Co-creatively 'thinking with' at the intersection of social and economic marginalization: Pathways towards epistemic justice?

This project aims to contribute to an improved understanding of how we can co-creatively 'think with' across across different societal contexts in order to achieve epistemic justice for marginalised communities. From an academic standpoint, recognizing the significance of including marginalised communities into research and policy-making has become paramount for comprehending the roots and potential resolutions of issues linked to diverse forms of social and economic marginalisation. Specifically considering the intersection of social and economic marginalisation, until now, few scholars have empirically and critically examined the politics of knowledges (Woensdregt, 2024), and how this relates to epistemic (knowledge-related) injustices. To address this gap, this project aims to investigate power relations in collaborations aimed at improving social and economic justice in different contexts. At the heart of this project is the exploration of how collaborations either facilitate or impede the ability of more powerful actors to engage in 'thinking with' (de la Bellacasa, 2012). The concept of thinking with underscores the importance of connecting with the perspectives of individuals central to the research topics, subsequently incorporating various layers of knowledge. This necessitates addressing hierarchical relations between researchers and community members and other stakeholders, and exploring what more powerful actors want and need to integrate experiential knowledges. It also requires an improved understanding of how research collaborations can more effectively weave together different strands of knowledge, resources, and lines of accountability, fostering connection among all parties involved. How we can address such hierarchical relations between researchers, communities and other stakeholders and how we can weave together the different types of knowledges these actors possess will be explored in this project. The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education.