Co-Constructing Knowledge through NGO-Driven Circle Work: A Venue for Rearticulating North-South Development?

• In Event: How is Knowledge Coproduced in Dialogue Through the Harnessing of “Difference”? Investigating Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in the “Co” of Coproduction

Abstract

Jonas Agerbæk Jeppesen, Doctoral Student, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University

This paper revolves around the question of what degree of control the users participating in NGO-driven development programs may have over their own development. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of an NGO in 2010-2015, and with an analytical focus on the facilitating role of frontline NGO workers in rural East Africa, the paper draws on theory on Communication for Social Change and bottom-up organizational change to analyse the enabling and constraining features of the use of participatory ‘circle work’ to co-produce knowledge in international development. The focus is on a particular approach to circle work entitled REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques). The paper concludes that participatory approaches such as REFLECT can, if strategically used as an opportunity for co-constructing knowledge from both local and international perspectives, be used not only to drive changes locally but also to bolster the global participatory agenda of bottom-up development practices.

Author

• Jonas Agerbaek, Roskilde U