2nd Annual Research Festival on Global Challenges and Social Justice

Dates: Wednesday, May 15, 2024 - 11:00 to Friday, May 17, 2024 - 15:00
Location: Online and in-person, Library seminar rooms 1&2

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We would like to invite you to join the GCSJ Research Festival on Global Challenges and Social Justice between 15 and 17 May 2024. The festival will include both in-person and online elements and will bring together a variety of speakers and formats to showcase exciting OU research and give researchers a platform to exchange ideas and expand their networks.

Time	Title and Speakers
11.00-12.00pm	Decriminalisation of Sex Work in Cape Town Speaker: Bev Orton Violence against women and girls in South Africa is one of the highest in the world. This also applies to femicide. Sex workers in South Africa face many challenges, murder, rape, sexual assault and significant barriers to safety. The reasons for becoming sex workers are varied and reflect their vulnerabilities and poverty. Not only financial poverty but also educational and skills poverty. Many experience violence within relationships and stigma from communities. They are also targets of violence for police and clients. Sex work enables their children to go to school, puts food on the table for their children, the parents, the children of their brothers and siters and some even manage to pay University fees for their children. Decriminalisation of sex work would enable safeguarding and access to health care. Register for this event via Eventbrite
12.00-1.15pm	Imaginaries of Environmentalism: Epiphanies, Fantasies, and Rituals Organised by the disciplines of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Politics & International Studies Speakers: Charlotte Weatherill: Colonial Fantasies of Invulnerability to Climate Change Sophie-Grace Chappell: Epiphanies and the Environment Maria Nita: Rituals for the Climate Crisis Abstract: Environmentalism has a politics of policy and activism, but it’s also a contested space of emotion and imagination. These papers bring together different ideas around environmentalism and imagined alternatives to the harm and violence that is being enacted upon the world. Register for this event via Eventbrite
1:15-1:30pm	Break
1:30-2:45pm	Borders and the Hostile Environment Speakers: Kathryn Medien Dan Taylor In this roundtable, Dan Taylor and Kathryn Medien discuss two recent projects exploring how migrants in the UK are experiencing and responding to the UK’s “hostile environment” policies. Over the last year, Dan has been undertaking an Open Societal Challenges project exploring borders, community and connection in the Fens, a part of England which produces much of the UK’s food, much of it through low-waged farm and factory work that has become systematically reliant on migrant labour, some of it trafficked. Working with community partners, Dan discusses the challenges that face migrants in England and the forms of help and solidarity he’s encountered. We’re joined at the roundtable by one community partner supporting migrants in the area. For some years Kathryn has analysed the historical development of and resistance to a “hostile environment” in the UK towards migrants and racialised Britons. Drawing on archival work and contemporary fieldwork, Kathryn explores how activists framed their resistance to the hostile environment through identifying connections between internal bordering and the ongoing legacies of the British Empire and colonialism. Such a framing illuminates the intimacies between bordering policies in Britain and elsewhere, allowing us to create solidarities between anti-border and anti-racist struggles globally. Register for this event via Eventbrite

Library Atrium area – for refreshments and lunch.
Find details on the webinar and registration for the following events

Time	Title and Speakers
9:30-10:00am	Coffee on arrival
10:00-11:00am	Seminar I: Contemporary Challenges of Information and Trust Organised by the disciplines of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Politics & International Studies Speakers: Dan Cavedon-Taylor: Deepfakes, Hollow Political Harms Precious Chatterje-Doody: Religious Institutions as Information Actors: Identity, Emotions and War Paul-Francois Tremlett: From Manila to Wolverhampton and Back Again: The Return of Religion and the Rise of Religious Literacy Abstract: The contemporary crisis of social, political and media trust is well-documented, as is the range of the challenges it poses for reliably making sense of news and current affairs in a real-time global media ecology. In this context, our immediate affective responses can significantly condition how we react to social stimuli, creating conflicting trends in who and what we trust. This panel looks in more detail at some of these trends. Placing the spotlight on some of the most pressing issues in studies of contemporary information manipulation, the panel interrogates their philosophical and conceptual backstories, as well as their real-world relevance.
11:00am-12:00pm	Seminar II: Tackling Multi-dimensional Inequalities Organised by the disciplines of Development, Economics Speakers: Thais DeCarvalho-R-Lopes: The loss of environmental capital and intergenerational impoverishment in the Peruvian Amazonia Julia Chukwuma: The financialisation of healthcare: Public-Private-Partnerships and health in Africa Andrew Trigg: Rosa Luxemburg on inequality and economic crises Charlotte Cross: Title TBC Chair: Dinar Kale Abstract: Building on the research conducted in the Development and Economics stream, this session engages with causes, consequences and potential solutions associated with multi-dimensional inequalities. Inequalities have become a pervasive and ubiquitous part of everyday lives in the Global North and Global South. These inequalities are shaped by historical contexts, social structure, and power dynamics, and they manifest in various dimensions such as income, gender, race, and relationships underpinning them. Within this context, this session will examine how individuals, communities, firms, and countries navigate, negotiate and challenge these unequal relationships in different areas such as health, gender and the environment.
12:00-1:00pm	Lunch
1:00-2:00pm	Keynote Speech: Whose side is the law on? Speaker: Jolyon Maugham KC, founder and director of the Good Law Project Chair: Umut Erel Abstract: The Good Law Project is a not for profit campaign organisation that uses the law for a better world. We know that the law, in the right hands, can be a fair and decent force for good. It is a practical tool for positive change and can make amazing things happen.
2:00-2:15pm	Coffee break
2:15-3:15pm	Seminar III Organised by the disciplines of Social Policy & Criminology, Sociology Final session abstract to follow shortly
3:15-4:15pm	Seminar IV: Thinking Spatially in Turbulent Times: the Future is Open? Organised by the discipline of Geography & Environmental Studies Final session abstract to follow shortly
4:15-5:00pm	Networking and refreshments

Time	Title and Speakers
12:00-1:15pm	Seminar: Actually Decolonising? Frictions, Facilitation and Frontiers Speakers: Professor Parvati Raghuram Abstract: Decolonisation has taken up a lot of print space in recent years. First there has been a wholesale endorsement of decolonisation including in Geography where authors have tried to decolonise this and decolonise that (Raghuram and Sondhi, forthcoming). Similarly, many research projects have obtained funding by using the decolonial word to make claims to justice and equality. There has also been, for some time, a critique of rhetorical decolonisation and warnings against simply jumping on the decolonial bandwagon (Moosavi 2020). Authors have argued against the tendency to make this only an epistemic endeavour devoid of the political impetus within which original decolonial thought was embedded. They have urged us to think through the inheritances and responsibilities that decolonisation entails. Between these two ends are many attempts to actually decolonise. Institutions have attempted to change curricula, reading lists, and even staffing. This paper draws on AHRC funded project Decolonising Education for Peace in Africa. The project aimed to shift the narrative of Africa as a continent marred by conflict to instead explore already existing values and knowledges of peace on the continent. It involved a range of sub-projects which stretch across 15 countries. Each project worked with a mix of NGOs and university academics in Africa although many were simultaneously being supported by UK academics. The paper introduces the project and explores actual decolonisation through three themes: friction, facilitation and frontiers. These provide three cuts into the practicalities of actually decolonising." Register for this event via Eventbrite.
1:15-1:30pm	Break
1:30-2:45pm	Seminar: Participatory Action Research (PAR) Methods for Reflective Collaborative Practice: Engaging with Local Authority Policies in Britain and Brazil Speakers: Andrea Berardi: Community-led Policy Innovation for Local Food-Growing Les Levidow: Brazil’s EcoSol-agroecology networks engaging Local Authority policies Commentary by Agnes Czajka Rationale: Participatory Action Research (PAR) is research into practice undertaken by those involved, aiming to improve their situation. To pursue common aims, practitioners jointly plan actions, implement them, observe the effects and reflect on the practical implications; then they repeat the cycle. Through this process, they can become a stronger collective actor. They gain new understandings of the change process. Separate individuals become a more cohesive group, learning how to devise more effective actions. This webinar will focus on PAR methods for Local Authority policy-change, especially for promoting solidaristic agri-food alternatives in Britain and Brazil. After the talks, webinar participants can describe their own efforts with PAR methods. Contributors should contact the hosts beforehand at FASS-SSGS-Research-Centre@open.ac.uk Register for this event via Eventbrite

Time

Title and Speakers

12:00-1:15pm

Seminar: Actually Decolonising? Frictions, Facilitation and Frontiers

Speakers: Professor Parvati Raghuram

Abstract: Decolonisation has taken up a lot of print space in recent years. First there has been a wholesale endorsement of decolonisation including in Geography where authors have tried to decolonise this and decolonise that (Raghuram and Sondhi, forthcoming). Similarly, many research projects have obtained funding by using the decolonial word to make claims to justice and equality. There has also been, for some time, a critique of rhetorical decolonisation and warnings against simply jumping on the decolonial bandwagon (Moosavi 2020). Authors have argued against the tendency to make this only an epistemic endeavour devoid of the political impetus within which original decolonial thought was embedded. They have urged us to think through the inheritances and responsibilities that decolonisation entails. Between these two ends are many attempts to actually decolonise. Institutions have attempted to change curricula, reading lists, and even staffing.

This paper draws on AHRC funded project Decolonising Education for Peace in Africa. The project aimed to shift the narrative of Africa as a continent marred by conflict to instead explore already existing values and knowledges of peace on the continent. It involved a range of sub-projects which stretch across 15 countries. Each project worked with a mix of NGOs and university academics in Africa although many were simultaneously being supported by UK academics. The paper introduces the project and explores actual decolonisation through three themes: friction, facilitation and frontiers. These provide three cuts into the practicalities of actually decolonising."

1:15-1:30pm

Break

1:30-2:45pm

Seminar: Participatory Action Research (PAR) Methods for Reflective Collaborative Practice: Engaging with Local Authority Policies in Britain and Brazil

Speakers:
Andrea Berardi: Community-led Policy Innovation for Local Food-Growing
Les Levidow: Brazil’s EcoSol-agroecology networks engaging Local Authority policies
Commentary by Agnes Czajka

Rationale: Participatory Action Research (PAR) is research into practice undertaken by those involved, aiming to improve their situation. To pursue common aims, practitioners jointly plan actions, implement them, observe the effects and reflect on the practical implications; then they repeat the cycle. Through this process, they can become a stronger collective actor. They gain new understandings of the change process. Separate individuals become a more cohesive group, learning how to devise more effective actions. This webinar will focus on PAR methods for Local Authority policy-change, especially for promoting solidaristic agri-food alternatives in Britain and Brazil.

After the talks, webinar participants can describe their own efforts with PAR methods. Contributors should contact the hosts beforehand at FASS-SSGS-Research-Centre@open.ac.uk