As academic collaborations become increasingly virtual and geographically widespread, researchers are faced with novel challenges, as well as opportunities, as they attempt to create equitable, effective research partnerships. In this essay, the authors highlight the importance of shared reflexive conversations in building a strong foundation for collaboration and the coproduction of knowledge, particularly in the midst of ongoing crises. In so doing, they reflect on their experience of planning research on social innovation in small-scale fishing communities in Africa and Asia, as a team spread across six countries.
Johan Hattingh
Johan Hattingh is professor of philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and was dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University from 2013 to 2017. He specializes in applied ethics, ideology critique, development ethics, and particularly in environmental ethics and climate change ethics. He was a member of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) of UNESCO from 2004 to 2011. He was also the president of an Ad Hoc Expert Group convened in 2016 by the director general of UNESCO to draft a Declaration of Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change (which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in December 2017). With more than 70 academic publications to his credit, he finds it fascinating to work at the interface of theory and practice in the analysis of value disputes in the context of policy formulation, environmental decision-making and management, and ethical issues related to climate change.