Success in Failure: Doing Participatory Action Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Faced with the task of decolonizing academia, more researchers are turning to participatory and action-oriented research, which does not come without its challenges. In this paper, I go through a less common challenge, where the participation failed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the action succeeded due to solidarity work that went beyond the academic project. The time frame was the main obstacle, while honesty about goals and expectations were strengths that perhaps explains why our collaboration continues despite the failures. This paper is based on a participatory action research collaboration with the Kenyan Peasants League (KPL). The KPL is a movement of small-scale farmers, pastoralists, and fisherfolk in Kenya and part of the global peasant’s movement La Vía Campesina. The project is based on a feminist decolonial ontology, which recognizes that all knowledge is situated, contextual, and relational, and recognizes social movements as knowledge and theory producers. The project had three goals: 1) To document the knowledge of the KPL members. 2) To co-create teaching materials for the KPL. 3) To write a PhD thesis based on this knowledge. The teaching materials did not turn out as hoped, but money was raised for the KPL Women Articulation Rescue Centre.