Cultures of giving and asking
This project was funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and aimed to foster decolonial philanthropic practices through collaborations with higher education institutions in Africa. The project was designed to build on lessons learned from previous work by CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) as part of their 12-year programme in Africa. In collaboration with CASE and five African partner HEIs, we developed resources that were intended to be novel and adaptable to different contexts. It is worth sharing some of the key principles from our outputs that defined the project’s conceptual framing and shaped the data collection:
- The value of dialogue, partnership working, and co-production of knowledge in engaging with stakeholders and beneficiaries of philanthropic activity.
- The need for a critical perspective, which recognises the limitations of translating concepts and assumptions rooted in the global North without due regard to variations in context across the African continent.
Resources
Our research team included Professor Morag Bell, Professor Michael Hoyler and Dr Amil Mohanan. The resources include a mobile app, website, podcasts and videos.
Talk: Two peas in a pod? North American philanthropic foundations and the geopolitics of knowledge production in West African higher education
Our work on this project also resulted in a keynote lecture in April 2024 for HistGeogUni – A global research network on the historical geographies of the university that was co-founded by Prof Heike Jöns.
New development frontiers? The role of youth, sport and cultural interventions
The second key project under this theme is titled ‘New development frontiers? The role of youth, sport and cultural interventions’. This project explores how sport, cultural, and educational programmes can help young people in low-income countries tackle challenges like poverty, conflict, environmental sustainability, and gender inequality.
Focusing on the relatively small states of Cape Verde, Nepal, and Timor-Leste, we’re working directly with young people to understand how they experience and interpret these programmes, aiming to amplify their voices and insights.
We hope to identify ways these initiatives can better support young people and drive meaningful social change. Our research team includes Prof. Richard Giulianotti, Prof. Sagar Raj Sharma, Dr. Martha Saavedra, and Dr. Aoife Sadlier. This research was supported by the ESRC-DFID Development Frontiers Research Fund. I will update this section with outputs as and when they are published.
James Esson 