Lamufutures
Process
How could a meaningful collaboration be developed between a local youth organisation and a university program based in Switzerland?
How could research-led pedagogy contribute to local empowerment and transformation?
Our project addresses the ways in which communities of the ancient Indian Ocean port city of Lamu are managing a myriad of environmental and social challenges as they intersect with colonial legacies, infrastructural interventions, natural ecologies, and culture. Our collaboration between Critical Urbanisms students and volunteer researchers from the Lamu Youth Alliance delves into the architectural, urban, and social dimensions of change, relating past and present dynamics and global forces to debates about the future development of Lamu.
By combining the urban humanities with engaged research in partnership, we aim to build pathways for communities to negotiate their stake in projects directed from elsewhere.
(Mis)Comunication
We learned that communication is not confined to formal language. It is built through the in-between spaces, the pauses, the shared emotions, and the willingness to create meaning together.
Home - Field
It’s difficult to anticipate the time and emotion invested in something that initially seems to be “outside” of research, let alone the deeper understandings that being accommodated with a “host family” can bring.
It’s difficult to anticipate the time and emotion invested in something that initially seems to be “outside” of research, let alone the deeper understandings that being accommodated with a “host family” can bring.
Partnerships
Partnerships manifested at multiple scales and took different forms, ranging from institutionally guided to self-initiated.
Partnerships manifested at multiple scales and took different forms, ranging from institutionally guided to self-initiated.
Pedagogy
Exploring donkeys' role in urban life by blending fieldwork and learning through Punda Pedagogy, a research-teaching project.
Exploring donkeys' role in urban life by blending fieldwork and learning through Punda Pedagogy, a research-teaching project.
Translation
Navigating language politics, translation, and communication, shaping inclusive, multilingual research.
Navigating language politics, translation, and communication, shaping inclusive, multilingual research.
Remuneration
Addressing ethical challenges in research compensation, emphasizing fairness, transparency, and contextual sensitivity.
Addressing ethical challenges in research compensation, emphasizing fairness, transparency, and contextual sensitivity.
Care
Care work was a shared practice, fostering well-being, empathy, and connection within our research partnership.
Care work was a shared practice, fostering well-being, empathy, and connection within our research partnership.
Reciprocity
Striving for ways of working and outcomes that benefit all parties involved, emphasizing mutual exchange and understanding.
Striving for ways of working and outcomes that benefit all parties involved, emphasizing mutual exchange and understanding.
Positionality
Understanding how our individual and structural positions and movements shape research processes and final outcomes.
Understanding how our individual and structural positions and movements shape research processes and final outcomes.