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Power Dynamics are Everywhere, and Language is no Exception

We can talk in English, but can we talk about English?

By Basile Boulay (part 3 of 3)

Facilitating publication in English for non-native speakers is important: as we saw in the previous post (1st post here), they face numerous entry barriers that prevent them for having the same chances as their native peers on the ‘research market’. It’s not the full story, however, and far from it. In this third article, I would like to stress how far this linguistic divide takes us on the terrain of structural inequalities, power dynamics, and, yes, intellectual reductionism. Although we cannot ignore the practical gains that English as a lingua franca brings for research, we can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that this hegemony creates serious problems for everyone, native speakers included.

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The Normative Dimension of Transdisciplinary Cooperation

By Johanna Vogel, Francisco Porras, Michael P. Schlaile, Veronica Hector, Christina Plesner Volkdal, Zhiqi Xu / New Rhythms of Development blog series

In times of rising inequalities, geopolitical shifts, and complex crises, transdisciplinary cooperation is needed more than ever to support the path of just transformations. 

Although most people would agree that any deep structural transformation should take place in a just and equitable manner, the idea of “justice“ in transformations is deeply normative and involves conflicting worldviews, contested pathways, and different interests. Transformation for its part means changing structures, changing cultures, and changing practices. A culture of transformation is, among others, also constituted by values, which are supposed to give meaning to action.

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What Is a “Development” Research Project? Transforming Ideas of Development through Development Research

By Mette Fog Olwig, Jacob Rasmussen, Lone Riisgaard, Christine Noe, Geetika Khanduja, Peter Taylor, Herbert Hambati, Lisa Ann Richey, Chris Büscher and Paola Minoia / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Development Studies has long operated with binaries such as “developed/developing” and “traditional/modern” that foster implicit assumptions of Northern superiority. As a result, research projects taking place in so-called “developing countries” tend to ask different research questions and use different methods leading to types of theories that differ from those concerning so-called “developed countries.”

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How ethical can research relationships be in Development Studies?

By Isis Barei-Guyot

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted research practice, and where research was possible to continue nevertheless, researchers had to ask themselves how it could do so ethically. The context of the pandemic meant that many of such ethical considerations were new to researchers, and we witnessed a moment of overcoming and adapting that produced changes on a scale and at a pace that would have been previously inconceivable. However, these extraordinary efforts to keep research moving during the pandemic highlighted the inequalities that had become normalised within research practice, and particularly within research relationships.

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Some steps for decolonising international research-for-development partnerships

By Katarzyna Cieslik, Shreya Sinha, Cees Leeuwis, Tania Eulalia Martínez-Cruz, Nivedita Narain and Bhaskar Vira | EADI/ISS Blog Series

While partnerships between researchers and practitioners from the Global North and Global South can be and often are intellectually and socially impactful, they remain highly unequal. Coloniality pervades these partnerships, influencing who leads research projects implemented in the Global South and whose interests are represented. Here, the conveners and panellists of a roundtable discussion on partnerships in academia that formed part of the recent EADI ISS Conference 2021 propose some steps for decolonising international research partnerships. Continue reading “Some steps for decolonising international research-for-development partnerships”