Workshop
Co-producing Knowledge Under Constraint: Re-thinking Participation in Research Practice
30-31 Ocotber 2025
Venue: EUniwell Conference Room (Room 2.14), Classen-Kappelmann-Str. 24, 50931, Cologne
This workshop takes as its starting point the position paper “Participation as Imposition: Problem Assessments and Recommendations for Enabling Participatory Research”[1], published by around 30 scientists from a variety of disciplines. This position paper recently came to the attention of the members of the Thematic Area “Co-producing Knowledge” at the Global South Studies Centre in Cologne – and it resonated. The paper critically examines the promises and limitations of participatory research in German-speaking academic contexts. While participation is frequently promoted as a mechanism for democratising knowledge production and enhancing inclusion, the paper argues that its implementation is often constrained by institutional structures, funding models, and entrenched epistemic hierarchies. These conditions risk reproducing the very inequalities participatory research seeks to overcome. The paper contends that participation can amount to symbolic inclusion or even coercion when imposed through rigid funding frameworks, superficial impact metrics, and tokenistic engagement with marginalised communities. Instead of advancing epistemic justice, these practices often reinforce existing power relations. A central theme in the paper is the recognition that meaningful participatory research requires more than methodological design — it depends on sustained relationship-building, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the valuing of “invisible labour” such as emotional work, translation, and care, which remain marginalised within current academic structures.
This workshop is intended to take up the discussion started by this paper by reflecting on its contributions to critical debates in participatory and collaborative research, particularly its call for structural transformation rather than superficial innovation. We will interrogate its key recommendations (including more flexible funding, extended timelines, and a commitment to epistemic justice) while also exploring further challenges not fully addressed in the paper. These challenges include navigating global structural inequalities, such as unequal access to mobility, which limits the participation of some research partners; and the difficulty of engaging with diverse, and at times competing, epistemologies — particularly those rooted in Global South contexts. The session brings together researchers, representatives of funding bodies including the Volkswagen Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG), practitioners, and community collaborators. It invites participants to reflect on their own participatory practices and commitments, and to collectively consider how participatory research might move beyond institutional capture towards more just, reflexive, and accountable forms of knowledge-making.
Programm
Thursday October 30:
14:15 – 18:00
14:15 – 16:00 Session 1: Focus on the position paper
- Opening by workshop organizers
- Presentation by Prof. Claudia Müller (University of Siegen) on some insights from the workshop and the position paper on “Participation as Imposition”
- Short feedback to the position paper from 4 speakers:
- Adelheid Wessler (VW Foundation representative);
- Corinne Flacke (DFG)
- Abeer (artist from Berlin - a practitioner / co-researcher);
- Michaela Pelican and Jonathan Ngeh (GSSC)
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 – 18:00 Session 2: World Café on broad themes related to the position paper
- Possible themes to address:
- Collaboration with partners outside of Germany, including those in the Global South
- Practical application or adoption of insights from the position paper in our own research initiatives
- Institutional implementation of insights from the position paper (notably the institutions we work with such as the university, funders, museums, NGOs, etc.)
19:00 Dinner
Friday October 31:
09:30 – 11:15 Session 3: Presentations on participatory research (including with partners in the Global South)
- Summary of Day 1 by workshop organizers
- Presentations (15 minutes each):
- Theresa Züger (tentatively: participatory research in the field of AI-studies)
- Kathrin Knodel (tentatively: participatory research with partners in the Global South)
- Julia Brekl (tentaively: co-producing knowledge with research participants)
- Glenda Obermüller (tbc)
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:45 Plenary discussion (workshop organizers prepare questions to guide the discussion)
12:45 – 14:00 Lunch break and goodbye to guests
14:00 – 15:30 Internal meeting TA Co-producing Knowledge
Invited guest speakers:
Abeer Ali is a singer/actress/artistic director/ founder & project manager of the SAFI production and events company: https://safi.crd.co/#
Glenda Obermüller is a Cologne based educator, project manager and community activist with a strong focus on racial justice, diaspora networks and literacy. She is the cofounder of the Afro diasporic self organisation Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e.V. in Cologne, as well as networks such as Black Sisterhood NRW and N Wort Stoppen. In 2022, she helped establish North Rhine Westphalia’s first Black Library project, The Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, which provides space for literary works by Black authors and fosters community and knowledge sharing. Over the years, she and her organisations, notably The Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, have partnered with the Global South Studies Center to engage in topics and issues of shared interest such as decoloniality. Glenda is also a member of the (Post)Colonial Expert Commission, appointed by the Mayor, which advises the City of Cologne on how to address its colonial heritage.
Dr. Corinne Flacke holds a doctorate in anthropology and, as Programme Director in the group Humanities and Social Sciences of the German Research Foundation (DFG), leads the team ‘Humanities and Cultural Studies 2’. At the DFG, she is responsible for the subjects of cultural and social anthropology, regional studies/area studies, religious studies, Islamic studies and Jewish studies and oversees several DFG funding initiatives at national and international level (including the German-French ANR-DFG programme for the humanities and social sciences and the Programme Point Sud).
Dr. Kathrin Knodel is Programme Officer in the department of International Affairs for the Maghreb as well as West and Central Africa at the German Research Foundation (DFG). She and her team promote scientific cooperation between researchers at German institutions and their colleagues in these regions. She is a trained social and cultural anthropologist and conducted qualitative research on many different social phenomena such as migration, marriage and NGOs in Burkina Faso. She also cooperated intensively with academic colleagues in West Africa before joining the DFG in 2020.
Prof. Claudia Müller is Chair of IT for the Ageing Society at the University of Siegen, Germany. Her research focuses on socio-technical innovation to support healthy aging, digital inclusion, and social participation among older adults. With a strong emphasis on participatory and co-creative methodologies, she leads interdisciplinary projects exploring how technology can be meaningfully integrated into the everyday lives of aging populations. Prof. Müller also serves as deputy chair of the expert commission for Germany’s Eighth Aging Report on older people and digitalization. Her work bridges critical informatics, gerontology, and gender studies.
Dr. Adelheid Wessler is program director and deputy head of the profile area Societal Transformations at the Volkswagen Foundation. In this profile area the foundation funds research that critically examines and expands our understanding of societal transformation processes. The aim is to generate robust, evidence-based knowledge that helps anticipate future challenges and informs possible pathways for social action. The Societal Transformations profile area places particular emphasis on collaboration beyond academia, encouraging researchers to engage with actors from other sectors — for example, through participatory approaches or joint science communication initiatives. It is worth noting that the position paper “Participation as Imposition...”, which forms the basis for the discussion in this workshop, is itself the outcome of a workshop funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Dr. Theresa Züger is one of the authors of the position paper “Participation as Imposition”. She leads the research group AI & Society Lab at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, an interdisciplinary platform for innovative research approaches and knowledge exchange in the field of AI. Theresa Züger is also the co-founder of the Public Interest AI Network (PIAI Network), an international hub that brings together research institutions and practitioners to exchange ideas and collaborate on issues related to AI in the public interest and for the common good.
Julia Brekl is a Social and Cultural Anthropology PhD student at the University of Cologne and a member of the ERC-funded “Rewilding the Anthropocene. Human Animal Assemblages in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area” project. Her research interests lie in the environmental humanities, human-wildlife interactions, the politics of conservation, Indigenous and local knowledge systems, and multispecies ethnography. Julia’s PhD project traces contemporary and historical human-lion coexistence in northern Botswana from a biocultural perspective. During her fieldwork, Julia collaborated with a lion conservation NGO and local cattle farmers as well as village residents on the fringes of the Okavango Delta. Reflecting on ways to make her research accessible to a wide audience and co-create knowledge, a multilingual booklet titled “Tshidisano” (Living together in Setswana) emerged from this collaboration. Beyond academia, Julia has gained practical experience in journalism and in international university and development cooperation, reinforcing her commitment to bridging scientific research and broader societal engagement.
Prof. Michaela Pelican is a social and cultural anthropologist at the University of Cologne. She serves as the rector’s representative for international affairs and is the speaker of the Global South Studies Center Cologne (GSSC). Her research focuses on migration, inequality, conflict, indigeneity, and research methodology, with a regional emphasis on West Africa, the Gulf States, and China. She co-edited the volume Decolonising the Future Academy in Africa and Beyond: Institutional Development and Collaboration with Karim Zafer and Michaela Bollig, which addresses critical questions about North–South collaboration in research.
Jonathan Ngeh is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) in Cologne, where he also serves as the speaker for the Co-producing Knowledge thematic group. His research examines social inequalities, including labor exploitation and social exclusion, in the context of migration from Africa to the Gulf States and Europe. He is currently co-authoring a monograph with Michaela Pelican and Tu Huynh titled “Parity in Research: The Third Space of Knowledge Production,” which offers an in-depth exploration of co-producing knowledge.
Registration
If you wish to participate in the workshop, please register via e-mail to:
[sgiehl2
uni-koeln.de] until 28.10.2025.
[1] http://partizipation-als-zu-mutung.de/ - PDF available in English and German