The persistence of power: Reflections on the power dynamics in a Merging of Knowledge research project

Collaborative research approaches emphasise the need to transform the way the academic community produces science by integrating knowledge from different disciplines, but also by including non-academic knowledge in order to address the challenges of sustainability and social justice. This approach – known in the literature on sustainability science as transdisciplinarity – has been used increasingly in research to resolve sustainability problems, including those related to poverty and socio-economic inequalities. This article seeks to shed light on the power dynamics that exist and emerge in transdisciplinary processes by analysing a case study on food poverty. Following Fritz and Meinherz’s (2020) approach, I use Amy Allen’s (1998) typology of power to track and trace the way that power played out between and within actor groups in a project that applied a transdisciplinary methodology known as the ‘Merging of Knowledge’. Although the Merging of Knowledge model seeks to identify and address power differentials between the participating groups, power relations remain complex, dynamic and – to some extent – inevitable. Collaborative processes would benefit from an analysis of the way that power dynamics emerge, persist and evolve to enhance awareness of different forms of power that coexist in research, and to ensure that imbalances present outside the research process are not reproduced within it

The persistence of power: reflections on the power dynamics in a Merging of Knowledge research project

Collaborative research approaches emphasise the need to transform the way the academic community produces science by integrating knowledge from different disciplines, but also by including non-academic knowledge in order to address the challenges of sustainability and social justice. This approach – known in the literature on sustainability science as transdisciplinarity – has been used increasingly in research to resolve sustainability problems, including those related to poverty and socio-economic inequalities. This article seeks to shed light on the power dynamics that exist and emerge in transdisciplinary processes by analysing a case study on food poverty. Following Fritz and Meinherz’s (2020) approach, I use Amy Allen’s (1998) typology of power to track and trace the way that power played out between and within actor groups in a project that applied a transdisciplinary methodology known as the ‘Merging of Knowledge’. Although the Merging of Knowledge model seeks to identify and address power differentials between the participating groups, power relations remain complex, dynamic and – to some extent – inevitable. Collaborative processes would benefit from an analysis of the way that power dynamics emerge, persist and evolve to enhance awareness of different forms of power that coexist in research, and to ensure that imbalances present outside the research process are not reproduced within it

From Consultation to Coproduction: A Comparison of Participation in Poverty Research

In this article, we compare two international participatory studies on poverty – one conducted in 1999 and published in 2000 as “Voices of the Poor: Crying out for Change” by the World Bank; the other, conducted from 2016 to 2019 as a partnership between the University of Oxford and the international movement ATD Fourth World, titled The Hidden Dimensions of Poverty. After introducing the subject, we present our theoretical background, distinguishing between participatory poverty assessments (PPA) and transdisciplinary research. We then discuss the methodological tools and processes deployed in the studies, before widening the discussion to broader issues concerning the participation of persons experiencing poverty in poverty research. We explore the extent to which each study empowered participants by involving them at each stage of the research process, whether space was opened up for participants to exercise greater agency through the cultivation of pro-poor alliances; whether power relations were recognized and/or countered, and finally, whether the studies had the potential to achieve transformative results. We conclude that while both studies were participatory in nature, the ATD Fourth World research followed a more demanding methodology, requiring deeper and more intensive participation of persons experiencing poverty at all stages of the research process

Evaluating transition pathways beyond basic needs: A transdisciplinary approach to assessing food assistance

This article applies the findings of a transdisciplinary research project conducted in 2018–2019 involving food aid beneficiaries, practitioners and academics to evaluate the current food assistance system as operationalized in several high-income countries. Using a well-being framework developed by a participatory study led by the World Bank in 2000, it analyzes the capacity of the current food assistance system – and alternative pathways – to fulfill material, bodily and social well-being, as well as security, freedom of choice and action and interpersonal justice. The results of the transdisciplinary research project show that the dominant pathway currently in place for achieving food security among individuals and households experiencing poverty insufficiently fulfils criteria related to bodily and social well-being and largely fails to provide beneficiaries with freedom of choice and action as well as interpersonal justice. Through ex-ante and ex-post interviews conducted with the participants of the transdisciplinary research project, the article proposes an exploratory analysis of the social learning and empowerment generated through the process. It finds that food aid beneficiaries, practitioners and university researchers modified their empirical policy beliefs, albeit to varying degrees. In terms of empowerment, results suggest participants’ collective empowerment was strengthened, while individual empowerment waned

From participation to actor empowerment : design features for transdisciplinary sustainability research

“Transdisciplinarity” is considered to be a crucial component of sustainability science. The term refers to the integration of knowledge from different academic disciplines as well as the knowledge of extra-academic stakeholders in the aim of solving societal problems. While the use of transdisciplinarity in research on sustainability has expanded in recent years, the research on transdisciplinarity itself is still emerging. Indeed, too often scholars and practitioners understand collaborative processes as “black boxes”, and they still too rarely study the dynamics, structures and methods of that constitute them. This thesis aims to contribute to filling this gap. I examine, more specifically, the way in which the participation of non-academic actors is organized and governed in transdisciplinary research and the effects that this has on its outcomes. In doing so, I “unpack” a number of research projects and delve into their design features, focusing on the inclusion of non-academic actors, the social learning which is generated by this participation and the empowerment that is fostered among actors. The heart of the thesis is composed of four research articles. The first one is a meta-analysis of 40 case studies of different transdisciplinary projects across the Globe. The analysis sought to link conceptions of sustainability adopted in the research projects to four design features: the inclusion of disadvantaged groups, the acknowledgement and countering of power relations, the heterogeneity of the project teams piloting the studies and the embeddedness of the project in long-term dynamics. In the second article, a distinction is made between the consultation of actors and the co-construction of knowledge in participatory poverty research. By comparing the design of two participatory research processes conducted two decades apart, the article analysed the extent to which participants were empowered throughout the research, whether alliances of poor and pro-poor groups were cultivated, whether power relations were revealed and/or countered and whether the research produced transformative results, challenging dominant narratives surrounding poverty. The third article linked the effects of five design features with social learning in transdisciplinary processes. More specifically, it analysed the extent to which the openness in the co-construction of the research question, the clarification of participants’ normative backgrounds, the degree of activity of the facilitation, the balancing of power relations and the presence of collective interest advocacy organizations fostered such social learning. The fourth and final article tested the results of the third article in a specific case study. It analysed the social learning and empowerment generated in an experience of transdisciplinary research on the topic of food assistance. Through the use of ex-ante¬¬ and ex-post interviews with the participants of the research process, it showed how the understanding of empirical policy beliefs and of individuals’ perception of their capacities to impact the policies and practices of food assistance evolved as a result of the transdisciplinary process.(POLS - Sciences politiques et sociales) -- UCL, 202

Towards a Critical Sustainability Science? Participation of Disadvantaged Actors and Power Relations in Transdisciplinary Research

This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis conducted on 40 case studies of transdisciplinary research. First, it groups the cases according to the sustainability conception that is adopted in the project, distinguishing between approaches to sustainability that consider environmental protection alone, approaches that seek to find a balance between economic growth and environmental protection, and those which seek to integrate the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. Next, the paper explores the extent to which the conception of sustainability adopted in the transdisciplinary project influences a series of process features in the projects. In particular, we focus on the extent to which the projects allowed for the participation of disadvantaged groups, the degree to which they accounted for and attempted to mitigate power differentials between participants, their embeddedness in longer-term dynamics and the heterogeneity of the actors piloting the projects. We also discuss the effects of these on the social learning and empowerment generated among participants. The paper finds that among the selected case studies, those with an integrated approach to sustainability more often included disadvantaged groups and acknowledged power differentials, applying a range of tools to mitigate these. Moreover, these cases also more often reported generating empowerment and social learning

Governing the Transformation of regional Food Systems: the Case of the Walloon Participatory Process

Food systems are made of a myriad of actors, visions and interests. Collaborative governance arrangement may foster their transformation towards greater sustainability when conventional means, such as state-oriented planning, technological developments or social innovations provide insufficient impetus. However, such arrangements may achieve transformative results only under certain conditions and in specific contexts. Despite an abundant literature on participatory schemes, the success for collaborative governance arrangements remains partially understood and deserves academic attention, in particular in the field of food systems reform. This article provides an in-depth analysis of an empirical case study in the Walloon Region (Belgium), where the administration for sustainable development initiated a six-month participatory process to collectively construct a roadmap towards a sustainable regional food system. The article explores the extent to which the process has allowed transformative voices to emerge, and assesses whether the outcome provides a promising tool for adopting a transformative policy at the regional scale. It argues that the facilitation process insufficiently attenuated existing power relations and highlights key underlying factors (including time, resources, expertise and coalition building) that, like in classical negotiation settings, strengthen or weaken specific actors. It discusses the link between the results of the participatory process and the potential for policy-makers to build upon these to guide further the region’s food system towards a sustainable future