Description
This paper argues that the privileging of certain kinds of knowledge in global, development and international studies results in blind spots in terms of understandings of the individual and collective that shape citizen agency. It also limits the scope for equitable international research relationships. Participatory research processes can offer opportunities for marginalised groups to reflect on lived experience and construct knowledge, using a range of methods that enable different ways of knowing to be expressed. This knowledge can subsequently be brought into dialogue with other forms of knowledge, and with policymakers (Howard, Ospina and Yorks, 2021). In PAR, the process that leads up to engagement with duty bearers is crucial; it is where communicative confidence is grown, and divergent views can be expressed and acknowledged in order to move towards a sense of collective, and capacity for collaborative action (Shaw, Howard & Lopez-Franco, 2020). This paper will draw on research conducted in Uganda, Ghana, India, Colombia and the UK, which worked with marginalised groups to analyse their experiences and to engage with dutybearers to build more accountable relationships. The paper will reflect on how an extended epistemology can on one hand deepen understandings of citizen agency, and on the other hand inform democratic research practice (Brydon Miller 2008).
