We are happy to host a panel at the First MethodsNET Conference on 01 November 2024 at UCLouvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium: 

Friday, November 1 9:00 - 10:30 

P03: Innovations in Mixing Methods 

What Challenges for Global Development Research are Posed by a More Decolonial Approach? Colonial Genealogies and Responses 

Laura E Camfield (King's College London, United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Many contemporary development researchers aim to generate data in a thoughtful and less colonial way, eschewing the power hierarchies associated with extractive models of research. However, all knowledge bears the weight of empire, and this is reinforced by the methods we use to generate it. Methodological histories and theoretical underpinnings become less obvious when they are mixed (Roelen and Camfield, 2015), obscuring their role in the (neo)colonial ‘documentation project' (Cohn, 1996). In this paper, I review attempts within international development to generate knowledge within equitable partnerships, listening to multiple voices. Equitable partnerships are not the primary focus, however, as excellent work has already been done on this by Istratii, Bauch Gebre Mariam, and Taylor. Instead, I look at the extent to which this decolonial turn acknowledges the genealogy of our preferred methodologies, including earlier, and at the time notably radical participatory approaches. The questions I address are firstly the extent to which there are continuities between colonial and development research methods, focusing on the survey and the emerging field of big data. Secondly, I look at whether the decolonial alternatives that are being proposed, for example, methodologies that are grounded in Ubuntu (Seehawer, 2018), art (Armijos-Burneo et al, 2024) or indigenous understandings of relationality (Tynan, 2020) are as vulnerable to co-option and instrumentalization as participatory methods (Cooke and Kothari 2005) in the great methodological supermarket of development research (Tynan & Bishop, 2019).

‘Poetry as a Research Method: A Case Study of Arts-Based Methods Using Autoethnography of Women from Marginal Groups

Nita Mishra (University of Limerick, Ireland)

o Poetry, participants claim, allows one to question the status quo, gives voice to the marginalised, in a safe environment, to raise issues of ‘abuse' in the personal and public realms. All participants, including the researcher and the researched, engaging in this creative process, co-create knowledge highlighting lived experiences of marginalisation in its varied forms and thereby accessing own ‘agency'.

Story-Telling as a Method to Engage with Nuances of Decolonising Knowledge for Development

Peter Taylor (Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Efforts to decolonise knowledge for development are growing, but are also constrained through personal experience of those who wish to grapple with deep, structural colonial injustices and ongoing power imbalances in global development. Combined with methods that engage with historical narratives and analysis of current discourses, story-telling brings the personal, and affective domains of self into play with other forms of inquiry, revealing more deeply the nuances and complexities inherent in transformative change. This paper describes, and reflects upon, emerging experiences from an EADI initiative inviting participants to share their personal stories of decolonising knowledge for development and offers insights on the wider potential of his methodological approach.

Young People's Political Imaginaries and Expressions

Marjoke Oosterom (Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom (Great Britain))

The current youth generation has less faith in democracy than any other generation, and even expresses to be open to non-democratic forms of governance. This paper elaborates how participatory and arts-based methods can be used to support young people articulate their own perspectives and voices on the political futures they want. It will discuss implications for how international development engages with the reality of democracies being globally under threat as well as the tensions in exporting models of democracy from a decolonial perspective.

See the full conference programme here