GLP News

EVENT RECAP: Ethical and contextual considerations in knowledge co-production; and lessons learned from the webinar series

Related GLP Member: Albrecht Ehrensperger, Isabelle Providoli

The GLP working group Co-production of Sustainable Land Systems held its fifth webinar, on ethical and contextual considerations in knowledge co-production and lessons learned from the webinar series, in March 2019.

In the first part of this webinar, two speakers focused on the ethical considerations in knowledge co-production.

In the second part of the webinar, members of the GLP Working Group on co-production synthesised the lessons learned and take home messages from all contributors in the five sessions of the series. They presented a draft framework for co-production, a set of key messages and pathways towards the co-production framework and asked participants to give their opinion on the same through an instant polling platform.

Speakers were:

Martha Chaves, Director of the Fundación Mentes en Transición (Transitional Minds Foundation), Colombia

Decolonizing knowledge production in rural Colombia: ethical considerations when encountering cultural plurality
This talk will introduce the educational initiative KORU 2018: “Searching for our tourism of origin”. Using ICT technologies, members of the afrocolombian community of Rosario Islands (in the North Caribbean region), members of the indigenous community Camëntsá (Southern region of Putumayo) and members of the peasant association of Filandia (Coffee region) interacted and co-produced knowledge and practices around the topic of ‘Tourism of Origin’. This form of tourism recognises the role of traditional knowledge in the conservation of bio-cultural diversity, and in counteracting the negative impacts of mass tourism being felt by the three territories. Through participatory diagnostic sessions with community members, we co-developed themes and pedagogical material to create a semi-virtual course taken by various participants including community members, university students, civil society organizations, and entrepreneurs. First, the decolonial and transgressive ethics of Koru in the context of Colombian rural education will be explained. And second, some of the ethical issues around the preparation and the implementation of the actual course will be highlighted. 

Sabin Bieri, Associate Director, Portfolio and Networks / Head of Socio-Economic Transitions Cluster, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland

Power in co-design: hidden agendas, manifest exclusions
This talk will offer an entry point to discuss power inequalities that tend to be overglossed by many promotors of co-design and multi-stakeholder initiatives. While the concept of deep and broad participation from the very outset of an initiative is a convincing argument, questions of privilege and exclusion are less prominently assessed. This contribution will offer an illustration on these delicate subjects.

Jean-Christophe Castella and Albrecht Ehrensperger, members of the working group coordination team, presented the synthesis of the webinar series and conducted the participant consultation. 

Please view the full webinar (you can also make it full screen):

Presentations
Ethical and contextual considerations in knowledge co-production, Sabin Bieri (PDF, <0.5MB)

KORU 2018: Co-designing as an act of resistance, Martha Chaves (PDF, 2.2 MB)

You can also view recordings of the first four webinars and download supplementary materials on the working group's homepage.

Become a Member
We encourage you to become a member of GLP for free and join the co-production working group to help shape future offerings.

Please direct any questions about the webinar or working group to Isabelle Providoli.