Voices of recovery

Abstract

Voices of Recovery is a multi-country, interdisciplinary partnership that focuses on understanding and supporting the recovery needs of socially, politically and physically marginalised communities in Latin America. We will work in places that are highly vulnerable to compounded recovery challenges in the shadow of the pandemic - not solely because of disease impacts, but because its wider social implications intersect with multiple, ongoing risks associated with ethnic marginalisation, conflict, poverty, displacement, environmental degradation and natural hazards. Our main research emphasis is on the narratives of recovery created by and for such communities. We seek to understand what is highlighted and neglected within public discourse on the needs of marginalised communities, and what these communities themselves value and prioritise in light of their lived experiences. But our proposal goes much further than posing research questions, and will be rooted in participation and action, using creative arts approaches to strengthen people's articulation of rights and needs during and after the pandemic. Our phased research and impact activities aim at strengthening local networks and supporting the existing capacities communities have to voice their concerns, challenge prejudices and realign recovery priorities. We will work principally in Brazil, Colombia and Peru where we propose two scales of work: macro-scale research across case study territories using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods; and a series of micro-scale studies with specific communities on the ground, based strongly on ethnographic and participatory research approaches. This will be complemented with international scale work, integrating the research findings with wider studies of inequality, participation, wellbeing, intersecting risk and pandemic recovery in Latin America and globally. The proposal spans four key challenges identified in the RRR Call, and closely matches priorities 5.1 and 5.3 in the 'UN research roadmap for the COVID-19 recovery'. It builds directly from our recent work on trajectories and representations of disaster recovery and interlinks with the ongoing collaborative research and action activities generated by each of the partners with marginalised communities. (AU)