What are Principles of Participation and why do we need them?
The Principles of Participation (PoP) are the ethical guidelines underpinning the reparatory justice and decolonising work of the Research and Engagement Working Group (REWG). The REWG is an independent group operating within the University of Edinburgh and dedicated to investigating the University’s historical links to African enslavement, colonialism and their racial legacies today. It is comprised of academics, community-based scholar-activists and student representatives who are contributing in different way to the production of a public report entitled ‘Decolonised Transformations: Confronting the University of Edinburgh’s Legacies of Enslavement and Colonialism’. This is a process that will involve engaging with communities of reparatory justice interest and other interest stakeholders in order to co-create a vision of what a repaired and decolonised higher education institution looks like and put forward some initial recommendations for bringing that vision into being. The REWG is co-chaired by Tommy Curry and Nicola Frith.
Our collaborative work is being conducted within the context of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (2015–24) and in the wake of calls by grassroots communities of reparatory justice interest, students-led organisations and scholar-activists for places of higher education to begin repairing the harms caused by institutional ties to the enslavement of African peoples and colonial oppression, and their legacies today. The UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation defines full and effective reparation as including the following forms: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. This document will therefore be used as a yardstick by which to measure our processes and outcomes. It is these social and juridical contexts that require us to pay careful attention to the needs of different constituents and organisations who are directly and/or indirectly involved in the process and outcomes of this work. This is particularly the case for those who define as belonging to racially/ethnically minoritised groups and individuals who have been most adversely impacted by the legacies of slavery, colonialism and racial ‘science’.
Our PoP require us to acknowledge the asymmetrical power relations at work when academics, operating within elite institutions, engage in reparatory justice processes, with the intention of recommending reparatory initiatives. We start from a position of recognising that ‘professionalised “experts” or university-based intellectuals’ have often tended to ignore, render invisible or overwrite ‘the voices, ideas, and indeed theories produced by those engaged in social struggles’ (Choudry, 2015). Instead, we must seek to create a more egalitarian space for knowledge exchange, collaboration and knowledge co-production that recognises ‘how power and inequality shape context’ and understands how ‘academics situated within powerful institutions are inevitably implicated in the social inequalities that result’ (Croteau, Hoynes, Ryan, 2007). This requires being committed to non-extractive processes of ethical scholarship and knowledge exchange, while recognising the struggle of past and present grassroots social movements who have long been calling for elite institutions to decolonise and repair past and present harms.
The purpose of the PoP is therefore also to acknowledge the longevity of the struggle for reparatory justice and decolonisation, while ensuring equity among REWG members as they undertake the current work. The PoP provide an ethical framework for any activities relating to the project, from surveys through to public-facing events, and any other forms of participation and consultation held within and outside of the university. The PoP represent the foundation of our approach to identifying reparatory justice initiatives of primary benefit to Global Majority communities, including Black, Indigenous and other Peoples of Colour.
The following twelve principles have been collated and adapted from those underpinning the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR) and Runnymede’s Finding Common Cause. They also refer to other related human rights documents, such as the United Nations ‘Right to a Remedy’, the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and the EU’s Policy Framework on Support to Transitional Justice.
Twelve Principles
Principle 1: A commitment to recognising historical and contemporary struggles for social and reparatory justice
The REWG recognises the existence of social movement/s for reparations and the ethics expected when working with participants in this movement/s and communities of reparatory justice interest. This means understanding the intergenerational nature and history of reparations work, research and other initiatives at regional, national and transnational levels. We acknowledge and take seriously the ethical responsibility to respect the ontological and epistemological frameworks of knowledge production that emerges from such movements as the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) and their links to the Peoples Reparations International Movement (PRIM).
Principle 2: A commitment to mutual benefit, strengthening partnerships and restoring agency through participation
Mutual benefit requires making sufficient time in the development process for the project to identify each partner’s needs and concerns and to clearly articulate how each partner will benefit from the work undertaken. Any partnership between a university and a community organisation or group should be premised on leaving that organisation stronger than before the participation. The process will seek to restore the agency of the different communities of reparatory justice interest who have been impacted by histories of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. This includes communities’ right to consultation, design, implementation and monitoring of the University’s reparative initiatives in order to ensure that what the University seeks to do is both legitimate and just.
Principle 3: A commitment to cognitive justice and equity in collaboration
Cognitive justice refers to the equity of all knowledges, with no one form of knowledge privileged over another. The REWG’s work is based on a culture of equal value and respect for all disciplines. For shared learning to truly be effective, all those contributing knowledge must feel valued and respected as equals at the table. Moreover, by acknowledging the existence of multiple forms of knowledge, we understand the benefits of co-producing knowledge as an interactive rather than extractive process.
Principle 4: A commitment to respectful cross-community and cross-disciplinary dialogue
Participants commit to engaging in respectful cross-community and cross-disciplinary dialogue with other knowledge-producers. Respectful dialogue means understanding that we all have partial knowledge and need to have the humility to submit our work to public and intellectual scrutiny. It also means being willing to continue dialogue through any follow-up work. It also means recognises the need for critical self, collective and institutional reflection on this work and its processes at regular intervals.
Principle 5: A commitment to knowledge exchange and reciprocal learning
Fair research projects are expected to contribute to the wider knowledge base about how to build better university–community collaborations, and to reflect on and document what has been learned about partnership processes during the project. Participants will be open to, and interested in learning from, each other. They will recognise the value of each other’s knowledge and experience. This means also understanding how this work builds on and compliments and/or supports efforts that communities of reparatory justice interest are already making to rebuild their relationships, lives and communities, i.e. their own self- repairs processes.
Principle 6: A commitment to transparency and accountability
Transparency and accountability need to operate at multiple levels, from the institutional level to the individual project level, encompassing all research and engagement objectives, funding, budgeting, ethics and project management. The REWG and its participants are committed to accountability and transparency, for example by ensuring that everyone is working from a shared basis of understanding.
Principle 7: A commitment to the co-production of knowledge
Co-production means that no single partner is expected or entitled to bear the full weight of theorising or interpreting the work of the project, and that all partners seek to build dialogue across different sets of knowledge and experience. It means recognising that knowledge production is not just the purview of the university, but is being advanced by diverse sections of the grassroots academia and others from the global academic commons, which also have their own institutional formations. It means understanding that many social struggles and movements for change are significant sites of knowledge production. We therefore recognise the importance of learning not just about the experiences and actions of activists, but also about their ideas, knowledge and theoretical outlooks.
Principle 8: A commitment to sustainability and legacy
Project participants will develop plans for longer-term legacy and sustainability by agreeing how data and outputs from projects will be protected, shared and accessed over the long term, and by whom.
Principle 9: A commitment to data co-ownership
We recognise that data produced through the collaborative efforts of the REWG is co-owned by its members and participants. Any outputs derived from this data will clearly state the co-produced and co-owned nature of this work.
Principle 10: A commitment to fair practices in payments
Processes for payments are to be clear and transparent, ensuring that payment is made in a timely manner, and in advance (if necessary) given the needs of the project.
Principle 11: A commitment to accessible communication
We recognise the need for different methods of knowledge dissemination, presentation and use, and the importance of keeping participants informed of any developments over the lifespan of the project. The REWG will communicate its findings in different ways, including reports, blogs, podcasts and public-facing events to ensure that the work and its findings can be communicated across a broad range of audiences.
Principle 12: A commitment to equality, diversity and anti-racism
All communities have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever relevant. It also means actively promoting equity and inclusion, and engaging in dismantling structural racism and discrimination. Members who experience racial discrimination, harassment and/or racism as a result of the project have a right to be protected by the University as part of its duty of care. No racism, xenophobia, including Afriphobia, will be tolerated at any REWG events.
[1] Key examples of those who have been at the forefront of this struggle include what some call the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) and their links to the Peoples Reparations International Movement (PRIM); a broad alliance of social forces that is seeking redress for historical atrocities and injustices, which have contemporary consequences.
