Inequality and Bricolage in Collaborative North-South Research Projects

In this ‘Business & Development’ blog contribution, we (a group of researchers, some based in the global South and some in the global North) reflect upon our experience in collaborating on a relatively large research project on conservation and development in Tanzania (New Partnerships for Sustainability, NEPSUS). We wish to reflect upon the structural inequalities embedded in these kinds of collaborations and on how ‘bricolage’ (including ‘open’ and ‘slow’ design features) can be used to alleviate at least their most problematic manifestations. We present our reflections along two main lines: (1) through a ‘cleansed’ approach, where design and methods are presented as devoid of power dynamics and structural inequities, failures and adjustments, and following the execution of a clear plan and milestones (what we often read in journal articles and final reports of research projects); and (2) a ‘bricolage’ approach including all the aspects, joyful or problematic as they may be, that are usually omitted from the cleansed approach. The first part of the discussion will appear very familiar to the reader, as we follow the canon of ‘legitimate’ scientific inquiry; in the second part, we provide a series of reflexive vignettes from the participants of the project, which are meant to open up the Pandora’s box of trials and errors, the tribulations of open design, unexpected successes and failures, and the importance of time spent making mistakes together and learning from them.