Giving vs taking, caring too much & other tricky questions

In this lesson, we reflect upon some important, but also delicate questions that can arise when doing co-creative, participatory and care-full work. For instance, some very dear and yet challenging issues that have emerged within the community of researchers and educators we have had the chance to learn with, are the following:

(1)  Balance between CARING and CARRYING

Is there a risk in caring too much when approaching research and teaching in certain ways, to the expense of one’s own well-being and balance, or indeed that of others? In such instances, might ‘caring’ become ‘carrying’ the weight of others, with no benefits either for them or oneself?

(2)  Balance between GIVING and TAKING

An important aspect of care-full work is to avoid extractivism, and so to carefully balance between what we give (back) to the individuals or communities we engage. You can hear Angela's thoughts on extractivism in the video on the next page.

Research that relies heavily on engaging people and communities can be exploitative if it is preoccupied with extracting data useful for scientific aims without considering the needs and expectations of those involved (Long, Ballard, Fisher, & Belsky, 2016). But exploitation can also happen towards our colleagues or in other contexts.

In the first video below Angela Moriggi talks further about caring too much and offers some suggestions, drawn from her own experiences, on how to maintain a more healthy balance.

Below Jingjing Guo talks about her experiences of caring too much.

'What is the healthy amount of caring? What is the healthy amount of detachment and non relating in our work?' - Jingjing Guo

Below Jingjing unpacks the impact of a very difficult conversation during her fieldwork.

The next two videos address the difficult balance between care-giving and self-care. In the first Imogen Humphris talks about the vulnerable humans inside the research machine.

Below Lummina Horlings talks about how she balances care giving and self-care.