For participatory research in MENA context

For participatory research in MENA context

Funded through: Carnegie Corporation of New York:

Project Lead: Petra Dannecker and Rabie Nasser
Project Staff: Michaela Hochmuth
Project Partner: Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR)
Project Lifetime: 04/2024 – 03/2026

PROJECT OVERVIEW:
The research project aims at developing transformative research capacities and strategies by investigating the potential of participatory research approaches in the context of intractable conflicts. It will produce knowledge together with communities to represent their expectations, and design transformative alternatives towards peace, justice, and sustainability.

The conflicts in the MENA region are characterized by political tyranny that suppresses public spaces and uses brutal violence against civilians and development foundations. The dominant political powers have distorted public institutions and have implemented conflict-centered strategies that violate people's rights and capabilities and collectively punish the communities. Conflict-affected communities are deprived their basic rights including rights to life, protection, opinion and expression, food security, mobility, and decent living conditions among others. In this context, the political actors deprived people of any channels for representation, participation, and accountability.

This project argues that independent knowledge production that adopts a participatory approach with conflict-affected communities can provide a space for people to represent their priorities and expectations. It can enhance their power to increase pressure on the subjecting powers to transform conflict dynamics toward development and peace.

The research project will capitalize on the frameworks, methodologies and results that have been produced in the previous KnowWar II project and an EU-financed capacity-building project KNOTS (Fostering Multilateral Knowledge Networks of Transdisciplinary Studies to tackle Global Challenges). The developed frameworks, methodologies, and results will further link network and research activities with epistemological questions. These innovative approaches will democratize knowledge production, counter security narratives, and enable society-led development interventions and inclusive governance in a context of conflict in MENA countries. The project will concentrate on three transdisciplinary research themes, namely the reconceptualization of citizenship, political participation and empowerment; the solidarity economy; and social solidarities in the context of conflict.

The project further develops and fine tunes participatory research approaches. It engages people’s analysis of challenges and possibilities of democratic transformation. Hence, the connection between policy makers and academics will be enriched by local communities' expert perspectives on countering conflict dynamics in the Arab region.

These innovative approaches are place-based and solutions-oriented. They analyze power structures during conflicts by involving local communities from the beginning, integrating their experiences and their identification of problems affecting them. These methods empower populations through involving them in developing, implementation, and activity outcomes, which can help them to contribute to policymaking or civil society action. Transdisciplinarity and participatory research tools are potentially effective in countering political tyranny and designing transformation toward post-conflict futures.