Knowledge Democracy

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1076

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A river of life: Learning and environmental social movements
(Interface: A journal for and about social movement, 2009) Hall, Budd L
What and how can we learn from social movements? According to Dr. Budd Hall, social movements are intense locations for knowledge to come together and for learning to happen. They are seen as one of the best routes to social transformation because they bring together action, learning and social change. In this 2009 paper, Dr. Hall reflects on the epistemic value of social movements in the creation of knowledge. He begins by exploring what a social movement is and outlines its characteristic features as discussed by different schools of thought. The paper is a collaborative effort involving teams from three organisations and presents qualitative analyses based on case studies of environmental social movements from countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Sudan, India, Canada and many more. From these cases, the paper formulates key principles of environmental social movement learning, including seeing humans as part of nature rather than separate from it, deconstructing power relations in our relationship with nature and with each other as a first step toward transforming them, and several other interconnected insights. Through both theoretical reflection and grounded case studies, Hall argues that social movements, while leading to social transformation, also facilitate deep personal transformation by creating powerful spaces for learning.
Against epistemicide: Decolonising higher education
(2020) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
How have knowledge systems been shaped by histories of enclosure and dispossession? In this reflective essay, Dr. Budd Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon examine how colonisation and the enclosing of knowledge are embedded within the same paradigm through which capital was accumulated by dispossession, as theorised by David Harvey. Drawing parallels with the enclosure movement in England, they argue that common lands were gradually privatised, displacing those who depended on them. In a similar way, wealth extracted through colonisation helped build universities that enclosed knowledge within their walls, regulating who could access it and who could legitimately produce it. These enclosures determined which knowledge systems were recognised and legitimised and which were dismissed as irrational, reinforcing distinctions between knowers and non-knowers. The essay traces how these processes continue to shape contemporary academic institutions and their authority over what counts as legitimate knowledge. In response, the authors describe the establishment of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education as a deliberate effort to reverse the colonisation of knowledge systems by creating structures and processes for the co-creation of knowledge with social movements and civil society partners, grounded in a commitment to epistemic justice.
Beyond epistemicide: Knowledge democracy, higher education and the path towards pluriversality
(UNESCO Chair, 2016) Hall, Budd L
How have our knowledge systems been shaped by histories of colonisation, enclosure and dispossession, and what might it mean to move beyond them? In this lecture delivered in Brighton, Dr. Budd L. Hall traces how contemporary knowledge systems are rooted in long histories of land theft, colonial expansion and epistemicide. Beginning with a personal account of his family’s migration to Canada and the acquisition of Indigenous land through illegal and immoral means, he situates his own access to higher education within the material histories of dispossession that financed universities and consolidated Western knowledge systems as dominant. Drawing on David Harvey’s notion of accumulation by dispossession and Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ concept of epistemicide, Hall argues that universities have functioned as sites of enclosure, determining who is authorised to produce knowledge and whose knowledge systems are dismissed. Through examples from India, Uganda, South Africa and beyond, the lecture highlights alternative knowledge systems that persist despite marginalisation. It calls for transforming knowledge systems through knowledge democracy, co-creation and a sustained commitment towards epistemic justice.
Challenges in the co-construction of knowledge: A global study on strengthening structures for community university research partnerships
(0000) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, Wafa
Civil society and construction of knowledge systems
(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1997-06-01) Tondon, Rajesh
Modern systems of knowledge have largely been shaped by the state and the market, yet both have left little room for the lived realities of ordinary people. This paper positions civil society as a third arena in which knowledge is generated, one grounded not in abstract theory but in everyday practice, collective memory, and problem-solving. It argues that knowledge forms such as oral, experiential, intergenerational etc, are vital to understanding social life, even as they remain marginalized by formal institutions. By contrasting these dynamics with the dominant knowledge systems of state and corporate actors, the study opens up new questions about how knowledge is produced, legitimized, and used in society.
Entry for new pergammon encyclopaedia of adult education: Social movement learning
(0000) Hall, Budd L; Clover, Darlene E.
Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research
(UNESCO, 1979) Hall, Budd L
What is knowledge? How is it formed? Who has the authority to “make” it? and who does it ultimately serve? These are the central questions Dr. Budd Hall raises in this article. He critiques the way traditional intellectuals such as scientists and scholars, often trained in elite universities and supported by international funding agencies, are institutionally positioned as the legitimate producers of knowledge. Embedded within particular class locations, this group often produces knowledge that serves its own class interests and maintains dominant social relations. In this process, organic intellectuals engaged in critical reflection and grassroots organising are sidelined as knowledge makers. Drawing on the works of Freire, Mao and others, Hall reflects on the role of intellectuals. He advances a systematic critique of survey research and outlines the guiding principles of participatory research. The article is a critical inquiry into the nature of knowledge within the new international order. It calls for moving beyond viewing knowledge as intellectual commodities such as papers and conferences and toward recognising and valuing local and indigenous knowledge systems, while developing more decentralised ways of legitimising people as producers of knowledge.
Knowledge democracy and epistemic in/justice: Reflections on a conversation
(2020) Hall, Budd L; Godrie, Baptiste; Heck, Isabel
The focus of the article is on how knowledge is created, who creates knowledge, how is knowledge co-constructed, whose knowledge is excluded and how is knowledge being used to challenge inequalities and strengthen social movement capacity? This article grew from a fascinating conversation that the three of us had in Montreal in September of 2019. We decided to share our stories about knowledge and justice with a wider audience in part as a way for us to reflect further on the meaning of our initial conversation, but also to invite others into the discussion. The three of us are Baptise Godrie works in a research centre (CREMIS) affiliated with Quebec’s health care and social services system, Isabel Heck with the anti-poverty organization Parole d’excluEs, both affiliated to universities, and Budd Hall from the university of Victoria and the Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based research and social responsibility in higher education.
The power of collaboration, creativity and art in knowledge mobilization: Reflections from international work
(2020) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L
Who is driving development? Reflections on the transformative potential of asset-based community development?
(Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, 2003-10) Mathie, Alison; Cunningham, Gord
Arising out of a critique of needs-based approaches to development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) offers a set of principles to mobilize and sustain community economic development. This paper draws attention to the connections between these principles and practices and (i) current interest in sustainable livelihoods as a conceptual framework, (ii) the concept of social capital, (iii) the social psychology of mobilization, (iv) the enhancement capacity and agency to engage as citizens with the entitlements of citizenship, (v) the role of multiple stakeholders; and (vi) the issue of control over the development process. Finally the paper points to the challenges for NGOs employing an asset-based, community-driven approach given the needs-based, problem-solving paradigm in which they operate.