Preparing For Ethical Research And Co-design Practice In A Covid-19 Context
By The Lab Team
@ The Papatoetoe Food Hub
Co-authored by Lee Ryan & Jacob Otter
Post 1: Across three posts, we address some of the emerging ethical issues of doing research and co-design in the context of COVID-19 and social distancing. Read post 2: Co-design in the time of COVID19: Power, privacy and sovereignty
Ethical design research and co-design practice relies on cultivating ethical and meaningful relationships with the communities we work alongside. In this time of COVID-19 and social distancing, these relationships between ourselves, the institution we represent, and the communities we work in and with becomes even more important.
For those of us working closely with communities there is a natural urge to want to understand what is going on for people during this time, and to work alongside them in the co-design of emerging COVID-19 responses. The social innovation opportunities presented by large scale disruption raises the stakes around considering issues around ethical practice more deeply.
Across three posts, we address some of the emerging ethical issues of doing research and co-design in the context of COVID-19 and social distancing. Our first post starts with Pausing, as an important ethical dimension of research and co-design at this time. It offers four questions we can ask ourselves in preparing to start or continue research or co-design work.
Our second blog post explores how our approach to co-design and research in this context should progress (rather than regress) how we address issues of power, meaning, radical collaboration, privacy, accessibility and Māori data sovereignty. Our third post will discuss some key logistical issues of research and co-design remotely and as we social distance, such as consent, online research tools, and privacy.
The Importance of Pausing
To help us land in a critical and ethical starting point for research and co-design, we offer four questions for practitioners to pause and consider, they are:
How am I?
What do we want to learn or do with whānau and is now the time?
Will our work together enhance the mana of those involved?
Are we prepared in ways that are useful?
How am I?
Out of respect for ourselves, our loved ones, and those we work with, before beginning research or design, we should look around and ask some questions of ourselves:
How is my life changing?
How is my family adapting?
What needs do I have at this time?
The reason for doing this is that bias may come into our work if our own concerns and fears are not addressed. We may step into an engagement process and unwittingly ‘mis-hear’ something from the community, or respond to something in an inappropriate way, due to our own unchecked needs. This bias may increase disconnection in our community relationships, and increase the inequity of those who need support. We should also be aware that this bias will likely impact the quality of what is being shared with us by the community. If the quality of information is compromised, we are unlikely to be able to make high quality decisions or generate the lasting impacts we seek.
2. What do we want to learn or do with whānau and is now the time?
The second question prompts us to think deeply about what we are trying to learn and do. For those co-designing with whānau, the opportunity is to have whānau lead on how they want to start or continue the work, and how any existing work is refocused in the context of COVID-19. Questions to guide how we approach things might include manaakitanga:
How might I be able to support or help?
Do you want to stay connected over this period?
What ways of connecting work for you?
What would you like to work on right now?
What is important for us to learn and focus on?
For those undertaking more research-led and engagement activities, key questions might include:
What do we want to learn about right now? What is relevant now in this context?
Do we already know it?
Is there some work already done?
Do we already know some of the answers in our wider network?
Is the risk of doing something less than the risk of doing nothing?
What are the implications for both whānau and the system if we act (workload and bandwidth)?
Are we doing this to serve the community or to serve ourselves?
This part of the Pause is an ethical practice because it means we can avoid duplicating work or engaging unnecessarily when whānau and communities may have more pressing issues or needs to attend to. If it is necessary or a requirement for our teams to be engaging with people right now, then it is even more important to be clear about what information is needed and why we are gathering it. We also need to trust in whānau and communities to adapt and articulate what is now required.
Regardless, the first principle to guide us in connecting with people is manaakitanga (hospitality, kindness, generosity, support—the process of showing respect, generosity and care for others), starting with what matters to the people we are talking with.
3. Will our work together enhance the mana of those involved?
This third question prompts us to consider:
What are whānau and communities already telling us (are we listening) and how are we responding/listening/acknowledging this?
How might we recognise and nurture the strengths and capabilities of whānau and our partners at this time?
What assumptions might we be making about our communities?
What immediate and longer term opportunities for equity and change are possible through this work?
Can we work with our stakeholders and whānau to prioritise and reframe the current opportunities, and to identify where changes in the system could make the biggest difference? What do we need to lean into?
The ethical basis to this part of the Pause is that it is important to ensure we are bringing a strengths-based, mana-enhancing approach to research or co-design. This does not mean avoiding discussions of vulnerability but that at all times, the mana of those we are engaging with is enhanced.
4. Are we prepared in ways that are useful for those we are working with?
Our final question seeks to raise issues around reciprocity in research and co-design practices. Right now people are establishing new routines and finding a new normal, for most this is a time of additional stress and trauma. We need to ask ourselves what resources and capital might we need to bring or have on hand so that we can show appropriate care for, and alleviate the burden of participation. Some questions to ask that might be useful include:
Will this engagement add stress to our research and co-design partners?
What might be a useful offering/koha and what is the best way to check its appropriateness?
What else might make it possible for people to participate? Think holistically!
How can we alleviate immediate stressors families are experiencing as part of balancing the efforts of working together with us?
Furthermore, preparing for engagement means collecting up resources not only to engage but also to support both ourselves and whānau. Practically this means having to hand a list of support services, e.g. government services, hotlines, local resources and also our own support for tough situations.
Follow up links: These are some further links that we found interesting.
Read: Learning from everyday people in Wuhan
This is an ethnographic account of the way ordinary citizens handled the crisis can be replicated. It was also bottom-up, dynamic organizing in emergent, hyper-local social networks that enabled millions of individuals to share & vet information, find beds, give social support, and source food. By Tricia Wang. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/triciawang/a-lesson-from-the-people-of-wuhan-community-hyper-local
The accompanying guide weaves in the use of privacy and tools into a service adapted from Wuhan into the US
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ys6crbTIDSN0QxPe-SQOiO0bdZlqHmqAG79RKtLMDDE/edit
The need to balance immediate responses with long term thinking from Snook
https://medium.com/wearesnook/we-need-long-term-thinking-now-more-than-ever-e73968f97850
Watch:
TACSI has released their webinar about adapting existing services and relationships. At 11.30 to 18 minutes Family by Family talk about adapting to working under pandemic conditions.
Thanks to The Lab and TSI team for their thoughtful contributions and peer review.