Taking Knowledge on a Journey with those who Live in Poverty by Diana Skelton and colleagues…
Diana Skelton and colleagues published in ARJ in a special issue on about action researching with people who live in poverty. They offer a blog with full citation and forever link below…
“Our idea to ‘take knowledge on a journey.’ The idea came from Mr. Parfait Nguiningdji in the Central African Republic. He and many others who collaborated on a participatory action research project about the violence of poverty have knowledge that needs to travel in order to be more widely recognised.
But even before setting out on this journey, the first step for many people in poverty is to break their silence. This painting, by Guillermo Díaz Linares, was inspired by participants in this research project who said: ‘The poorest people have no voice or vote. We do not know how to defend ourselves. We fear speaking with teachers and other people. They look at us differently. They call us peasants and we can’t answer back. We are always humiliated.’
There are other reasons for silence too. Living in deep poverty means being in a state of almost constant crisis and trauma with no opportunities for the time, space, support and peace of mind to step back and reflect on one’s own experiences. Being so often disbelieved and silenced, people in poverty may feel caused to doubt their own knowledge, which is a form of psychological torture.
It was in 2009-2012 that the four of us collaborated on this research project (citation below), trying to create the right conditions to break silence about the violence of poverty. More than a decade later, writing this article has been an opportunity for us to take the journey a step further. Both the North-South power dynamic and engaging with academics were challenges that we now wish we had have addressed differently.
But in the end, we see this process as having enriched our practices for the inclusive co-production of knowledge led by people experiencing some of the worst forms of poverty. Mr. Parfait’s journey is one we’ve been honored to begin and plan to continue on for a long time to come.
Coyne, B., Monje Barón, B., & Blunschi Ackermann, M.-R. (2024). ‘Taking knowledge on a journey’: Creating conditions for epistemic justice. Action Research, 22(1), 86-103.
Forever link: https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503231205235
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