15-22 August 2021
Organised by the Africa Research & Impact Network and Africa Sustainability Hub
Deadline for applications: 1 June 2021

Full details (ARIN website) Application form

Background

In the Global South, ‘coloniality’ has long been associated with political rule over subordinated countries.

1. Struggles for ‘decoloniality’ have evolved from the undoing of colonial rule, to the even more fundamental challenge of freeing knowledge, practice, and culture from deeper worldwide concentrations of incumbent power.

2. In keeping with the more expansive ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals, a decolonisation framework thus encompasses some of the most profound and pervasive critiques of globalising structures and their conditioning effects in every setting.

3. Accordingly, the neglected imperative to ‘decolonise methodologies’ in research and policy appraisal, embodies some of the most important and intractable challenges in this sustainability – offering crucial opportunities for thinking, knowing, and doing alike.

4. The summer school will allow participants therefore to explore how methods for informing policy decisions and wider political debates can enable learning, enrich knowledge, enhance practice and nurture more emancipatory outcomes in the Global South. 

About the summer school

Drawing from the lessons on the Decoloniality of Methods webinar series (practices), and book project (theory), the summer school will provide a practical opportunity for participants to explore how methods have been (can be) used to inform, impact and transform policies, societies and economies. At the end of the training sessions, the participants will participate in the STEPS methods year workshop, as part of their post-summer school alumni engagement. The summer school takes into consideration a learner centred approach, allowing for theory, practice, and practical approaches.  

Target participants

The participants in the summer school will be drawn from multiple stakeholders and sectors, and will cut across various actor groups of interest to decolonisation of methods, and valorisation of next generation of practical methods. Specifically the summer school targets PhD students and early career researchers, policy makers, and practitioners contributing to sustainability. 

Methods of delivery

The school will bring together acclaimed scholars of the field of sustainability research, decoloniality, and methods, aiming to offer each participant the opportunity to follow: 

• Roundtable discussions and lectures  
• Joint lectures every morning delivered by different international scholars 
• Case study course sessions delivered by different international scholars 
• Workshop groups in the afternoon to discuss the research projects contributing to Decoloniality of Sustainability Research of each participant addressed to small groups of 10 to 15 participants 

Application details

Deadline: June 1st, 2021 

Confirmation of admission to the summer school: July 15th 2021 

School dates: August 15th to 22nd 2021 

Apply online