Co-production of knowledge and transformative learning through new methodologies and research practice
As researchers, we are increasingly expected to produce knowledge in ways that satisfy an ever-widening array of potentially conflicting demands. The group undertakes agenda-setting scholarly research that simultaneously engages policy makers, communities and donors. In this strand of the Society, Space and Environment research theme, group members contribute to:
- emerging debates on participatory methodologies for research and pedagogy, with research on methodologies for transformative learning through research and pedagogical practice (for example, exploring student learning in sustainable development in the UK; developing tools for participatory curriculum design on gender, migration and natural resource management in Indonesia)
- major policy related projects that have significantly changed government thinking and policy in relation to the natural environment and other policy arenas (for, example, leading the work on the cultural benefits of nature and collective values for the ground breaking UK National Ecosytem Assessment; leading research on transgender equalities for the UK Government Equalities Unit)
- the politics and ethics of representing human experience within disadvantaged groups (for example, navigating strategic erasures in migration and resource access research; interrogating the ethos and socio-embodied disposition of the social researcher in relation to disabilities)
- exploring methodologies that seek to disrupt hierarchies within knowledge co-production through innovative collaborative dissemination with research collaborators and publics (for example, Count Me In Too, a project involving co-research with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people, service providers and others to develop outputs that promote positive social change for LGBT people; the development of new geographical conceptions of space and landscape in conjunction with people with visual impairments and disabled performance artists)
