefront new
ways of knowing, new ways of interpreting cosmologies of knowledge and
a diversity of perspectives on knowledge (Tandon 2014b: 5). Further:
We can address the power of knowledge to build the world we want; a world where social, economic and ecological justice includes all citizens irrespective of class, ethnicity, race, gender and age. A world in which life is respected no matter what form it takes. A world that shares an understanding of the interdependence of the social, human and environmental dimensions and the key of our collective success is cooperation (Hall et al. 2014: 301).
Therefore, now is the moment to widen the scope of knowledge in
society and move beyond creating fragmented solutions, to a true
knowledge-based society through engagement with citizenry as a whole,
at all scales of activity, to deal with the problematic issues and global
challenges of the day:
The creation and dissemination of knowledge could contribute to transforming the paradigms and beliefs established in social, economic and political systems, and to moving forward to creative and innovative ways of thinking and imagining new realities (Escrigas et al. 2014: xxxiv).
3 The case for knowledge democracy
At the heart of the transformative potential of knowledge production
and dissemination is a deepened understanding of knowledge democracy.
What do we mean by knowledge democracy? Knowledge democracy
refers to an interrelationship of phenomena. First, it calls for recognition
of ecologies of knowledge and cognitive justice such as organic, spiritual
and land-based systems, frameworks arising from our social movements,
and the knowledge of the marginalised or excluded everywhere.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos has said: 'There will be no global social
justice until there is global cognitive justice' (2007: 10).
Secondly, it affirms that knowledge is both created and represented in multiple forms including text, image, numbers, story, music, drama, poetry, ceremony, meditation and more.
Third, and fundamental to our thinking about knowledge democracy, is understanding that knowledge is a powerful tool for taking action in social movements and elsewhere to deepen democracy and to struggle for a fairer and healthier world.
And finally, knowledge democracy is about open access for the sharing
of knowledge so that everyone who needs knowledge has access to it.
Knowledge democracy is about intentionally linking values of justice,
fairness and action to the process of creating and using knowledge.
As Tandon has argued:
… different voices represent different forms and expressions of knowledge – different modes and articulations of knowledge from diverse experiences, locations and perspectives. This is the essence of 'knowledge democracy' – a movement that respects multiple modes, forms, sources and idioms of knowledge production, representation and dissemination (2013).
So, essentially, the tools of knowledge production are universally
available to all humanity. However, what has caused the discrimination
is the perpetuation of instrumental rationality as the only epistemology.
Tandon argues:
Humans get to know through thinking; yes, cognition and rational thinking is important. But, humans also know from acting and feeling; yet, acting upon the world (learning by doing) and feeling about the world (phenomenology of everyday life) have not been accepted as legitimate modes of knowing. This needs to change if knowledge democracy has to be established (2014a: 4).
Focusing attention on this theme, Tandon et al. argue:
At this juncture of humanity, as we stand at a crossroads, we seek to ask: What should be the nature of human thought, emotion and action? Should we continue on this path forever? Or should we pause to discover another? The human mind, its knowledge and capacity to dream can provide seeds for re-discovery. In taking steps towards such re-discovery, we need to look around the world at institutions of higher education (2016: 1).
How can the existing recognised centres of knowledge production
(such as universities, higher education and research institutions) play an
important role in promoting knowledge democracy?
By taking a deliberate standpoint on engagement, universities need to
integrate their three missions – teaching, research and service. This
is to ensure that engagement is not ghettoised into service alone, but
an engaged stance is integrated into research and teaching as well.
The production of new knowledge and its learning by students is
possible through engagement with communities; such an engagement
may also produce socially relevant knowledge. It may open up the
possibility that knowledge acquired by students is based on a deeper
understanding of their local contexts and a respect for knowledge
residing within the communities. It is this process of co-construction of
knowledge that may enhance the contributions of universities as sites for the practice of knowledge democracy (Tandon 2014a: 4). Universities
can thus provide spaces and intellectual resources to complement and
build on the enormous cultural and social capital of communities.
UNESCO's recent declarations are exhorting universities to re-examine
their research and teaching practices in light of 'preparing the next
generation of ethical global citizens' (Tandon 2014a: 5).
3. Higher education institutions, through their core functions (teaching, research and service to the community) carried out in the context of institutional autonomy and academic freedom should increase their interdisciplinary focus and promote critical thinking and active citizenship. This would contribute to sustainable development, peace, wellbeing and the realization of human rights…
4. [Higher Education] must not only give solid skills for the present and future world but must also contribute to the education of ethical citizens committed to the construction of peace, the defense of human rights and the values of democracy (UNESCO 2009: 2).
Further arguments for such an engaged standpoint are presented in the
fifth GUNi Report on higher education:
The recovery of indigenous intellectual traditions and resources is a priority task. Course structures, syllabuses, books, reading materials, research models and research areas must reflect the treasury of our thoughts, the riches of our indigenous traditions and the felt necessities of our societies. This must be matched with learning environments on which students do not experience learning as a burden, but as a force that liberates the soul and leads to the uplifting of the society. Above all, universities must retrieve their original task of creating good citizens instead of only good workers (Escrigas et al. 2014: xxxviii).
4 Cognitive justice and ecologies of knowledge
In the early 1970s, Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Education for Critical
Consciousness (Gibson 1999), swept the globe. These books and the nearly
two dozen others that followed proposed that 'education, though in
inequitable societies predominantly a tool of elites, is also a democratic
egalitarian weapon' (ibid.). Friere says that 'liberating education lies
in cognition, not in transferrals of education' (Freire n.d.). This was
followed by the development of participatory tools and methodologies
such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action
research (PAR) in the 1980s. These were based on principles such as:
direct learning from local people; offsetting biases; optimising trade-offs;
triangulating and seeking diversity; analysis by local people; practising
critical self-awareness and responsibility; and sharing (Chambers 1994:
1437). However, unfortunately modern systems of collating knowledge
and imparting education have been a slave to academic monopolism.
This nature of knowledge realities has been acknowledged by several
other authors in their literary works, who have linked 'social justice tot
cognitive justice' (e.g. Santos 2007; Visvanathan 2009).
Boaventura de Sousa Santos has a narrative that begins with his
observation that in the realm of knowledge we have created an
intellectual abyss, which hinders human progress. Abyssal thinking,
he notes, 'consists in granting to modern science the monopoly of
the universal distinction between true and false to the detriment of…
alternative bodies of knowledge' (Santos 2007: 47). De Sousa Santos
makes the link between values and aspirations strongly in saying, 'Global
social injustice is therefore intimately linked to global cognitive injustice.
The struggle for global social justice will, therefore, be a struggle for
cognitive justice as well' (ibid.). Shiv Visvanathan contributes to this
discourse, expanding the concept of cognitive justice, and noting that:
The idea of cognitive justice sensitizes us not only to forms of knowledge but also to the diverse communities of problem-solving. What one offers then is a democratic imagination with a non-market, non-competitive view of the world, where conversation, reciprocity, translation create knowledge not as an expert, almost zero-sum view of the world but as a collaboration of memories, legacies, heritages, a manifold heuristics of problem-solving, where a citizen takes both power and knowledge into his or her own hands. These forms of knowledge, especially the ideas of complexity, represent new forms of power sharing and problem-solving that goes beyond the limits of voice and resistance. They are empowering because they transcend the standard cartographies of power and innovation, which are hegemonic. By incorporating the dynamics of knowledge into democracy, we reframe the axiomatics of knowledge based on hospitality, community, non-violence, humility and a multiple idea of time, where the citizen as trustee and inventor visualizes and creates a new self-reflexive idea of democracy around actual communities of practice (Visvanathan 2009).
Globally, there are instances of how knowledge has been produced
within communities and people; and the kind of impact it has achieved.
Such varied ecologies of knowledge consist of many sources, venues,
forms and species of knowledge agents in a symbiotic relationship
of productive exchange and value creation. Such knowledge is
engaged, active, dynamic and also linked to social, political, cultural or
sustainable changes.
… PRIA's [Participatory Research in Asia] co-constructed knowledge is linked to a variety of social movements in India. Mpambo's mother tongue scholars are stimulating an unprecedented reawakening of Afrikan spiritual knowledge and sharing in Uganda. The shack dwellers of Durban and beyond have boldly taken the word university as their own and turned the knowledge hierarchies upside down in the service of justice for the poor. The Indigenous language champions working with the First People's Cultural Council have staked a claim to epistemological privilege over the western trained non-Indigenous linguists. The healers from South Africa have staked their claims to knowledge superiority not to settle any epistemological scores with western science, but in their commitment to better serve the health needs of their people. These knowledge innovators have all facilitated various means of creating, sharing and accessing knowledge that is not part of what is often called the western canon. For a variety of justice, cultural, spiritual, environmental, health reasons, the application of knowledge from the western canon in each one of these stories was seen as insufficient. The contexts, conditions, values, uses, politics of knowledge in each of these stories called for an opening outwards of our comfortable assumptions about whose knowledge counts and what the relationship between knowledge and life might be (Hall 2015: 5).
Considering the varied ecologies of knowledge and its role in fostering
knowledge democracy, it is important to note that knowledge is
uncovered, created, represented and shared throughout our world in
dynamic ways that go beyond normative printed texts, peer-reviewed
journal articles, books and even new digitised choruses in the form
of blogs, tweets and websites. In the lives of communities, in social
movements and many other quests for justice, transformation and
change, knowledge is created, represented and shared through age-old
practices such as the ceremonies of indigenous people, and the sharing
of stories that keep alive cultural practices and ways of knowing that
would otherwise be erased. Knowledge is also created, represented
and shared through poems and songs that call us to witness and action,
through sculptures and images of lament, memory and resistance.
Transformative forms of understanding and knowledge are also
embedded in the collective community quilts sewn by women who
protest polluting development schemes, and in the large puppets that
accompany demonstrations and acts of defiance. Theatre both on
stage as through the work of Brecht or in communities in the form of
forum theatre, 'theatre of the oppressed' or popular theatre, has also
been used as a powerful form of transformative knowledge-making and
engagement.
Through a lens of feminist arts-based education and research, Clover has articulated a number of characteristics or roles the arts have played in knowledge creation and mobilisation (2006, 2012). The first was versatility and diversity, which speaks to the multiplicity of art genres and artistic practices, as well as the types of issues and understandings these arts uncover and represent. The second is universality and familiarity. By this, Clover means that all cultures around the world have forms of artistic practice and expression, which capture and represent the essence of who they are. Thirdly, she speaks of the imagination, and its ability to defy what Wyman1 calls 'the constraints of expectation and the everyday'. By liberating the imagination through cultural engagement and expression, we can both imagine and re-imagine the world in new ways, thus creating new forms of knowledge. Building on this, Clover speaks to the power of the symbolic and metaphorical nature of art to speak to meanings that go beyond the confines of words and language and make new connections between ideas and understanding.
5 Decolonisation, epistemicide and subaltern knowledge: pathways to
knowledge democracy
South African students have called for the decolonisation of the higher
education curriculum in their universities. When we hear this call, we
think that we understand it because of the history of white domination
and racialisation of education in that country.
But what do we think when we hear that call by students and activists
in India, England, Canada and elsewhere? There are several places in
the WSSR that cite the uneven production of academic knowledge,
showing how the USA dominates academic publishing (ISSC, IDS
and UNESCO 2016: 338). But the idea of decolonising our higher
education institutions is much more than this. It is a response to what
de Sousa Santos has called the epistemicide carried out by the Western
European cultural, economic and political project of the last 500 years.
Readers of this article, be they in Tanzania, Brazil, Canada, India
or elsewhere know that the core theoretical content, the intellectual
substance of nearly all the universities of the world are variations on
what is called the Western canon. Lebakeng, Phalane and Dalindjebo
(South Africa), Odara-Hoppers (South Africa–Uganda), Wangoola
(Uganda) and Ezeanya (Rwanda) have written/worked extensively on the
importance of the recovery of the intellectual traditions of the continent.
'Institutions of higher education in South Africa were (and still are)
copycats whose primary function was (and still is) to serve and promote
colonial Western values' (Lebakeng, Phalane and Dalindjebo 2006: 73).
Similarly, Ezeanya adds, 'In Africa, the research agenda, curriculum and "given" conceptual frameworks should be continuously re-examined
…with the aim of eschewing all manifestations of new-colonial
underpinnings and emphasising indigenous ideas (Ezeanya 2011: 3).
So, decolonisation at the University of Victoria in Canada is a call,
among other things, for a recovery and a placement of indigenous
knowledge amongst the central aspects of the curriculum. Decolonisation
is a revolutionary idea and practice. But how did the Western canon
come to dominate our collective higher education institutions?
To understand that we have to look at what Grosfoguel has called the
'Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century' (Grosfoguel
2013). It seems that the story of dispossessing the people from the
ownership of their ideas in the medieval universities that brought
ecclesiastical power to the new universities was just the start of our
knowledge story. Grosfoguel pulls together four distinct stories of
epistemicide, stories almost always treated as separate historical processes.
In doing so we learn in a powerful manner how intellectual colonisation
has emerged. The four epistemicides are: (1) the conquest of Al-Andalus,
and the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Europe; (2) the conquest
of the indigenous peoples of the Americas started by the Spanish,
continued by the French and the English and still under way today in the
Western Hemisphere; (3) The creation of the slave trade that resulted in
millions killed in Africa and at sea, and many more totally de-humanised by enslavement in the Americas; and (4) the killing of millions of
Indo-European women, mostly through burning at the stake as witches,
because of knowledge practices that were not controlled by men. These
conquests transformed Europe from itself being at the periphery of an
earlier dominant Islamic centre of intellectual power to taking centre
stage. But in an historic irony Spain and Portugal, the leading military
and intellectual powers of the fifteenth century, have been shut out of the
post-sixteenth century Northern European monopoly of knowledge.
What is important for us to understand is that these four conquests were
both military and pistemological/ideological. At the height of the
Al-Andalus Empire in Europe, the city of Cordoba had a 500,000-book
library. This was at a time when other intellectual centres in Europe
would have had libraries of 5,000–10,000 books. The Spanish burned
the library in Cordoba and libraries elsewhere. They destroyed most
of the codices in the Mayan, Inca and Aztec empires as well. Women's
knowledge, which was largely oral, was simply silenced as was the
knowledge of Africa. African slaves were portrayed as non-humans
incapable of Western-style thought. Hegel, for example, in commenting
on Africans says, 'Among negroes it is the case that consciousness has
not attained even the intuition of any sort of objectivity… the negro is
the man as beast (Lectures 218)' (as quoted in Dussell 1993: 70). The
continued linguicide of indigenous languages in North America and
throughout the world today is evidence that the patterns established
through conquest in the sixteenth century is still deeply entrenched in
our own minds and most certainly in our higher education institutions.
6 Achieving 'excellence in engagement'
Considering the aforementioned account on the role of 'knowledge
systems', contemporary opportunities and challenges, meanings of
knowledge democracy and its linkages to social justice, we now move
towards 'excellence in engagement'. Engagement is the process of building
relationships with people and putting those relationships to work to
accomplish shared goals, i.e. involving those who are at the heart of the
change we wish to see. Achievement of excellence in such engagement
practices can be through a high quality of work in conducting research,
building partnerships, and co-constructing and mobilising knowledge
for achieving sound impact.
The work of the UNESCO Chair over the last few years has been continuously striving to achieve such 'excellence in engagement' through research, policy advocacy, knowledge mobilisation and capacity enhancement. Two of the projects it has recently undertaken bear testimony to its efforts in this direction. Presented next are the experiences and lessons of these projects, and how they have essentially propagated the agenda of 'excellence in engagement' by promoting ideas which support the latter: 'Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships', which is based on the idea of co-onstruction of knowledge; and 'Building the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers', which promoted building capacities for 'engaged research'.
7 Practice in co-construction of knowledge: a step towards
'engaged excellence'
Historically, universities have not only produced knowledge but
have also been the arbiters of which knowledge is 'good' and 'valid',
establishing the very frameworks by which such assessments are
made. Tautologically, universities have long considered knowledge
produced by universities as the best and most legitimate. But in the
face of global crises that challenge humanity's capacity to respond,
the value of alternative forms and paradigms of knowledge is being
revisited (Bivens, Haffenden and Hall 2015: 6). As the ability of
the technical-rationalist knowledge long-favoured and reproduced
by universities is questioned regarding its adequacy for the current
moment, researchers are increasingly moved to work with organisations
and communities outside of the university in order to co-generate
knowledge which draws dynamically on multiple epistemologies and
life-worlds. Cultivating research partnerships with communities and civil
society organisations (CSOs) is a way of making subaltern knowledge
visible. Such co-creative acts of knowledge production are at the heart
of the university's contribution to deepening knowledge democracy and
cognitive justice (Bivens et al. 2015: 6).
The sharing of knowledge between universities and their communities
has been a prominent feature of the field of adult education in Europe
since the establishment of the extra-mural division of Cambridge
University in 1873. The extra-mural tradition has found counterparts
in most of the universities of Europe as continuing education,
extension services and so forth (Hall et al. 2015b). The most recent
developments in higher education and community engagement have
taken different organisational forms. Science Shops have proliferated in
European universities, inspired by the Dutch examples from the 1970s.
Community University Partnership Programmes have been initiated in
England. Offices of CBR have surfaced in Canada and elsewhere (ibid.).
Such views have also been expressed in the '"Global Communique on
Enhancing Community University Engagement" between the global North
and South issues by the Big Tent group of higher education networks':
… [W]e believe that the transformative potential of our community sector organizations and our higher education institutions is enhanced when we combine our collective knowledge, global connections, skills and resources to address the myriad of social cultural economic health and environmental challenges in our places and regions (Bivens et al. 2015: 7).
8 Critical factors in research partnerships
'Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships' was a
global study (undertaken by the UNESCO Chair during 2014–15) of
institutional arrangements for the facilitation and support of research
partnership between community groups and universities. Inclusive of
a survey on the global trends in support structures for CURPs, and 12 country case studies, the main findings that emerged from the study
are as follows (Hall, Tandon and Tremblay 2015a):
Lessons from the global survey:
Lessons from case studies:
9 Excellence in engagement means building capacity for
transformative and co-created knowledge
The concept of excellence in engagement may be understood in
several ways. We suggest that one of the most important challenges
in implementing a notion as open as excellence in engagement lies
in providing many more opportunities for students, researchers,
civil society workers, and social movement activists to learn how to
gather, promote, identify, create, share and systematise knowledge.
Co-constructing transformative knowledge is not easy. Even the
recognition of civil society and social movements as privileged locations
for knowledge construction is not accepted by many academics. CBPR
is not just one more module to be added or highlighted in courses
on standard research methods. What does engagement really mean?
Can a rather vague concept such as excellence prove itself valuable in
contributing to a new understanding of knowledge?
Questioning where the next generation of community-based researchers would be able to learn CBR, the UNESCO Chair turned to Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities research Council (SSHRC) of Canada to support a global study titled 'Building the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers' [('Next Gen')]. The project intended to find out where people in various parts of the world have been learning to do CBR, what principles of CBR might be derived from these diverse learning locations, and explore various partnership arrangements that might lead us toward more collaboration in building global capacity in CBR (UNESCO Chair 2016: 5).
Key take-home lessons from the study are as follows (Tandon et al. 2016):
The study also established a pedagogical framework for CBR training
to be provided to the next generation of community-based researchers.
The intention of this framework is to be robust and theoretically well
founded, but also flexible and simple enough to be readily translated
into effective CBR teaching and training strategies and practices
in geographically, politically and culturally diverse contexts. The
framework is made up of five pedagogical principles emerging from
the findings of the 'Next Gen' project, which tend to underpin the
pedagogy of CBR and appear relevant to be included in the future
training of community-based researchers (Tandon et al. 2016). These principles are:
1 An orientation towards research ethics and values;
2 Development of a deep understanding of power and partnerships;
3 Incorporation of multiple modes of enquiry;
4 Participation in learning CBR and ensuring a balance between
classroom (theory) and field (practice);
5 The role of researcher as CBR facilitator.
10 An exciting time for knowledge workers
The calls for decolonising and democratising knowledge, the exploration
of knowledge inequalities, the increased visibility of indigenous
knowledge, and the institutionalisation of structures to support CURPs
have opened up a brave new world for knowledge workers, and the
communities and movements where they interact. But make no mistake,
the achievement of knowledge democracy and excellence in engagement
will demand much courage, networking, willingness to stand up to the
gatekeepers of the Western canon and disciplinary orthodoxies. There is
an open door, however, and we are beginning to pass inside.
As UNESCO Chair, we have launched a K4C2 consortium to build capacities for engaged research excellence around the world. In partnership with local hubs which bring academia and civil society together, K4C will create classroom, field-based and online learning opportunities for students and practitioners together, situated in local cultural and language contexts. We invite readers of this IDS Bulletin to join this journey.
Note
* Rajesh Tandon, Founder of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in
India and Budd Hall, Professor of Community Development at the
University of Victoria, Canada are co-chairs of the UNESCO Chair
in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher
Education. Wafa Singh is the Research Coordinator with the UNESCO
Chair based in India, and Darlene Clover is Professor of Community
Leadership and Adult Education at the University of Victoria, Canada.
1 Wyman is a Canadian artist and public intellectual, former President
of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
2 Knowledge for Change.
References
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Perspectives, Victoria BC: University of Victoria
Chambers, R. (1994) 'Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): Challenges,
Potential and Paradigm', World Development 22.10: 1437–54,
(accessed
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© 2016 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2016.197
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence,
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This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: 'Engaged Excellence'; the Introduction is also recommended reading.