COVID-19 and Rethinking the Unsustainable “Normal”
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, Co-Director, Sustainable Futures in Africa
Reconsidering Development Pathways: What is the “New Normal”?
“Sustainable Development”, that often overused term in development work, calls us to action to end poverty, protect the environment and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. However, our development pathways have been far from that ideal. With rising inequality, increasing carbon emissions, pollution, wildlife crime, and the exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation, we have continued our immoral growth beyond the carrying capacity of our earth. COVID-19 may be a wake-up call to humanity to stop this self-destruction of our home planet, lest our actions eliminate us as a species.
Reflecting on the status of the world
With the majority of us under lockdown in our homes, this is a good time to pause and look at our lives, our countries’ priorities, global development and the meaning of sustainability. While we have advanced our knowledge about green economic models, good practices for reducing extreme poverty and the use of technologies to promote wellbeing, we still have 700 million people living on less than $1.90 a day. Our consumerism and continued emissions are compromising our chances of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and our global health care inequalities have come to haunt us.
Should we go back to “normal”?
Many of us can’t wait to get back to the same “normal” that got us into this predicament. COVID-19 has revealed that this pathway of unsustainable consumption, growth, ecological degradation and inequality simply cannot continue. In an increasingly interconnected world, the pandemic has taught us that none of us is safe unless all of us are safe. Business-as-usual may not be the “normal” we want to return to.
Economic slowdown may not be all that bad
This is also a good time to reflect on what life looks like when we slow down economic growth. With air travel grinding to a halt and a large number of people working from home, we are seeing the prevalence of digital conferences and meetings taking off, making us wonder why working remotely and meeting locally wasn’t already a norm? With the lockdown, the burning of fossil fuels has dropped, causing air quality to improve significantly, triggering social media posts of beautiful clear skies and views of mountains kilometres away. With humans locked in, animals and birds are courageously stepping out and enjoying their newfound freedom. The earth is healing.
We can work together
All sectors are working hand in hand to tackle this pandemic: funds are flowing from various sources; the private sector which hitherto cared mostly about profits is stepping in and helping the health sector. Governments are realising that spending on key sectors such as health and education is more important. Scientists and doctors are collaborating for the greater good, development partners are giving NGOs flexibility to divert their funding to COVID response, and each of us is checking in on our friends and family. It took this pandemic to ignite our sense of community, to get us to make sacrifices, recognise our priorities, work for a common purpose and cherish solidarity. We now realise that we’re all in this together and we can work together.
Three lessons learnt
Three things have become clear since the emergence of COVID-19. First, we are an interconnected world and only if all of us are safe, will each once of us become safe. In that regard, the virus is an equaliser because it does not discriminate. Second, although the virus has impacted every country, regardless of wealth or power, it has also made us realise how unequal our society is. There will be many who will not be able to recover at all or recover as fast as some others. Our global interconnectivity should wake us up to our responsibility for ensuring that each and every country recovers from this shock (not just our own country). We can no longer afford to be selfish, we have to broaden our minds and assume a global identity.
Finally, the unsustainable “normal” that has caused so many challenges to the world is a social construction; that means, we can change it. We, as a society, have been able to come together and make drastic changes to our lives and economy to respond to COVID-19. This proves that it is possible to take action to create a changed future for the better. After the pandemic ends, we must not slip back to the old normal, but consciously strive towards a “new normal” that is more sustainable, climate-proof, equitable, compassionate and humane.
What is your idea of the “new normal”?
How would you envision this “new normal”? Drop your answers/comments below.
A Critical Resource for Ethical International Partnerships
A Critical Resource for Ethical International Partnerships
When we start a new project with partners in a different context, it is never truly a “new start.” Historically it has been experts from the Global North who have studied and interpreted the South. This means that international research partnerships are inevitably imbued with power relations and possibly the assumption that it is northern knowledge that will lead transformations of in the South. Without a clear recognition of that context, it is inevitable that existing inequities, injustices, and imbalances of knowledge and power, will continue to pervade our work.
We designed this resource to help make explicit the practices and dynamics that underpin partnerships, to support the development of more equitable working relations.
A Cry from the Wetlands of Africa
By Anthony Kadoma, PhD Student and SFA member
Wetlands oh wetlands! Here we are, the wetlands of Africa, hear us on our World Wetland Day - https://www.worldwetlandsday.org
God created us to serve the needs of humans and their surroundings. We meet almost all their needs: Fresh drinking water we give, food we give, clean air to breathe we give. This enables them not only to live healthy, but happily as well.
We have given that and more forever, diligently and without complaining. But humans seem not to value and appreciate the goods and services derived from us.
‘Why, why?’ we ask ourselves.
Humans started by encroaching on us because they wanted to expand grazing land for the domestic animals, and we accepted. We supported seasonal vegetables such as cabbages and rice which do well in our fertile soil and conserved water, now we have been over-harvested over the years. We have endured the shame of being stripped naked until it’s too much for us to bear. That was not enough to satisfy the needs of human beings: Oh, who will ever satisfy human needs?
Because of your need to expand housing and factories, we have become the first victim and now we are being denied our original role and reason for existence; you are filling and dumping in us soil and other debris as if there are no other places left for that. You don’t show any care or respect to us!
With your increased greed you have now decided to eliminate us! Completely ignoring the rights of the other peaceful and harmless organisms that live in us by directing your industrial wastes to us which chokes us badly. Oh, what did we do to you to deserve this?
Because of the pressure and burden you have placed on us, we have had to let go of some of our functions such as controlling floods, and now humans are crying that we no longer care. Harmful weeds and pests have occupied us because we can’t fight them as our capacity has reduced to fight for ourselves. However, we are blamed for that as well and some even suggest to completely do away with us in order to protect humans from vectors that cause disease, especially malaria.
We still want to exist and serve you as we have done before – you and your generations to come. All we are asking is that you show some care for us, help us to regenerate and use us wisely. Do not over-harvest us and leave our surrounding environment bare as this makes us too weak to defend ourselves and to support you well. Help us to restore and we will forever be your obedient servant, offering you your essential goods and services. Hear our cry, oh humans of Africa.
Anthony Kadoma is a University of Glasgow PhD student focusing on Environmental Sustainability and a member of Sustainable Futures in Africa Network.
Reporting on: Future Experiences | Glasgow School of Art (Expert Day 2)
By Vanessa Duclos, Research Manager of the SFA Network
Today (Nov 7th, 2019) was the second opportunity for the emerging designers to engage with the experts in Sustainable Development & the Global South. For more information about the project itself, please read this post.
The students presented the concept scenario they had developed as a team, as well as their individual direction which is a specific aspect of the future world they have created. These individual parts will lead to the design of distinct, imaginative and interrelated products, services and experiences. While designing, the students must keep in mind who they are designing for – future workers/future citizens – with consideration for how Sustainable Development work might evolve to enable/afford/alter the dynamics of people, process and practice in the Global South.
As most of them have never travelled to a destination in the Global South, they largely rely on the experts’ lived-experiences to grasp the reality of those living in developing countries. I was pleased to realise that as the emerging designers broaden their research and interact/interview the experts, they also start integrating what working across difference means, that there is more than often no “right” or “wrong”, “bad” or “good”, “them” and “us”, which are too easy and simplistic labels used to describe the disparity between the North and the South. I notice that they all felt more comfortable exploring the grey zone between both worlds where ideas and concepts can emerge, instead of stagnating in a criticism loop. While they learn from our experience, we also greatly learn from their creativity, flexibility, and open-mindedness which are skills that requires time and exposure to develop but which seem to be well built-in and natural for this group.
Reporting on: Future Experiences | Glasgow School of Art (Expert Day 1)
By Vanessa Duclos, lead Research Administrator of the SFA Network
David Gerow, SFA Intern and PhD student
This fall, the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network is collaborating with the Glasgow School of Art’s (GSA) Innovation School. Over the semester, the 4th year product design students will work on a project on the theme of “Future Experiences: Sustainable Development & the Global South”. During this 8-week project, the cohort will investigate future forms and functions of sustainable development work in relation to the Global South, ultimately developing a future scenario and designing the artefacts, services and experiences associated with it 10 years from now.
Today, contemporary product design is not only an industrial or production-focused occupation; rather, it is becoming an epistemological practice, which explores the future, generates new knowledge and formulates hypotheses about how people may live or work in the years to come. Whether they are designing an artefact, service or experience, it is fundamental for a designer to know how to understand what drives people, what their needs are and why.
Dr Mia Perry worked with Dr Kirsty Ross, lecturer at the GSA and final year coordinator, to build the structure of this project. Over the last couple of weeks, the students split into seven groups worked together to conduct research in the domains of Health, Energy, Mobility, Economies, Education, Societal Structures and Environment. Each of these domains was examined through various lenses: Social, Technological, Economic, Ethical, Educational, Values, Political, Legal and Ecological. Then, based on this research, the students mapped societal shifts and identified emerging themes or scenarios.
This morning, the students shared their initial future scenarios with “the experts”: academics and professionals working within the field of sustainable development in the Global South, and members of the SFA Network. By sharing their work, the students had the opportunity to validate certain aspects of their research, as well as the chance to ask technical questions and benefit from the experts’ real-world experiences to further shape their scenarios/designs. The team of experts will meet with the cohort of emerging designers throughout the duration of the project, which will culminate later this year in an exhibition of the designed future artefacts, services and experiences.
I was happy to be in the expert cohort, along with my University of Glasgow colleagues: Stewart Paul, Anthony Kadoma, Prof Jude Robinson, Dr Raihana Ferdous, Dr Neil Burnside, Prof James Conroy, and SFA Network partners Prof Sola Ajayi (First-Tech University, Ibadan), Andrew Vincent (Classrooms for Malawi and Nu Blvck), Diarmuid O’Neill (DFID), Prof Jo Sharp (University of St Andrews) and Dr Christian Micha Ehret (McGill University).
The initial research presented by the student groups was impressive both for its accuracy and for how it pin-pointed challenges related to sustainable development work. The students were genuinely interested in learning more about lived experiences and described how being exposed to this topic – and to the SFA Network by extension – had changed their perspectives on their roles as designers (progressing towards a more participatory approach with clients). I am certain that the expert team is also looking forward to the next experts input day, November 7th. It was a refreshing, inspiring, positive and thought-provoking experience for all, and a promising start to a successful collaboration.
Week of March 4th-8th 2019 – SFA Writing Workshop and Events on Campus
Realising the increasing awareness and experience of network members in carrying out global north-south partnerships that challenge paternalistic and neo-colonial models of collaboration and development, we realised we needed to find a way to share some principle ideas and practices to a wider audience. Initially, we imagined the audience of the GCRF UKRI, funders and researchers. In the week of March 4th-8th, we addressed this with a writing workshop co-organized by Dr Mia Perry and Prof Jo Sharp including SFA members and like-minded affiliates. The objective of the workshop was to explore ways of sharing the SFA network’s approach to research and partnerships in international contexts, while challenging the neo-colonial and often very narrow processes of knowledge creation, “development”, and collaboration. The group was interested in the theoretical tools that are required to do so, but also the practical tools (how to engage, how to inquire when clear power, historical, disciplinary dynamics are pervasive).
Events on campus March 4th, 2019
Two events co-organized by the SFA Glasgow hub took place on UofG main campus on March 4th. The morning event was a mentoring session for graduate students from the Global South. Masters students, PhD’s students and mentors (Dr Mia Perry, Prof Jo Sharp, Dr Brian Barrett, Ms Helen Todd, Ms Kevin Aanyu, and Ms Beatrice Catanzaro) discussed how students can translate their graduate experience in Glasgow to a career in the South. A very interesting conversation revolved around a question asked by Dr Perry: “Do you want to go back home after your studies?” The meaning of “returning home” for each student differed, and highlighted the very individual nature of it. For the majority, going back home wasn’t just about going back in their home country and getting a job related to their studies. It was also, and even more importantly, taking the knowledge, skills and expertise they acquired and using them to drive change and make impact.
The afternoon session was a panel discussion entitled: ¡Decolonise: the Debate! The event was organised by collaboration between The Sustainable Futures in Africa Network, the Glasgow Centre for International Development, the Equality and Diversity Working Group in the History Subject Area, and the Centre of Gender History. Prof Jude Robinson, a social anthropologist from the University of Glasgow, chaired the session.
The panel was composed of: Dr Mia Perry (University of Glasgow), Prof Jo Sharp (University of Glasgow), Ms Helen Todd (ArtGlo – Malawi), Ms Kevin Aanyu (Makerere University – Uganda), Dr Christine Whyte (University of Glasgow) and Dr Kate Law (University of Nottingham).
The discussions were centred on these three questions: 1) Why do we use the word ‘decolonialise’ when we talk about the changes we need to make to modern approaches to research and teaching? 2) Does use of the word ‘decolonialise’ reinforce a colonial narrative of Western supremacy? and 3) How can we translate ‘decolonisation of research and teaching’ and what does it mean for all of us who are engaged in it?
The panel discussed the use of term ‘decolonise’ to describe projects in universities which are challenging traditional practices that have underpinned international partnership building and collaboration, and the development of existing teaching curricula. They addressed language, technology, theoretical framing, and research methods from a global perspective.
Writing workshop at the Centre of Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow
All week, interdisciplinary participants met at the CCA in Glasgow to share thoughts and ideas around research and international partnerships to co-create the foundation of a notebook addressing the challenges arising from Global North-Global South partnerships. The targeted audience of the notebook is researchers working on international projects, especially the GCRF-UK funded one (Global Challenges Research Fund).
Some clear themes stood out over the week: time, money, capacity building, language and hierarchy in partnerships.
List of participants:
- Dr Mia Perry (Co-PI – University of Glasgow – UK)
- Prof Jo Sharp (Co-PI – University of Glasgow – UK)
- Kevin Aanyu (Makerere University – Uganda)
- Dr Brian Barrett (University of Glasgow- UK)
- Beatrice Catanzaro (Oxford Brookes University - Italy)
- Viviana Checchia (CCA – UK)
- Vanessa Duclos (University of Glasgow – UK)
- Prof Dan Haydon (University of Glasgow – UK)
- Dr Heather McLean (University of Glasgow – UK)
- Prof Oitshepile MmaB Modise (Botswana University – Botswana)
- Maggie Ritchie (free-lance journalist – UK)
- Prof Jude Robinson (University of Glasgow – UK)
- Dr Zoë Strachan (University of Glasgow – UK)
- Helen Todd (ArtGlo – Malawi)
- Dr Shahaduz Zaman (University of Sussex – UK)
To illustrate the challenges of such partnerships, two participants could not join the group, due to UK visa restrictions (Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil and Kyauta Giwa).
Malawi Stories: Mapping an Art-Science Collaborative Process
Three SFA partners – Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil (Co-Director), Dr Boyson Moyo (Malawi hub Director) and Dr Brian Barrett (Glasgow hub Director) – co-authored this open access article with the lead author Dr Philip Nicholson. The article was published in the Journal of Maps in March 2019.
ABSTRACT
This paper outlines a project drawing together an artist working on creative GIS, a geomatics scholar, an NGO leader, a rural geographer and soil scientist, an environmental geochemist, and a political geographer. With a shared interest in the social and physical processes affecting people’s lives in Malawi, and the possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, the team engaged in practice-based mapping of our data sources and respective methodologies. The project relates to two sites in Malawi: Tikondwe Freedom Gardens and the Likangala River. The paper details our practices as we shared, debated, and repurposed our data as a means of situating these practices and data. Using paper and pen, whiteboard, PowerPoint, and web-design software, we note here our effort to map a ‘space of experimentation’ highlighting, and reflecting on, our diverse disciplinary orientations, training, instrumentation, recording, and reporting procedures, as well as bodily practices that enable and give animation to these factors.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17445647.2019.1582440
Scots Join The Worldwide Effort to Help Africans Find New Ways to Rebuild Their Communities Shattered by Brutal Civil War
Article written by Maggie Ritchie – free-lance journalist who joined the Glasgow delegation traveling to Lira, Uganda in February 2019 for the 3rd SFA Annual Symposium. While in Uganda, she had the opportunity to meet with the communities involved in SFA activities through two partners: Apala Widows and Orphanage Centre (AWOC) and ECOaction.
Dr Mia Perry | TedX Interview
Dr Mia Perry, SFA Co-Director, is interviewed at TedX Glasgow about the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network.
At TedX Glasgow the SFA Network brought a snapshot of its work to the event; this includes a public poll which questioned the approach that we take on research sustainability, engaging with the binary choice of ‘Giving v.s. changing your own practice?’ In this interview, Mia discusses the SFA’s work on collaboration across knowledge systems, exemplifying our work as ‘a community member working with an academic’. As SFA is a network focusing on ‘methodologies’, Mia shares how it is important to be able to share what that means in ‘real life terms’ which is at the heart of TedX – world changing ideas made accessible; she described the event as giving her a sense of ‘enthusiasm, motivation, passion and integrity’.
“More and more we realize that if we made good decisions about sustainability here in Glasgow, our colleagues in Africa would have half as many problems to deal with.”
Unpacking the Imaginary in Literacies of Globality
by Dr Mia Perry
As global mobility and communications proliferate, ever-increasing exchanges and influences occur across cultures, geographies, politics, and positions. This paper addresses the practice of literacy education in this context, and in particular the nature of engagement across difference and the role of the imaginary in literacies of globality. Grounded in a theorisation of difference and the imaginary in spaces of learning and inquiry, the paper proposes a methodological framework for working across difference that acknowledges and engages with the inevitable but enigmatic resource of often conflicting imaginaries in literacy practices.
Read Here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2018.1515064
Reference: Perry, M. (2018) Unpacking the imaginary in literacies of globality. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education,(doi:10.1080/01596306.2018.1515064)