Co-Construction of Knowledge

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Beyond epistemicide: Knowledge democracy, higher education and the path towards pluriversality
(UNESCO Chair, 2016) Hall, Budd L
How have our knowledge systems been shaped by histories of colonisation, enclosure and dispossession, and what might it mean to move beyond them? In this lecture delivered in Brighton, Dr. Budd L. Hall traces how contemporary knowledge systems are rooted in long histories of land theft, colonial expansion and epistemicide. Beginning with a personal account of his family’s migration to Canada and the acquisition of Indigenous land through illegal and immoral means, he situates his own access to higher education within the material histories of dispossession that financed universities and consolidated Western knowledge systems as dominant. Drawing on David Harvey’s notion of accumulation by dispossession and Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ concept of epistemicide, Hall argues that universities have functioned as sites of enclosure, determining who is authorised to produce knowledge and whose knowledge systems are dismissed. Through examples from India, Uganda, South Africa and beyond, the lecture highlights alternative knowledge systems that persist despite marginalisation. It calls for transforming knowledge systems through knowledge democracy, co-creation and a sustained commitment towards epistemic justice.
Building in dialogue between consumers and staff in acute mental health services
(Systemic Practice and Action Research, 1998) Wadsworth, Yoland; Epstein, Merinda
This paper describes some aspects of the methodology, material, and findings from a lengthy participatory action research engagement by a consumer organization in Australia, which was undertaken in collaboration with staff at a major public psychiatric hospital and then went on to involve "players" throughout the local state, and national mental health services system. A small first phase established a dialogic methodology for the exchange of experiences and thinking between staff and consumers. The purpose of the second phase of the research was to explore how consumers' voices might be heard, and how staff-consumer communication about that feedback, might be "built in" to ongoing organizational structure and culture. Systems thinking about defensive routines, silences, and voice-as-discourse is reported as offering a possible way of cracking the puzzle of the closed-loop cycle of claim/blame-defense-and-counter-claim/blame-defense that has been characteristic to date.
Challenges in the co-construction of knowledge: A global study on strengthening structures for community university research partnerships
(0000) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, Wafa
What does it mean to institutionalise the co-construction of knowledge between universities and communities at a global level? This paper begins from the premise that knowledge democracy requires moving beyond expert driven models towards collaborative processes that recognise the knowledge generating capacities of each human being and of every community. Community university research partnerships are presented as a key pathway for this shift, as they create structures through which research questions, methods, processes and outcomes can be shaped jointly. Drawing on a global survey and national case studies across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, the authors examine the histories, discourses and institutional forms that support or constrain such partnerships. This paper further analyses models such as Science Shops, centers of community-based research and national policy frameworks, while identifying tensions and practical challenges in embedding such work within universities. It highlights the importance of facilitative structures, supportive leadership, transnational networks and sustained institutional commitment. In doing so, it argues that institutionalising community-based research is not only a technical exercise but a political and ideological process that reshapes how universities understand knowledge, partnership and their responsibilities to society.
Conference report. Producing evidence for development in Brexit Britain. 27th -28th March 2017, UCL-Institute of education, London
(The Christian Aid Centre for Excellence for Research, Evidence and Learning and the Open University, Institute of Educational Technology, 2017-04) Newman, Kate; Fransman, Jude
This conference report is about a two-day conference held in March 2017 at UCL-Institute of Education, marking the final event in the Rethinking Research Partnerships seminar series. Around a hundred academics, NGO practitioners, funders, and policymakers gathered to consider how research partnerships between universities and international NGOs might produce better evidence for development, set against the uncertainty of Brexit Britain. The first day shared findings from seven case studies on establishing partnerships, designing research, communicating findings, and sustaining relationships beyond funded projects. The second day turned to policy, with workshops on funding innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and the shifting place of evidence in a post-truth climate. Perspectives from Nigeria, Qatar, Tanzania, South Africa, and India broadened the UK-focused discussion. The report closes with sector manifestos from NGOs, academics, and funders, outlining commitments toward more equitable and trusting research collaborations.
Global trends in training community-based research in higher education institutions and civil society organizations
(UNESCO Chair in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, 2015-07) Lepore, Walter
Across the world, the practice of community-based research is growing, yet the ways in which people learn and are trained for it remain uneven and often informal. This report draws on a global survey of practitioners and institutions to explore how CBR knowledge is acquired, what gaps exist in training, and what possibilities are opening up. The findings suggest both the strength of informal learning networks and the challenges of building more structured opportunities, particularly in regions where resources are scarce. By mapping these trends, the study raises important questions about how future generations of researchers might be supported, and what it would take to make training in CBR truly global and accessible.
Institutionalizing community university research partnerships: A user’s manual
(PRIA and University of Victoria, 2015) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L
This manual on Institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships is both a handy reference and a ready tool-kit for university and college administrators interested in establishing and improving Community University Research Partnership initiatives in their institutions. It provides practical guidelines and steps that will help deliver on policy commitments made to promote Community University Engagement/Community University Research Partnerships in higher educa-tional institutions. These guidelines, supplemented with best practices (in boxes) from around the world, are intended to show a way forward, and are not necessarily prescriptive; they offer insights into how institutions can build and sustain Community University Research Partnership practices and structures. These best practices are a snapshot of current administra-tive structures and institutional policies that are facilitative of Community University Research Partnerships. A section on Frequently Asked Questions provides ready answers to questions that may arise in the process of institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships. Resources and further readings at the end of the manual are an aid to fur-ther learning. The content of the manual has been carefully drawn from available global literature, much of it culled from products of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded global study on 'Mainstreaming Community University Research Partnerships' conducted under the aegis of the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education. This global study documented case studies across 12 countries and a comparative analysis of the cases high-lighted the practices and exemplars for institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships. This easy-to-use manual is an effort of the UNESCO Co-Chairs towards co-creating knowledge, capacities and partnerships between universities (academics), communities (civil society) and government (policymakers). We hope it will be beneficial to all universities, colleges and other higher educational institutions that are sensitive to the issue of social responsibility and the potential of community based research to provide local solutions to global problems for local communities. We look forward to your comments and feedback once you have started on the journey of institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships in your institution.
National level orientation programme on strengthening urban governance in india a Participatory research intervention, October 9-11, 2000, Reading material no. 2 and 4
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2000) Gill, Harbans Singh; Praja
Harbans Singh Gill examines the capacity-building challenges facing India's urban sector at the turn of the century. The paper traces the rapid pace of urbanization, noting the fourfold rise in urban population over four decades and the growing concentration of people in large settlements above one lakh persons. It documents persistent gaps in access to basic services such as drinking water, electricity, sanitation, and solid waste management, with smaller towns and less developed states bearing the heaviest burden. Gill identifies the widening distance between demand and supply of urban infrastructure as the central concern, compounded by weak municipal finances following the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. To address this, the paper works through small and medium town development, municipal finance reform and sustainable city planning, proposing for each- a cycle of research, training and policy seminars- that can turn identified problems into concrete action plans.
Participatory impact assessment: A pilot programme in South Asia.
(Voluntary Agencies Support Scheme (VASS), 2002-03) Quinn, Marion; Clark, Kevin
This report documents a South Asian pilot programme on Participatory Impact Assessment and argues that evaluation must move beyond expert-led measurement of outputs toward a continuous and democratic process in which communities themselves analyse change, define priorities, and shape future action. Drawing on experiences from India and Bangladesh, it shows how participatory approaches deepen both the quality and meaning of impact assessment by placing people’s lived realities at the center. Through methods such as group discussions, mapping, interviews, ranking, and reflective exercises, communities were able to examine shifts in confidence, leadership, access to services, household decision making, and collective organisation. The process also brought forward unintended outcomes, local constraints, and concerns that are often overlooked in conventional evaluations. A key contribution of the report is its insistence that impact assessment should happen throughout the project cycle rather than only at the end. When undertaken in a participatory manner, evaluation becomes not just a tool of measurement but a means of learning, accountability, and institutional improvement. It strengthens community capacities, deepens ownership, and helps organisations remain responsive to changing realities. This report is an important resource for understanding how people centered approaches can make development practice more accountable, reflective, and meaningful.
PRIA's engagements with higher educational institutions (HEIs): Initiatives in community based research (CBR)
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2014) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
PRIA has engaged with academia in a multitude of interventions, bringing community and practitioner knowledge into the portals of traditional research institutions and processes. By doing this, PRIA has helped Higher Educational Institutions (HEls) realize their social responsibility towards a community's needs and aspirations. This document traces PRIA's work in promoting community engagement within HEls in India and beyond. The experience, garnered over three decades, have been classified into six categories to highlight the different forms PRIA's interventions as a facilitator have taken to build bridges between the world of formal research, the practitioner knowledge of civil society actors and the experiential knowledge of local communities. The experiences discussed in this paper are not intended to be comprehensive; a few specific interventions are described under each category to illustrate the nature of the engagements fostered and the practices promoted.
Relevance of community‑based participatory research in community medicine training
(Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2020) Krishnan, Anand; Tandon, Rajesh; Nongkynrih, Baridalyne
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach in which researchers undertake research in partnership with those affected by the issue being studied, for the purpose of taking action or effecting so-cial change. It can also incorporate those who will use the results to change practice and inform policy. The practice of CBPR is primarily fo-cused on "Knowledge for Change." Most research projects in such CBPR partnerships are funded through the academic partners. In many situations, academic and professional researcher institutions and researchers find it difficult to share the information and resources or to di-rectly engage with local community and other local stakeholders. In practice, finding an intermediary partner who has good rapport with lo-cal community and local government can be very effective. While there are good initiatives in selected medical colleges for community orien-tation of medical undergraduates and postgraduates in community medicine, these are not immersive enough to cause an attitudinal change. It is time that we exposed our graduates and postgraduates to CBPR concepts and practice
The funding and development of community university research partnerships in Canada: Evidence-based investment in knowledge, engaged scholarship, innovation and action for Canada's future
(OCBR, University of Victoria; Community Based Research Canada, 2009-10) Office of Community-Based Research, University of Victoria; Community Based Research Canada
The purpose of this report is to map out the sources and types of funding that have been created to support community university research partnerships, describe the current state of development of arrangements between public post secondary institutions and community organizations, to collaborate in research and knowledge mobilization, and suggest some conclusions as to how effective partnership work of this kind might be strengthened in the future.
The power of collaboration, creativity and art in knowledge mobilization: Reflections from international work
(2020) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L
In this paper, Dr. Budd Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon examine how knowledge mobilization (KMb) can become a more effective tool for social transformation when it is integrated throughout the research process rather than treated as a final dissemination activity. Drawing on over four decades of community-based participatory research (CBPR) across the global South and excluded North, the authors contend that KMb is most powerful when embedded in research from the outset, rather than added after the fact. Working within a knowledge democracy framework through the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, the paper explores how creative and arts-based methods have served as powerful vehicles for sharing research with communities, policymakers, and the broader public. Through four case studies—domestic workers in India using a hand-stitched saree to document sexual harassment, waste recyclers in Brazil producing participatory videos for policy advocacy, immigrant women in Toronto presenting through spoken word at City Hall, and a community health fair in rural South Africa the paper illustrates how art reaches people and places that conventional academic outputs cannot. The paper concludes that creativity is not decorative in KMb; it is essential, particularly when research aims at social transformation and meaningful community change.
Towards a new architecture of knowledge: The creation of an office of community-based research at the University of Victoria
(2020) Hall, Budd L
Who is driving development? Reflections on the transformative potential of asset-based community development?
(Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, 2003-10) Mathie, Alison; Cunningham, Gord
Arising out of a critique of needs-based approaches to development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) offers a set of principles to mobilize and sustain community economic development. This paper draws attention to the connections between these principles and practices and (i) current interest in sustainable livelihoods as a conceptual framework, (ii) the concept of social capital, (iii) the social psychology of mobilization, (iv) the enhancement capacity and agency to engage as citizens with the entitlements of citizenship, (v) the role of multiple stakeholders; and (vi) the issue of control over the development process. Finally the paper points to the challenges for NGOs employing an asset-based, community-driven approach given the needs-based, problem-solving paradigm in which they operate.