Drawing-Conclusions: Communicating a Study on Oil Exploitation in Kenya via Collaborative Comic Books
The aim of the proposed project is to produce short comic strips in collaboration with people who are affected by the planned oil-pipeline in North Kenya, as well as a comic book or ‘graphic thesis’ based on the results of the research. The project is driven by the believe that scientific research should be accessible to and useful for the people taking part in the research, as well as the wider public. What we try to achieve is thus to translate the results of a PhD-research project into a language and format that can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Combining the merits of textual and visual elements, we suggest that comic books particularly useful in this regard. In cooperation with a Kenyan comic book artist we want to "draw the conclusions" not only from research results but also from the often bemoaned isolation of academia. We argue that this will not only facilitate communication of research results, but can also improve the process of collaborative ethnographic research.
The research itself focuses on Environmental Justice in the context of the LAPSSET-pipeline and the oil fields in the Turkana region in Kenya. We argue that environmental justice is connected to the production and distribution risks, which are framed as affecting different scalar levels. Based on a relational scalar theoretical framework, we argue that these scalar framings have ramifications in terms of the unequal distribution of risk and thus on environmental justice.
Final report
Purpose (and its development)
The project’s original purpose was to make the results of academic research more accessible to the general public, particularly the people with whose cooperation the study has been conducted, by means of publishing its results in form of a comic book. The projects furthermore aimed at expanding the methodological approach used within the fieldwork to incorporate the cooperative creation of comic books.
The project’s purpose has not changed fundamentally but the projects focus shifted during its implementation. This is mainly due to the fact that during the actual implementation of the project the boundary of the two objectives were increasingly blurred. The methodology itself included the participation of interlocutors first in the creation and second in the evaluation of comic stories about a planned infrastructure project in North Kenya. The evaluation part of this methodology proved to be the most effective way of disseminating the projects results to a wider public.
Description
The project was implemented largely according to plan, even though some major changed had to be made. In 2018, 5 collaborative comics were produced together with a total of ca. 15 participants (in one workshop the number of participants was fluctuating quite a bit). Because of a volatile security situation no workshops could be conducted in Turkana, so the remaining workshops were instead done in Laikipia (2), Isiolo (2), and Baringo (1). In 2019 the head researcher distributed the finalised comics for evaluation along the route of the planned corridor. Because of prohibitive printing costs and the sheer weight of the printed matter, only 200 copies could be distributed (which is less than I had proposed originally). The evaluation showed that communicating complex scientific data through comic books is problematic because of the ways that interpreting comics is influenced by the respective cultural background. However, most interlocutors reported that they were appreciative of the efforts made to include their perspective and contribution in the research and its dissemination. The collaborative comics were updated based on the feedback given by the interviewed interlocutors.
Contributions
a. The development and refinement of “Collaborative Comic Creation” as a methodology to involve interlocutors directly in the visual representation of their accounts for scientific projects. Even though the practical implementation faced several difficulties, the methodology is highly promising and will hopefully find further implementation in other research projects. The methodological approach has been further explored and developed in a recently published article ("Drawing together: Making Marginal Futures Visible through Collaborative Comic Creation (CCC)"), co-authored with the artists involved in this project.
b. The examination of comic stories as a way to communicate scientific research results in the context of marginalised areas in Kenya. In the project we had overestimated the ability of images to travel across cultural borders, but this problematique opens up the possibility to study whether this issue can be mitigated through an even
New research questions
New research questions generated through this project mostly refer to the continuous development and refinement of the Collaborative Comic Creation methodology and the ability for participatory comics to communicate research results. In particular, I believe that this project generates the necessity for more rigorous quantitative testing of the effectiveness of this method. How does the participation in a comic-creation-workshop change the participant’s perception of the topic at hand? How is it different from other forms of information and participatory engagement? How pivotal is the role of the participating artists and how can their influence on the process be controlled and/or minimised? How effective are collaborative comics as a vehicle for the dissemination of information? How does the result differ to comparative strategies (focus group meetings, seminars, information boards, etc.).
International Dimensions
The project’s international dimension is mostly limited to a cooperation between the Swedish main researcher and the comics and interlocutors in Kenya. Furthermore, during the research process, collaboration with several Kenyan organisations have been established, namely with Samburu Women Trust, Natural Justice Kenya, Tangulbei Women Network, and the Wangari Maathai Institute at the University of Nairobi. The “Geo-Graphic Novel” based on the research will be published with the Canadian publishing house University of Toronto Press.
Dissemination of results
Apart from the described distribution of the results as part of the research project, I am working with the above mentioned Kenyan organisations to distribute the updated version of the collaborative comics to an even wider audience. Part of this process will be the organisation of workshops and public gatherings (“barazas”) in places along the planned route of the corridor.
The “Geo-Graphic Novel” based on my research is currently being written and will be published by University of Toronto Press in 2021. The publisher places high importance on making the graphic novel available and accessible for undergraduate courses. In particular, I have been in negotiations with the Wangari Maathai Institute at the University of Nairobi to make the “Geo-Graphic Novel” part of the curriculum for Master students in the programme “M.Sc. Environmental Governance”.
The research project and the role of collaborative comics in particular was presented at two conference: the “VAD African Connections” conference 2018 in Leipzig, Germany; and the “DKG” (German Geography Congress) 2019 in Kiel, Germany.
Publications
As this project was conducted under a communication grant, the main purpose was not the production of academic publications. That said, the collaborative comics (see attachment) are the main outcome of this project. Furthermore, one article has been published on collaborative comic creation as a method of scientific inquiry, and the main researcher's PhD thesis (published in November 2020) contains significant contributions from this methodology. The above-mentioned “Geo-Graphic Novel” (estimated publishing date: 2022) will also contain an in-depth analysis of the research process from a more personal perspective.
The project’s original purpose was to make the results of academic research more accessible to the general public, particularly the people with whose cooperation the study has been conducted, by means of publishing its results in form of a comic book. The projects furthermore aimed at expanding the methodological approach used within the fieldwork to incorporate the cooperative creation of comic books.
The project’s purpose has not changed fundamentally but the projects focus shifted during its implementation. This is mainly due to the fact that during the actual implementation of the project the boundary of the two objectives were increasingly blurred. The methodology itself included the participation of interlocutors first in the creation and second in the evaluation of comic stories about a planned infrastructure project in North Kenya. The evaluation part of this methodology proved to be the most effective way of disseminating the projects results to a wider public.
Description
The project was implemented largely according to plan, even though some major changed had to be made. In 2018, 5 collaborative comics were produced together with a total of ca. 15 participants (in one workshop the number of participants was fluctuating quite a bit). Because of a volatile security situation no workshops could be conducted in Turkana, so the remaining workshops were instead done in Laikipia (2), Isiolo (2), and Baringo (1). In 2019 the head researcher distributed the finalised comics for evaluation along the route of the planned corridor. Because of prohibitive printing costs and the sheer weight of the printed matter, only 200 copies could be distributed (which is less than I had proposed originally). The evaluation showed that communicating complex scientific data through comic books is problematic because of the ways that interpreting comics is influenced by the respective cultural background. However, most interlocutors reported that they were appreciative of the efforts made to include their perspective and contribution in the research and its dissemination. The collaborative comics were updated based on the feedback given by the interviewed interlocutors.
Contributions
a. The development and refinement of “Collaborative Comic Creation” as a methodology to involve interlocutors directly in the visual representation of their accounts for scientific projects. Even though the practical implementation faced several difficulties, the methodology is highly promising and will hopefully find further implementation in other research projects. The methodological approach has been further explored and developed in a recently published article ("Drawing together: Making Marginal Futures Visible through Collaborative Comic Creation (CCC)"), co-authored with the artists involved in this project.
b. The examination of comic stories as a way to communicate scientific research results in the context of marginalised areas in Kenya. In the project we had overestimated the ability of images to travel across cultural borders, but this problematique opens up the possibility to study whether this issue can be mitigated through an even
New research questions
New research questions generated through this project mostly refer to the continuous development and refinement of the Collaborative Comic Creation methodology and the ability for participatory comics to communicate research results. In particular, I believe that this project generates the necessity for more rigorous quantitative testing of the effectiveness of this method. How does the participation in a comic-creation-workshop change the participant’s perception of the topic at hand? How is it different from other forms of information and participatory engagement? How pivotal is the role of the participating artists and how can their influence on the process be controlled and/or minimised? How effective are collaborative comics as a vehicle for the dissemination of information? How does the result differ to comparative strategies (focus group meetings, seminars, information boards, etc.).
International Dimensions
The project’s international dimension is mostly limited to a cooperation between the Swedish main researcher and the comics and interlocutors in Kenya. Furthermore, during the research process, collaboration with several Kenyan organisations have been established, namely with Samburu Women Trust, Natural Justice Kenya, Tangulbei Women Network, and the Wangari Maathai Institute at the University of Nairobi. The “Geo-Graphic Novel” based on the research will be published with the Canadian publishing house University of Toronto Press.
Dissemination of results
Apart from the described distribution of the results as part of the research project, I am working with the above mentioned Kenyan organisations to distribute the updated version of the collaborative comics to an even wider audience. Part of this process will be the organisation of workshops and public gatherings (“barazas”) in places along the planned route of the corridor.
The “Geo-Graphic Novel” based on my research is currently being written and will be published by University of Toronto Press in 2021. The publisher places high importance on making the graphic novel available and accessible for undergraduate courses. In particular, I have been in negotiations with the Wangari Maathai Institute at the University of Nairobi to make the “Geo-Graphic Novel” part of the curriculum for Master students in the programme “M.Sc. Environmental Governance”.
The research project and the role of collaborative comics in particular was presented at two conference: the “VAD African Connections” conference 2018 in Leipzig, Germany; and the “DKG” (German Geography Congress) 2019 in Kiel, Germany.
Publications
As this project was conducted under a communication grant, the main purpose was not the production of academic publications. That said, the collaborative comics (see attachment) are the main outcome of this project. Furthermore, one article has been published on collaborative comic creation as a method of scientific inquiry, and the main researcher's PhD thesis (published in November 2020) contains significant contributions from this methodology. The above-mentioned “Geo-Graphic Novel” (estimated publishing date: 2022) will also contain an in-depth analysis of the research process from a more personal perspective.