Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda: the recurring tyranny of participation

Interactive Knowledge Generation in Urban Green Building Transitions

“…Notwithstanding our efforts, the nongovernmental sector proved surprisingly difficult to engage within one of our case study regions, where many invited workshop participants showed "symptoms" of being overly solicited given the international interest in this case. This definitively limited the representativeness of the workshop's composition, despite the method's participative and constructivist premises, and rejoins theoretical discussion about the "power effects" and "tyranny" of participation (Cameron and Gibson 2005;Kesby, Kindon, and Pain 2007;Kinpaisby 2008;Enns, Bersaglio, and Kepe 2014). Similarly, the ability of researchers using collaborative research approaches to facilitate and mediate to ensure that discussions remain truly open to all participants should not be underestimated.…”

“…Inspired by work in related disciplines, participatory approaches were significantly taken up in human geography around the mid-2000s. In their work, Kesby, Kindon, and Pain (2007;Kesby 2007;Kinpaisby 2008) have promoted contributions to "participatory geographies" in response to (poststructuralist) critics of power and tyranny in participatory approaches (see also Cameron and Gibson 2005;Enns, Bersaglio, and Kepe 2014). Calling on critical geographies, political engagement of researchers, and researchers turned activists (Chatterton, Fuller, and Routledge 2007;Chatterton 2008), contributors have argued in favor of a reflexive engagement with the political place embeddedness of participation, to "'conscienticize'" the participants (and the researcher) on "the forces affecting their lives" (Kindon, Pain, and Kesby 2009, 90).…”

“…Development and feminist studies share a long history of critical engagement with the role of the researcher in relation to the "researched" community. In development geography, collaborative approaches have especially been assessed with regard to governance and intercultural dimensions (overviews in Kapoor 2005;Enns, Bersaglio, and Kepe 2014), contributing to vivid discussions and early adoption of the decisively more normative approach of PAR, which is purposively seeking to empower and improve the lives of local communities. Corresponding scholarly debates on the methodological implications particularly include reflections on social justice and ethical aspects of the interaction with indigenous communities (e.g., Johnston-Goodstar 2013; Pyles 2015) as well as facets of depoliticization (Korf 2010).…”

Notes on a caribou hearing: Spatial marginalization through participatory democracy in western Nunavut

“…Myopia about power relations potentially contributes to participation failure, confounding good intentions and even explicit rules designed to ensure respectful behaviour and procedural justice (see Durand et al ; Gaynor ; Carvalho et al ). Indigenous and participatory methodologies are now widely advocated (see, for example, Government of Nunavut, n.d.) and have helped innovate ways to re‐centre people and community within environmental and development decisions, but they do not consistently deliver procedural justice or dissolve post‐colonial power relations (Louis ; de Leeuw et al ; Enns et al ). This is particularly pertinent in Nunavut where traversing Arctic space is expensive, time‐consuming, and hazardous.…”

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect

“…Moving forward we need to unpack what these goals mean for the continent in the continent's own terms because even the post-2015 development agenda failed to adequately ensure the participation of intended benefi ciaries (Enns et al 2014 ). Critical questions must be asked about the suitability of relying on narrowly-defi ned yardsticks as realistic mechanisms to achieve inclusive growth as Fukuda-Parr ( 2008 ), and Fukuda-Parr and Greenstein ( 2010 ) has argued.…”