Tea time: Slowing down academia

How can we change established research structures to better support place-based research? One of
the answers: make time to drink more tea with community partners.

Written by Anna Mayer and edited by Mia Strand
Drawing and photo by Anna Mayer

This blog post is part of a series reflecting on a selection of sessions and keynotes that were presented at the PECS-III Conference, Montreal Canada, 12-15 August 2024

In the hustle of academia, it’s easy to forget the value of slowing down. Science often prioritises publishing one article after another, with speed equated to success. But what if we took more time to consider the “how” of our research? Marianne Falardeau (Université du Québec, TÉLUQ) and Patricia Balvanera (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) explored this in their plenary, “Reflections on place-based social-ecological scholarship.”

Marianne, who collaborates with Indigenous communities in Inuit Nunangat (Inuit homeland in Canada, corresponding to the Canadian Arctic), shared about her journey in participatory place- based research 1 . She made an important reflection — the process of place-based research is different for every community and must be adapted to context. Each community we collaborate with in research has its own unique history and context, which requires time and attention. Research design could start with something as simple as drinking tea together, sitting down with potential partners, get to know each other and share our stories. It’s an act of (un)learning, by taking the time to understand the history and present realities of the communities we work with, and situating ourselves in these communities, assessing our own biases and that of our academic disciplines. By slowing down and deeply listening, we can develop research practices that are sensitive to local contexts, embrace diverse languages, and develop deep partnerships defined by mutual trust and respect. This could mean using creative methods to engage with young people or working with community members to better understand and make space for the cultural and conceptual nuances underpinning our ways of knowing, valuing and relating to the world around us. Place-based research is teamwork, as expressed by Patricia.

Patricia complements Marianne’s call for a critical shift in science. It’s time to move away from self-centred science towards a model that puts communities and the co-creation of knowledge first. Instead, it becomes a collaborative effort where multiple perspectives are valued and integrated. Patricia illustrated her points with two positive examples: the global effort of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to assess the diverse values of nature 2 , and Mexico’s Cocina Colaboratorio, a local transdisciplinary collective that brings together artists, designers, architects, farmer communities, scientists, and chefs to promote sustainable food futures 3 . Although the IPBES assessment still has a long way to go when it comes to author contributions from the Global South, both initiatives demonstrate that in social-ecological research, the process is more important than the product.

Towards the end of research projects, it is important to give back results to the communities we work with, in formats that resonate with them—be it through films, podcasts or radio. Importantly, Marianne highlights that beyond giving back results, we can also consider giving back data — communities are research partners with whom data management agreements can be developed from the start of projects. Patricia reflects that the joy they received through their community podcasts proved greater in impact than other ‘outputs’. By slowing down individually but also collectively in academia, by taking time to (un)learn, will we be able to relearn 4 , i.e. “collectively contribute to transforming and decolonising academia”. Going above and beyond to ensure that communities are happy with the ways they are given back research outputs can contribute to this ‘relearning’. It also entails developing spaces for truly horizontal and meaningful engagement, joint identification of issues at stake, joint experimentation and joint development of products for diverse audiences.

In the field of social-ecological research, our “team” is not just the colleagues we work with at our institutions. It includes the people and the natural environments we engage and build relationships with. Successful research teams are inclusive, interdisciplinary, and rooted in reciprocity. As Patricia eloquently put it, “love is the key for local and global sustainability”. Love, reciprocity, and respect are not typically found in the language of grant proposals or academic evaluations, but they are essential for creating meaningful and impactful research.

Transforming academia requires collective, intentional acts towards slowing things down. By integrating love and reciprocity in our work, we can shift from extractive knowledge practices to those that genuinely communicate and value diverse perspectives. But we need funding structures that support collaborative, community-driven research from the start and reward and evaluation systems that recognise the importance of process and relationships, not just the final product. That’s what we have to collectively advocate for.

Global sustainability also lies in the relationships we build along the way that nurture the process of research and its impact. So, let’s make time for tea, and in doing so, make time for more relational and caring research practices.

1 Use the links if you would like to explore Marianne’s work in projects such as MARAT (Belmont Forum), FISHES
(Genome Canada) and Sentinel North.

2 Take a look at the work that IPBES has done on diverse values.

3 Visit the website of the Cocina Colaboratorio project.

4 Indigenous Connect. (2023, December 6). Disrupting Coloniality: The Decolonial Praxis of Lifelong Learning.
https://indigenousconnect.org/disrupting-coloniality-the-decolonial-praxis-of-lifelong-learning/