Collaborative feminist research approaches

This document, Feminist MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning), redefines traditional MEAL approaches through a feminist lens, promoting equity, inclusivity, and justice. It challenges conventional methodologies by prioritizing participatory processes, gender power analysis, and the validation of lived experiences, advocating for approaches that recognize the diversity of women’s rights and gender justice in humanitarian work. Humanitarian professionals will find this guide invaluable as it offers practical tools for allocating resources to feminist MEAL, facilitating participatory evaluations, and integrating storytelling and embodied knowledge into reporting practices. It emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, questioning assumptions, and honoring diverse knowledge systems, creating a holistic and transformative approach to MEAL. This document serves as both a framework and a call to action, urging practitioners to shift from traditional metrics to those that celebrate agency and empower marginalized voices. For those committed to building accountable, gender-sensitive interventions, this guide is essential for embedding feminist principles in MEAL systems, fostering programs that are as impactful as they are equitable.

#Storytelling isn’t just a communication strategy or influence tactic—it’s a #participatory methodological approach. In my latest article, I explore storytelling as a decolonial, feminist, and co-creative research practice that moves beyond extractive methods toward #emancipatory knowledge co-production. By centring on diverse participant voices and intersectional power dynamics in the ‘storying stories’ process, I argue for balancing the #authenticity of lived experiences with critical #reflective analysis grounded in multilayered intersubjectivities and intertextuality. This paper develops a four-stage storytelling framework—from design, conduct, sense-making, to curation—to guide researchers and practitioners in amplifying participant agency and crafting alternative, justice-oriented narratives. This paper is part of the forthcoming special issue of “Public Relations and Social Justice” in the journal of Public Relations Inquiry. Huge thanks to the editors, reviewers, and especially the multicultural participants of my #QRRRF funded disaster storytelling project, who helped shape this work. Open access full article: https://lnkd.in/gRZdj6RU #storytelling #participatoryresearch #methodology #publicrelations #socialjustice #DiverseVoices #PRInquiry QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Queensland Reconstruction Authority National Emergency Management Agency Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland Cairns Regional Council Centacare FNQ QUT Digital Media Research Centre

New article ´Building on decolonial feminist scholarship, we show how a commitment to reflexive practice “in the field” has developed further, through a reflection on the self as a researcher and on “the field” as a construct. This ethical and political commitment prompts a rethinking of key concepts in fieldwork (and research more generally), including those of “the researcher,” “the research participant” (or “population”), “expertise,” and what constitutes “data” and “knowledge.” We argue that a preferable approach to critical fieldwork is grounded in feminist and decolonial, anti-racist, anti-capitalist politics. This approach is committed not just to reflecting critically on “the field” and the interactions of the researcher within it but also to challenging the divisions, exclusions, and structures of oppression that sustain the separations between “here” and “there,” “researcher” and “researched,” and “knower" and “known.”´

We need to watch out which worldview shapes our research? In Participatory Action Research (PAR), we sit in circles, talk, and collect data in participatory way. Yet—at the moment of analysis—many of us succumb the conventional frame: 🔹 counting individual choices 🔹 measuring individual change 🔹 celebrating individual agency But Shanti’s story shows why this is only part-truth. She says she left college to “stand on her own feet”… while carrying her family’s debts, her brother’s school fees, her parents’ hopes — and the weight of caste, gender, and class. PAR is meant to break that frame. It is about Sindhanai — collective critical thought — where communities get space to study themselves, name the forces shaping their lives, and act together. If we analyse their words only as isolated “I”s, we erase the “we” that keeps them alive. This is not just a methodological flaw, it is also succumbing to ideological capture. Read: “Uncovering Perspectives — Analysis in Participatory Action Research” #ParticipatoryActionResearch #PAR #DecolonisingResearch #Relationality #Pluriverse #CollectiveAgency #CriticalThinking #WorkersVoices #FeministResearch #CommunityKnowledge #Sindhanai #StructuralJustice #BeyondIndividualism Haidee Bell Barbara Groot-Sluijsmans Antonia Musunga Deepak L Xavier Havovi Wadia Nick Grono Gillian Marcelle, PhD নবনিতা - Navanita Bhattacharya Uma Chatterjee Beenish Shayk Clémence Petit-Perrot Sarah Hyder Iqbal Arun Kumar Tarini Shipurkar Nafeesa Khan

How can we shape our knowledge production practices for them to be more equitable? And for our knowledge to lead to change? 🚨🔐💻OPEN-ACCESS PUBLICATION ON FEMINISM, KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH ETHICS! 📜   CRG Senior Staff Member María Martín de Almagro, PhD has co-authored an article titled "Doing Feminist Research on Conflict, Violence, and Peace: Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas." Co-authored with Julia Zulver, Priscyll Anctil Avoine, Nancy Tapias Torrado, and Marie E. Berry, Ph.D., the article is published in Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Abstract This piece offers a space for critical debate and reflection on the methodological and epistemological foundations that underpin feminist research on conflict, violence and peace. Taking stock of the variety of approaches and theoretical standpoints, we examine the (feminist) politics of knowledge production in academia and its limitations. We discuss how ontological and epistemological assumptions shape what counts as (feminist) academic knowledge and what is considered to be possible in (policy) practice. The article makes three contributions. First, we argue that the production of knowledge within disciplinary boundaries, and in particular, International Relations, is closely related to the discipline’s history of positivism and exclusion. Second, to counter that, we propose a close engagement with Black and decolonial feminist methods of feeling-knowing, storytelling and collaboration. Third, we highlight that embracing uncertainty means accepting incommensurability and heterogeneity, as well as a shift away from the urge to accumulate knowledge towards paying attention to the process of co-constructing it. To access the journal, click 👉🏻  https://lnkd.in/gtYZZFvc #gender #feminism #violence #conflictstudies #knowledgeproduction #ethics Maria’s research is at the intersection of gender studies, international peacebuilding governance, and the role of knowledge production and meaning-making practices in world politics. Theoretically, much of her work investigates concepts and performances of authority, legitimacy, and power through poststructural and postcolonial accounts and feminist and interpretive methodologies. Empirically, as an IR scholar and an Africanist, she studies the micro-dynamics of war-to-peace transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa with the aim of producing original findings that derive from an in-depth study of this region, but that can at the same time inform broader debates in the discipline.

What happens to truth in VAWG research when the people living the reality aren’t the ones shaping the knowledge? 🤷♀️ Yesterday, at Coalition of Feminists for Social Change (COFEM)’s launch of the learning brief Rethinking VAWG Research through a Decolonial Lens, this question echoed through the room, challenging us to reckon with how knowledge on #VAWG is produced and whose perspectives have been historically silenced. The session began with the Pupul Lama & Jennifer, Chinoye Amadi (PhD) unpacking the brief’s core learnings: the power imbalances embedded in research design, the voices that remain marginalised, and the urgent need to reclaim space for context, care, and lived experience. Key takeaways from the learning brief included: 🔹 Who gets to speak, who gets heard, and who gets written out 🔹 Centring care as a feminist research practice, not an afterthought 🔹 Intersectional and community-led methodologies 🔹 COFEM’s practical recommendations for truly feminist and decolonial research From there, the room opened into powerful discussions, participants sharing their research experiences, the challenges they navigate, and the systemic issues they continue to witness. Shahanoor Akter Chowdhury (she/her) Tapiwa Musa Even after decades of critique from feminist scholars, colonial legacies still shape VAWG research, from Western frameworks dominating interpretation to subtler forms of White Saviourism disguised as “neutral” methods. The launch underscored a critical truth: meaningful change requires shifting power, not just refining tools. Developed through COFEM’s Feminist Research Working Group during the 16 Days of Activism (2024), the brief reflects insights from over 60 participants across diverse regions and lived contexts. The discussions surfaced long-standing concerns and fresh questions about what ethical, locally grounded, feminist research must look like today. 📚 If you work in gender justice, research, facilitation, program design, or advocacy, this learning brief is an invaluable resource. Its practical insights can strengthen research planning, workshop facilitation, proposal reviews, and community-led frameworks. 👉 Explore the full learning brief here https://lnkd.in/g7NX-YKU, a resource worth returning to, sharing, and using to rethink how we build knowledge. 🧡✊ Lucky Kobugabe Lucky Onyechere #researchtool #resource #EndVAWG #COFEM #socialchange #researchmethodologies #learningbrief

One idea that kept coming up in conversations recently: collaboration as process, not just outcome. We often measure success by what gets delivered—statements, events, frameworks, outcomes. But some of the most meaningful shifts are happening in how we show up —across roles, regions, and realities. Feminist leadership calls us into the deliberate, intentional work of building relationships, cultivating trust, and imagining together—even when the ecosystems around us are fast-paced, extractive, or resistant to change. What continues to emerge from shared spaces and conversations: • Co-creation is accountability. When communities shape the process, they’re invested in its success. • Power is relational. Who holds space, sets the agenda, or gets to speak—these shape outcomes just as much as content. • Impact isn’t always immediate. The seeds we plant in spaces of connection often bloom long after—and have sprouts we don’t even know. In diverse and multistakeholder spaces, this becomes even more critical. It’s not just about bringing different actors to the table—it’s about doing the work to share power, hold difference, and build enough trust to move forward together. The process can be unpredictable, layered, and iterative—but that’s where transformation lives. How we do the work is part of the work. #FeministLeadership #CollectivePower #MovementBuilding #FeministProcesses #IntersectionalFeminism #Multistakeholder #Power #GenerationEquality #SystemsChange #TransformativeLeadership #GroupAnalysis

Some reflections on feminist research from our recent work: Before I share these thoughts, I want to say upfront I am no expert. I am learning through my everyday work, interactions, and collective experiences. These reflections stem from co-authoring the paper “Urgent Imperatives: Advancing Gender Equality in Climate Action” with my colleague Saumya Shrivastava. The roots of this work lie in a commitment to social change generating new knowledge, and ensuring that the concerns of women, especially those facing intersectional vulnerabilities, are truly at the center. It felt natural to ground this research in feminist principles as it came from lived experience, collective need, and a desire to challenge systems rather than tick boxes in neoliberal academia. The framework we developed is not static, it is imagined to be tested, adapted and reshaped with time and context. It has been an osmotic process that seeps into our shared thinking and practice. One of the most powerful tools for this was "listening" 👂 : not just as a method, but as a relational practice. We listened deeply, online and in-person, to the women whose experiences are often missing from dominant discourses. We asked open-ended questions, and held space for pauses, silences and stories without steering people to neat conclusions. The conversations that shaped this framework were diverse, honest, and often pushed us to reflect critically on our own assumptions. It was also challenged and strengthened through dialogue with those, whose voices are critical for a truly gender-transformative approach.  Feminist research means centering methodologies that expand our own understanding and create space for those rendered invisible by our institutions and action. 📄 You can read more about the methodology we adopted, here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gGn6QrJP #FeministResearch #GenderEquality #ClimateAction #ListeningAsPractice #TransformativeFrameworks