Budd L. Hall

Decolonization of knowledge, epistemicide, participatory research and higher education

This article raises questions about what the word ‘knowledge’ refers to. Drawn from some 40 years of collaborative work on knowledge democracy, the authors suggest that higher education institutions today are working with a very small part of the extensive and diverse knowledge systems in the world. Following from de Sousa Santos, they illustrate how Western knowledge has been engaged in epistemicide, or the killing of other knowledge systems. Community-based participatory research is about knowledge as an action strategy for change and about the rendering visible of the excluded knowledges of our remarkable planet. Knowledge stories, theoretical dimensions of knowledge democracy and the evolution of community-based participatory research partnerships are highlighted.

Social movement learning: a contemporary re-examination

Welcome to this bumper special issue on social movement learning which, we believe, makes a timely and important contribution to the literature on the subject by exploring and articulating the links between adult learning and movements for progressive change. From the Arab Spring, to the democracy demonstrations in Spain, the new student movement in Chile and student and public sector mobilisation against welfare cuts in the UK, there are emerging signs and stories of public disquiet and unrest, new citizen action and social movement activity, which are questioning the hegemony of ‘there is no alternative’. Not surprisingly interest in social movements, their formation, growth and ways of working, is growing within the academic world and research can help inform the practice and activities of these movements. The study of social movements has never attracted such a level of interest since the late 1960s and the mid 1980s. Unlike the academic writing that emerged during this period however, the contemporary academic social movement scene is experiencing a growing number of scholars, from the ‘majority world’ and the Global North who are looking at the learning dimensions of social movements (see http://www.interfacejournal.net/). Many of these are ‘engaged scholars’ who are linked to local, regional or global movements themselves. Social movement learning, which has to some extent always been part of the radical tradition of adult education, is now attracting new and more sophisticated analyses, new research and new forms of expression and academic engagement. This special issue of Studies features what we believe is a stimulating mix of established scholars and newer voices. It features genuine diversity in terms of the range of social movement represented, the theoretical resources and interests which are drawn on, the research approaches and methods that have been utilised and the geographical scope of movements, their constituencies, and the aims they seek to achieve. It may seem patently obvious that movements move people, but the important point is that they do so in concerted ways, and the knowledge they create, and the

A Giant Human Hashtag

‘Are you ready for a Tahrir moment? On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into Lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy wall street for a few months…’. So read the challenge issued by AdBusters, the Vancouver based cultural activists in their blog of July 13, 2011. They provided the original #OCCUPYWALLSTREET hashtag and a poster of a ballerina dancing on the back of the charging wall street bull.

Despite knowledge democracy and community-based participatory action research: Voices from the global south and excluded north still missing

The primary purpose for this special issue of Action Research Journal (ARJ) focusing on knowledge democracy, community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) was to draw attention to and raise debate about knowledge exclusion of and alternative forms of knowing in the global South as well as to bring to the fore the perspective of authors from the global South. We understand the global South to include the excluded epistemologies from the global North such as Indigenous Researchers from the First Nations People from Canada. Reflecting on the 12 submissions that were made for this special issue reveals how even within supportive knowledge and research paradigms that are meant to promote marginalized scholarships, the global South and excluded North still remains excluded.

Knowledge Democracy and Excellence in Engagement

We often come across theories and aspects related to ‘knowledge’, but seldom do we try to understand its hidden implications. Knowledge as understood generally is about the information of facts and understanding of a subject. This article essentially argues against this understanding. It explores the multiple dimensions of ‘knowledge’ through a literature review and illustrations of practical examples. It makes a case for how important the process of knowledge creation is, especially given current societal challenges. It also outlines the importance of co-creation of knowledge, through acknowledgement and valuation of alternate paradigms of knowledge. Further, it discusses the concept of ‘knowledge democracy’, and how institutions of higher education, by abiding by its principles, can help achieve ‘excellence in engagement’. The article concludes with the findings of two studies undertaken by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair, which were based on the principles of ‘knowledge democracy’ and ‘excellence in engagement’.

Majority-World Foundations of Community-Based Research

This chapter explores the majority-world foundations of community-based research with a particular focus on the rise of participatory research (PR) in social movement and civil society settings in the global South and its subsequent spread to the North, eventually finding its way into universities. The authors were involved in both the creation of the discourse and the spread of the initial ideas through the International Participatory Research Network. In the 1970s, Rajesh Tandon came to his initial thinking about participatory research while working with tribal peoples in Rajasthan, India. Budd Hall was working at the Institute for Adult Education in Tanzania during those days. The chapter challenges the Eurocentric bias of much contemporary scholarship in the field of community-based research (CBR). It closes with three challenges to contemporary scholars.

Participatory research: Where have we been, where are we going? – A dialogue

Rajesh Tandon and Budd Hall, the UNESCO Co-Chairs in Community-Based Research have worked together on the theory and practice of participatory research since they first met in Caracas, Venezuela in 1978. This article is a conversation between the two of them that took place in New Delhi, India in 2015. It covers the creation of the concept of participatory research, a coming to awareness of the importance and power of local knowledge, the creation of the International Participatory Research Network and their thoughts on some of the challenges facing community and academic partners today. Of note is the fact that the early roots of participatory research were found in the global South, specifically in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Of further interest is the fact that for the first 20 to 25 years, participatory research was a discourse located almost entirely outside formal academic circles but rather in social movement structures and civil society circles.

Towards a Knowledge Democracy Movement

In the city where I live, Victoria, Canada, a wealthy city in a wealthy country, there are 1500 women and men (in a population of 250,000) who do not have a place to sleep at night. In spite of the creation of the Coalition Against Homelessness, the numbers of people who suffer from poor health, violence, substance abuse as a result of poverty and homelessness continues at about the same level. In India one of the fastest growing economies in the world, 600 million people live without literacy, adequate water and sanitation, poor health facilities and insecure food security.

Knowledge, Action, and Hope: A Call for Strengthening the Community-Based Research Movement

The purpose of knowledge is to enhance the well-being of all people and not just for economic growth or intellectual property rights.

Main Issues and Perspectives: An Introduction

Community-based research (CBR) has become an integral element of the contemporary university’s repertoire of activities. It may take different forms and respond to different priorities but it is no longer a marginal activity. It now joins community-based learning—which has a much longer history—as a key component of what is becoming known as the engaged university. We could say, then, that community-based learning and research has been mainstreamed, normalized, or brought into the field. CBR can even be seen as an activity that grants a competitive advantage to those institutions that promote it. It may serve to develop interdisciplinary research skills, provide students with “real world” experiential learning, promote the “public purpose” of the university, and even attract funding from philanthropic donors. These very real issues—especially salient in a period of economic and philosophical crisis—add a note of urgency to current attempts to generate local, national, and transnational platforms for community-based research as part of the broader engagement mission.