Researching with “urban” communities: practising plurality in urban knowledge co-production
Convenors: Francesca Ceola (Technische Universität Berlin), Rebecca Enobong Roberts (Technische Universität Berlin)
Discussant: Taibat Lawanson (University of Lagos), Rasheed Shittu (Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation)
Track: Alternative Futures
Keywords: Action Research, Plural Epistemologies, Urban Poor, Citizen Science
Friday October 25, 10:45–12:15, PG Seminar Room, John Moffat Building
SESSION 25
RESEARCHING WITH "URBAN" COMMUNITIES: PRACTISING PLURALITY IN URBAN KNOWLEDGE CO-PRODUCTION
This panel proposes to elaborate on action research and citizen science as methodologies and guiding principles that help us navigate urban research in African cities’ contexts in ways that are respectful of knowledge existing and produced already in loco. They also contribute to embedding urban research within cycles of knowledge concoction that calibrate the phases of participation, “production” and elaboration so that the research and its results remain relevant to citizens, are translatable to urban planners, and appeal to political decision makers. The work of calibration and negotiation between stakeholders who have a say in the making of urban spaces and living is a delicate one – yet one that bears a shallow impact when it does not take seriously the contribution of all city dwellers. Particularly, we bear testimony to the flattening of city dwellers as a uniform population whose needs and aspirations are measured across a range of values but homogenised within set categories. We think instead in terms of plurality when imagining how urban governance and urban development trajectories can be appropriated, shaped, and repaired by heterogeneous - yet no unfamiliar to each other - groups of urban dwellers with divergent personal and collective aspirations, overlapping im/mobility histories, competing economic capacities, and yet shared urban space occupation. Thus with special attention to but not exclusively concerned with the urban poor, we wish to invite contributions that share concerns for urban pluralities and examine practices of urban dwellers’ engagement in their urban-based research - to foreground the riches of urban dwellers’ knowledges and enhance their incorporation in cycles of relevant action research. The intent is the exploration of collaborative research as a bottom-up approach where the participant communities are equal actors of knowledge co-production in urban research. The impact of participation would be to produce critical reflections on the meaning of participation and/or inclusion of research collaborators in research with urban communities.
Presentations
Community knowledge and shifting patterns of collective action in informal settlements: experiences from the African Cities Research Consortium
This paper examines the evolving relationship between academia and marginalized communities in collaborative research processes. Drawing on over two years of experience from the African Cities Research Consortium, it analyzes factors driving increased legitimacy, scale, and sophistication in modalities of collective adion.
Everyday ways of knowing risk in the waterways of Accra
I direct my attention to the heterogeneous ways of knowing and managing flood risk in Accra's waterways, made manifest in a range of drainage practices. I understand these knowledge and practices as diffuse and not restricted to experts; differently situated knowledges of flood risk shape infrastructural practices and social relations around the waterway.
Participation as a concept and in practice: deciphering the nature and the politics of realising Participatory Slum Upgrading Initiatives in Accra, Ghana
Participatory programs are a suitable way to upgrade slums. Yet, they involve a constellation of actors complicating participation in practice. Thus, this research ascertains informal residents’ experiences with the participatory process and the roles of politics and power in influencing decisions.
Empowering Communities, Building Partnerships: A New Approach to Hyperlocal Urban Infrastructure Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Communities across urban sub-Saharan Africa are hindered by a lack of collaboratively-designed hyperlocal infrastructure projects. To facilitate meaningful private-sector engagement in co-productive processes, NECTICA bridges gaps between localized community knowledge and institutional norms.
