IDS Bulletin
Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: ‘Engaged Excellence’ 1–13 | 1
Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk
Volume 47 | Number 6 | December 2016
Transforming Development Knowledge
ENGAGED
EXCELLENCE
Editors Melissa Leach,
John Gaventa and
Katy Oswald
3 |
Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: ‘Engaged Excellence’
Notes on Contributors iii
Introduction: Interrogating Engaged Excellence in Research
Katy Oswald, John Gaventa and Melissa Leach 1
PART I: INVITED ARTICLES
Knowledge Democracy and Excellence in Engagement
Rajesh Tandon, Wafa Singh, Darlene Clover and Budd Hall 19
Engaged Excellence or Excellent Engagement? Collaborating Critically to Amplify
the Voices of Male Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Chris Dolan and Thea Shahrokh with Jerker Edström, Darius King Kabafunzaki,
Dieudonné Maganya, Aimé Moninga and David Onen Ongwech 37
Moving Beyond Co-Construction of Knowledge to Enable Self-Determination
J. Marina Apgar, Tero Mustonen, Simone Lovera and Miguel Lovera 55
Learning about ‘Engaged Excellence’ across a Transformative Knowledge Network
Adrian Ely and Anabel Marin 73
Affective Engagement: Teaching Young Kenyans about Safe and Healthy Sex
Pauline Oosterhoff and Kelly Shephard 87
Choosing between Research Rigour or Support for Advocacy Movements, a False
Dichotomy?
Katherine Pittore, Dolf J.H. te Lintelo, James Georgalakis and Tumaini Mikindo 101
PART II: ARCHIVE ARTICLES
Indigenous Technical Knowledge: Analysis, Implications and Issues
Michael Howes and Robert Chambers 119
Article first published May 1979, IDSB 10.2
Introduction: Information, Knowledge and Power
Susanna Davies 131
Article first published May 1994, IDSB 25.2
Introduction: Changing Perspectives on Forests: Science/Policy Processes in
Wider Society
Melissa Leach and James Fairhead 151
Article first published January 2002, IDSB 33.1
Whose Knowledge Counts? Development Studies Institutions and Power
Relations in a Globalised World
Hilary Standing and Peter Taylor 169
Article first published March 2007, IDSB 38.2
Glossary of terms, including abbreviations 179
Oswald et al. Introduction: Interrogating Engaged Excellence in Research
© 2016 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2016.196
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The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: ‘Engaged Excellence’.
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Introduction: Interrogating
Engaged Excellence in Research
Katy Oswald, John Gaventa and Melissa Leach
Abstract Approaches to engaged research, which do not just produce
academic knowledge, but link with people and groups in society, have long
intellectual roots. In recent years, however, for epistemological, practical
and ethical reasons, interest in such approaches has gained ground. At
the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) we seek to adopt an ‘engaged
excellence’ approach to research. We have identified four pillars that
support engaged excellence: high-quality research; co-construction of
knowledge, mobilising impact-orientated evidence; and building enduring
partnerships. This introduction interrogates this approach, deepening our
understanding of what it means, whilst also acknowledging the challenges
which it poses. It raises questions about who defines what good quality
research is; how, why and who we co-construct knowledge with; what
counts as impact; and how we build enduring partnerships. It also touches
on some of the implications for both researchers themselves and the
institutions through which we work.
Keywords:
engagement, quality, co-construction, impact, partnership,
knowledge.
1 Introduction
Across the world, researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike have
long struggled with how to create knowledge that is both rigorous in
its own right, and relevant and useful to those whose lives and futures
are potentially aected by new evidence, insights and concepts. At the
Institute of Development Studies (IDS), we seek to combine high-
quality, conceptually and empirically innovative research, with extensive
engagement with particular countries, localities and people through
our practices, partners and students (IDS 2015: 5). We have called this
approach ‘engaged excellence’, by which we mean that the high quality
of our work (excellence) is dependent upon it linking to and involving
those who are at the heart of the change we wish to see (engaged).
2 | Oswald et al. Introduction: Interrogating Engaged Excellence in Research
Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: ‘Engaged Excellence’
We have identied four pillars of engaged excellence (ibid.):
l Delivering high-quality research;
l Co-constructing knowledge;
l Mobilising impact-orientated evidence; and
l Building enduring partnerships, emphasising their mutual
interdependence.
The articles in this IDS Bulletin all challenge us to interrogate this
approach, to deepen our understanding of what it means, whilst also
acknowledging the challenges which it poses. They raise important
questions about who denes what good quality research is; how, why and
who we co-construct knowledge with; what counts as impact; and how we
build enduring partnerships.
In recent years, several debates have emerged about how to make
academic research more ‘engaged’. The motivation for these debates has
varied from a recognition that engagement can contribute to improving
the impact of research; to normative arguments that research needs to
Figure 1 The four pillars of engaged excellence
Co-construction
• In problem
identification, data
gathering, analysis,
dissemination
Quality
• Rigorous
• Pluralistic
• Robust
• Relevant
Partnerships
• Trust and
transparency
• Mutual learning
• Added reach and
perspective
Impact
• Policy influence
• Improved practice
• New ways of
understanding
Engaged
Excellence
Source John Gaventa, presentation at the Transdisciplinary Methods for Developing
Nexus Capabilities workshop, University of Sussex, 29–30 June 2015.
IDS Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 6 December 2016: ‘Engaged Excellence’ 1–18 | 3
Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk
engage with those it seeks to inuence, and to democratise knowledge; to
epistemological arguments that the multiple nature of truth necessitates
the engagement of multiple perspectives (Oswald 2016). This
introduction, together with the articles in this IDS Bulletin, contribute
to these debates and attempt to articulate IDS’ approach to engaged
excellence and the unique contribution such an approach can make.
Many of the arguments laid out in this IDS Bulletin are not new. Indeed,
we at IDS, as well as others, have been making similar arguments for
several decades. This is demonstrated by the inclusion in this issue
of four archive articles from previous IDS Bulletins, covering a period
between 1979 and 2007. In 1979, Howes and Chambers argued for the
inclusion of indigenous technical knowledge in development framings,
essentially calling on IDS, and development more broadly, to bring
together both scientic and indigenous knowledge in order to generate
greater relevance and a richer picture where multiple truths prevail.
In 1994, Davies stated that knowledge is power, and called on IDS,
and other institutions in the global North, to examine our role in the
production of knowledge and the framing of global problems. In 2002,
Leach and Fairhead explored how science and policy processes are
embedded in broader power relations, calling on researchers to engage
with and critically analyse the politics of knowledge in policy processes.
Finally, in 2007, Standing and Taylor asked us whose knowledge counts
within development studies, challenging Northern institutions like
IDS to pay attention to how we create partnerships in order to reduce
inequalities in knowledge production.
Today, IDS researchers and partners are exploring and applying
engaged excellence around diverse topics and issues. Those addressed in
the articles in this IDS Bulletin range from natural resource management
(Apgar et al.) and transformations to sustainability (Ely and Marin) to
food security and nutrition (Pittore et al.), sexual violence (Dolan et al.),
young people’s sexualities (Oosterho and Shephard) and the role of
universities in democratising knowledge (Tandon et al.). They cover a
range of geographies, from Finland to Uganda. In so doing, they also
raise important questions and challenge us to reect more deeply on
what engaged excellence means and needs to mean in dierent contexts.
This introduction is structured around the four pillars of engaged
excellence: delivering high-quality research; co-constructing knowledge;
mobilising impact-orientated evidence; and building enduring partnerships,
emphasising their mutual interdependence. Each section draws on
the contributions to this IDS Bulletin to explore the epistemological,
methodological, ethical and practical implications of this approach.
2 Delivering high-quality research
The four pillars of engaged excellence are mutually dependent
– therefore, high-quality research will need to be based on the
co-construction of knowledge, it will need to mobilise impact-orientated
evidence, and be based on enduring partnerships – in other words it