Event Details

COVID-19 has halted ‘research activism’ – the conventional mode of development research. The rise in alternative ways to engage with ‘in-situ researchers’ has created an opportunity to re-assess the value and methods of early local ownership of projects. We explore a ‘research collective’ approach.

COVID-19 has impacted international development research significantly, not least by impeding face-to-face, dialectic modes of capacity building and engagement. The transformational effects of these semi/un-structured research activisms on local research collectives are well recognised. It is however quite rare for a local research collective to steer the very research that capacitates it. Yet COVID-19 has made this rarely tested task a must, sparking a search for ways to secure early local ownership of development research. To that end, our speakers draw on two major GCRF-funded projects that were at different life cycle stages when COVID-19 interrupted: RECIRCULATE concerns safe water, sanitation and health in informal communities of Accra, Ghana; and Living Deltas Hub livelihood resilience in the river deltas of Bangladesh. They compare activities before and after the pandemic onset and assess the efficacy of the Hub’s virtual-only activities and RECIRCULATE’s blended approach of virtual coordination following early capacity-building. Results reveal much higher levels of local ownership of RECIRCULATE because of our escalator model of capacity building from project inception. The Hub’s virtual-only model also proved effective, due to a strong in-country network and multiple research team members being of local origin, with fluency in the local language. Southern researchers contributing significantly at every stage of the research process emerged as a key success factor in both projects. These pluralistic strategies (re)confirm the value of early engagement with local and wider communities of practice. Our speakers discuss the application of these strategies to inter-disciplinary topics, diverse contexts, and their strengths and limitations, arguing that the flexibility this approach brings is essential in building resilience against sudden onset events, such as COVID-19.

Speakers for this seminar Dr Ehsanul Kabir of Living Deltas Hub and Dr Reuben Larbi of RECIRCULATE are Postdoctoral Research Associates at Lancaster Environment Centre. Discussions will be chaired by Lancaster's Dr Manoj Roy.

Joining the seminar

This seminar will be held live online through Microsoft Teams. All are very welcome to join us!

Link to join the session: Click here at 13:00 on 9th Feb to join the meeting

Guidance on joining a Teams event available here.

Format

• 13:00 (UK time) Welcome and introduction
• 20 minute presentation from our speakers
• Speakers takes questions from our live virtual audience submitted through the text 'Chat' function
• Seminars will be recorded and videos will be uploaded in due course onto Lancaster Environment Centre's YouTube channel

You can also join the conversation on Twitter: #LECSeminar.

Full LEC Seminar series

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