Reflections on a level research playing field and equitable research partnerships
Researchers and Project Team Discussing Initial Fieldwork Results, February 2020
To address building more equitable and inclusive research partnerships, we have to seek out fairer and more inclusive pathways in research collaborations. This is something that some of my colleagues and I from the IMBER Human Dimensions Working Group have been actively thinking about, and a couple of years ago we wanted to explore this further - both in our own work and that of our wider network of people we work with. The outcome of this work has been a published article – Look Who’s Asking—Reflections on Participatory and Transdisciplinary Marine Research Approaches.
The essence of the article is how to do better participatory and transdisciplinary research. From past experience, we have seen that often researchers, particularly from the Global North (GN), reach out to partners from the Global South (GS), with a previously designed research question. These questions tend to be formulated outside the social, cultural and ecological setting of the communities who are the focus of the research. We wanted to explore how one can be successful in creating more inclusive and equitable research pathways by taking the time to listen to the voices of the communities we work with. This includes the grassroots and community based organized who are best connected to the communities. Our collective findings are intuitive but strongly grounded and rich in context due to the collective experiences of our peers who shared their stories on conducting participatory research. Four key insights are shared and illustrated with examples and how one might achieve this
1. Invest in rapport - a. Plan for extra time, b. Keep in touch
2. Engage and exchange a. Practice truly networking, b. Be ready for other points of view: there is more to it than it meets the eyes c. Be humble: they may know more than you do
3. Be accommodating and attentive a. Adopt the policy of leaving no one behind (unless they ask for it) b. Be aware of power grabbing
4. Be respectful a. Keep in mind that communities and community members are not guinea pigs b. Make promises you can keep
The solutions are not rocket science, listen a little, invest some time, be nice, be open! Listening for a long time, being an active listener, allowing time to build trust, to allow that space for knowledge to be exchanged, making space for others who don’t know how to or don’t have time to navigate the complex systems of science-policy, climate-society, social ecological systems and other systems that we frame our research ideas on.
One of the key barriers in doing all this is the lack of flexible research funding streams that would allow us to accommodate such inclusive and participatory research. The past 1.5 years of Covid-19 pandemic, we have already seen the need for this flexibility - how both funding bodies and existing funding projects are having to adapt the focus of their work to address new research agenda arising from the negative impacts of COVID-19. We need to advocate for building in time to build rapport with communities and also the flexibility to incorporate research questions that they feel address their needs. As Ollie noted on this blog last year, there is often a mismatch between the sense of urgency imposed by a researcher’s deadlines and the available time that local respondents might be able to offer; funders need to recognize this fact and address it.
This is of course also challenging due to the diverse array of needs. For example, one might be looking to explore ecosystem based adaptation to climate change impacts, or community based conservation. Once in the field, it might become evident from listening to the communities that they feel other factors e.g. lack of roads or cyclone shelters pose as greater threats. This is where we need to bring in the interdisciplinary hats and realize that the issues are not independent of each other, and by listening and collaborating with other disciplines, we can better offer solutions to these ‘wicked’ problems.
One of the things I am personally most proud of with our PPLA partnership is how we have been able to model these behaviors and approaches, even in the face of Covid. Local researchers have been involved as active partners in the research design from the beginning. Scholars from the International Project Group, based at Dublin City University and Wageningen University and Research, have freely and generously given their time and input similarly in a spirit of supportive collaboration, rather than hierarchical control freakery from 7000 miles away. The need for our researchers to take extra time to build rapport with the communities we are working with, particularly under pandemic conditions, has always enjoyed the International Project Group’s full support. It has been a breath of fresh air.
To conclude, we have to continue the dialogue between researchers and other stakeholders, both from the global north and south, on how best to address research questions that includes the voices of the primary users of that research. This will improve on transdisciplinary and co-designed research projects that are equitable in nature, and inclusive of all the stakeholders that are part of the research community. One of the contributions I hope PPLA can make is to provide a model of good practice in this regard, despite the irony that this not one of the promised outputs of the grant proposal!