Epistemologies of Participatory Research on Social Development Programs in Southeast Asia – AFTERNOON SESSION
Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Thursday 11 September 2025, 9 am – 5 pm
This project comes at a pivotal moment in the history of social development research in Southeast Asia. For several years now, development aid agencies have been undergoing a normative change, promoting greater autonomy and participation within their programmes for populations that had previously been seen simply as ‘recipients’ (Elinoff 2021), a process that has been further accelerated since 2021 by the tragedy of the war in Myanmar and the post-Covid era. But recent geopolitical changes, and in particular the suspension of US aid, have brought many development programmes to a halt. Researchers in the region are partly dependent on these programmes, and are also affected by new national policies on higher education and research (Welch & Aziz 2022) that may promote short-term results with economic impact instead of fundamental research with uncertain outcomes. In the Anthropocene era, the climate emergency adds another challenge to participatory approaches, pushing them to embrace an ecological and decolonial viewpoint, some of them adopting a regenerative framework merging human rights with the rights of nature.
These ongoing reconfigurations raise questions about the future of participatory research epistemologies. The aim of this study day is to take stock of the work carried out by teams who have developed a wide range of participatory approaches over several decades in four countries in the region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand), and to outline the prospects for the months and years ahead.
00:00 Reflecting on 20 years of community facilitation, empowerment and support in a fishing community in Johor, Malaysia by Serina Binte Abdul Rahman - Southeast Asian Studies Department, National University of Singapore
50:51 Presentation of Mohamad Sohibuddin & Shela Herlita - Sajogyo Institute (SAINS, Bogor) with the Faculty of Human Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB)
51:22 Decolonising Knowledge and Development through Participation : Sajogyo’s Legacies under the New Order and Reformasi regimes in Indonesia by Mohamad Sohibuddin & Shela Herlita
1:19:50 Discussion
2:06:32 Presentation of Malee Sitthikriengkrai - Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD, Chiang Mai University)
2:07:14 Co-Production of Knowledge and the Emergence of the “Subject” by Malee Sitthikriengkrai
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Music :
"Sneaky Adventure" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons : By Attribution 4.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/license...
