Indigeneity, Community and Participatory Practice: Methods, Concepts and Perspectives from the Global South

This special issue of New Area Studies offers a critical reflection via a range of case study projects that draw from experiences across the so-called ‘global south’. These projects have mobilised critical and creative enquiry, historical and political contexts, audiovisual digital tools and artistic practices, alongside hyperlocal participatory approaches involving community-based partners from the earliest stages of project design. The overarching aim has been to identify, explore and better understand issues of urgency and priority to indigenous individuals and communities of the global south. The articles in this issue provide insightful and original analytical and empirical discussions about the importance and challenges of efforts to decolonise knowledge creation and dissemination; about gender and power dynamics – especially those between individual and collective, or organization-led identities; about the value of and threats to ancestral knowledge, including the risks of romanticization that might then block the path to meaningful solutions; about climate crisis and social (in)justice; memory and conflict; community participation and political influence; and about health and wellbeing in the context of the Covid19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery. Along the way, we also learnt a great deal about the possibilities and constraints of transnational, interdisciplinary and multilingual collaborations.