Qualitative and participatory methods

Objectif

Provide students with :

• Interpersonal, collaboration and communication skills, towards engaging with diverse actors in different cultural settings.
• Strategic and anticipatory competences, of the ability to design and implement participative methods and engage in problem-solving frameworks.

Descriptif

Sustainability raises complex issues, with no silver bullet solutions. Increasingly, participatory methods are gaining in importance ' initiated by researchers and communities, as well as the public and private sector ' presumably towards engaging diverse groups of people in reflecting on and implementing more sustainable forms of development. In this class, we will consider what is meant by `participation' with a critical eye, acknowledging the power dynamics at play, and forms of instrumentalization or resistance that can emerge. We will also take up ethical considerations, and questions of representation ' drawing from feminist and indigenous perspectives. In the second part of the course, we will delve into methods and will experiment with designing living labs, hosting future visioning sessions, or engaging with visual methods, all of which involve forms of participation. Students will learn about the pros and cons of participative methods, but also how to design, implement and assess a series of methods that could be useful to their future careers.