Contributor reflections on care giving - care-full research

Having first asked our guest contributors to share their overall understanding of care-full scholarship (see previous page), we then asked them to reflect in more detail about one or more dimensions of our care-full scholarship analytical frame in connection with the various components of their scholarly practice.

Below our MOOC contributors reflect on care-giving in the context of research.

'When I touched the soil, it all changed.' - Jingjing Guo

'Doing care-full scholarship requires a genuine openness to get a sense of what matters to the people on the ground.' - Jingjing Guo

Below Imogen Humphris talks about the importance of spreading her time between the sea of experience and the mountain of reflection.

In Imogen's second video she shares a story of an encounter on derelict land in Scotland that 'provided guiding direction' for her research.

'Am I working on the issues that my collaborators are saying are important? Is the way we're doing it actually achieving the things that we want to do? It's really about building long-term relationships with people and places that are the affected communities and have your work emerge from that.' - Dr Colin Anderson

Dr Colin Anderson is the Associate Director for Research at the Institute for Agroecology at The University of Vermont, USA. His work focuses on community- and people- led processes of transformation for resilience, social justice and well-being.

Dr Nohemi Ramirez Aranda, one of the RECOMS fellows, talks about her journey from architecture to wanting to influence policy.

QUESTIONS:

• How do you practice patience in your work?
• Have you ever adjusted your research in response to the needs of the place you are researching? Would you be prepared to do this?
• What experience do you have of moving between the 'sea of experience' and the 'mountain of reflection'? (see Imogen's first video)