Listening, languages and the nature of knowledge and evidence: what we can learn from investigating ‘listening’ in NGOs
Tesseur, WineORCID: 0000-0003-4882-3623
(2019)
Listening, languages and the nature of knowledge and evidence: what we can learn from investigating ‘listening’ in NGOs.
In: Gibb, RobertORCID: 0000-0002-6999-6227, Tremlett, AnnabelORCID: 0000-0003-4805-0149 and Iglesias, Julien Danero, (eds.)
Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic Research.
Researching Multilingually
.
Multilingual Matters & Channel View Publications, Bristol, UK, pp. 193-206.
ISBN 9781788925914
This chapter brings together reflections on listening in multiple languages
from the field of development aid, ethnography and academic research in general. It
draws on an AHRC-funded research project that sets out to investigate listening in the
work of international UK-based development NGOs, who tend to present themselves
as listening attentively to the voices of those they wish to empower. However, the aid
field is hugely complex, with a variety of actors that require NGOs to ‘listen’ to them.
By interrogating the listening of NGOs, this chapter leads us to reflect on our own
listening as researchers, and makes us aware of the gaps in academic reflections on
listening and the role of languages in listening processes. It proposes that allowing
dialogue between researcher and researched, and critically re-examining our role as
researchers can enhance conceptual and methodological developments for those
working in multilingual settings.