WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Workshop
Improving Collaboration with Local Partners: Finding Common Ground While Stepping Away from Helicopter Science
• Monday, July 15th, 8:15 - 12:00 hrs
Organizer(s):
Sumita Chatterjee
This workshop will be an interactive guided discussion to find points of commonality and diversity in our value systems within conservation, and how to work together to move away from helicopter science, and to build stronger international collaborations.
When we meet with our international collaborators, we are often met with cultural differences which can feel difficult when under the pressures of the research industry. This divide can be made worse with the power dynamics that come with researchers from higher-income/more privileged settings carrying out work in lower-income/resource-poor settings with little to no involvement of local communities or researchers. How are we expected to reconcile our differences if we do not give each other the space to do so? In this workshop, our goal is to provide such a space to not only find common ground with each other but to also bring our attention to our differences so that we can be mindful of them as we step away from such power imbalances in research and, together, move towards true collaboration. Our objectives include:
Articulating what our individual values are within conservation and exploring how they compare with our peers.
Articulating what diversity means to us as individuals along with its characteristics and exploring how they compare with our peers.
Understand how the intersections of diversity change as we move from one environment to other, and how that play a role on our understanding of safety.
Schedule:
Lecture (5 minutes): Defining helicopter or parachute science and the proposed principles to improve international collaborations.
Guided session (90 minutes): The group will participate in a series of interactive activities aimed at encouraging our participants to critically think about (1) What our values in conservation are, how they overlap/differ from our peers, and what it means to respectfully come to terms with them (2) What diversity means to you, and (3) how diversity affects with our positionality in different environments, and how that can influence our sense of safety.
Final remarks (10 minutes): A quick summary of the workshop’s activities. Participants will then be asked: What measures can ATBC take to improve inclusion and dispersal of science in the tropics and opportunities in your region?