Decolonise global participation: Developing new conceptual and participatory paradigms

With Bridget Penhale & Fiona Poland & Joy Y. Zhang & Nicola Yeates & Peter Beresford

This project is led by a team of leading empirical social scientists who are committed to the development of new conceptual and participatory paradigms in political participation globally. In recent years, novel forms of political participation and the growing importance of the role that ‘civic epistemology’ plays in legitimising policy agendas and knowledge production have underlined the urgency for a truly transdisciplinary and non-Western centric approach to comprehending political participation. What is equally important, is foregrounding the ‘duality’ of some of the commonly-imagined enabling factors in political participation, such as the hopes and hype brought by technology and the slippery boundary between liberal and illiberal activism. This will help to develop a more realistic view of how inclusive and productive political participation can be cultivated.