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Fa­kul­tät für Ge­sund­heits­wis­sen­schaf­ten

AG 2: Be­völ­ke­rungs­me­di­zin und Ver­sor­gungs­for­schung

Campus der Universität Bielefeld
© Uni­ver­si­tät Bie­le­feld

Ad­van­cing a de­co­lo­ni­al lens in glo­bal health re­se­arch

Universität Bielefeld
© Uni­ver­si­tät Bie­le­feld

Ad­van­cing de­co­lo­ni­al ap­proa­ches in glo­bal health, in­clu­ding wit­hin Ger­ma­ny, is es­sen­ti­al for ad­dres­sing co­lo­ni­al le­ga­ci­es and power im­ba­lan­ces con­tri­bu­ting to health ine­qui­ties. A group of early ca­re­er re­se­ar­chers in the School of Pu­blic Health at Bie­le­feld Uni­ver­si­ty de­ve­lo­ped a set of re­sour­ces to as­sist other early-​career re­se­ar­chers in ta­king me­a­ning­ful ac­tion. These re­sour­ces were crea­ted fol­lo­wing and based on a self-​organised on­line trai­ning tit­led “De­ve­lo­ping a De­co­lo­ni­al Lens in the Ger­man Glo­bal Health Re­se­arch Con­text,” fun­ded by the Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Re­se­arch (BMBF) as part of the Ger­man Al­li­an­ce for Glo­bal Health Re­se­arch (GLOH­RA). The trai­ning aimed to em­power early-​career re­se­ar­chers by fos­te­ring an un­der­stan­ding of co­lo­nia­li­ty, pro­vi­ding a re­flec­ti­ve space for dis­cus­sion, and en­han­cing skills for buil­ding al­ly­ship prac­ti­ces in glo­bal health re­se­arch. See more in­for­ma­ti­on about the trai­ning below in sec­tion Back­ground: About the trai­ning.

Re­sour­ces

Dis­mant­ling co­lo­ni­al con­ti­nui­ties and struc­tu­res in glo­bal health is a life-​long jour­ney. How­e­ver, th­roug­hout the trai­ning, we stri­ved to build net­works and com­mu­nal power to act for chan­ge whe­re­ver we are: in our re­se­arch, pro­jects, tea­ching, and in­sti­tu­ti­ons. Many par­ti­ci­pants wan­ted to take ac­tion but didn't know where to start.  We the­re­fo­re de­ve­lo­ped the re­sour­ces below which re­flect the trai­ning dis­cus­sions and les­sons lear­ned, in order to sup­port ef­forts and keep mo­men­tum going after the trai­ning. We hope they will help others re­flect upon co­lo­ni­al con­ti­nui­ties in know­ledge pro­duc­tion, re­se­arch pro­jects, and col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons and take ac­tion.

The ma­te­ri­als pro­vi­ded may be used free­ly for non-​commercial pur­po­ses, pro­vi­ded that pro­per ci­ta­ti­on of the ori­gi­nal source, as in­di­ca­ted in each re­sour­ce, is in­clu­ded. Any mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons or ad­ap­ta­ti­ons of the ma­te­ri­als should also ack­now­ledge the ori­gi­nal source. We would be very in­te­rested to re­cei­ve feed­back on the re­sour­ces and hear how they are being ad­ap­ted and ap­p­lied – reach out to us for exchan­ge!

Trai­ning fa­ci­li­ta­tors’ ma­nu­al

The ma­nu­al "Ad­van­cing a De­co­lo­ni­al Lens for Glo­bal Health Re­se­arch Con­texts" is a re­sour­ce de­si­gned to sup­port the plan­ning or a trai­ning or work­shop on de­co­lo­ni­sa­ti­on ap­proa­ches in glo­bal health re­se­arch. Aimed in par­ti­cu­lar at early-​ to mid-​career re­se­ar­chers, it of­fers ad­ap­ta­ble ma­te­ri­als and a frame­work for or­ga­ni­sing si­mi­lar in­itia­ti­ves, pro­mo­ting shared lear­ning and cri­ti­cal en­ga­ge­ment in de­co­lo­ni­sa­ti­on ef­forts.

Down­load the Trai­ning Ma­nu­al

The pu­bli­ca­ti­on "Les­sons on ad­van­cing de­co­lo­ni­al ap­proa­ches in glo­bal health among Ger­man early ca­re­er re­se­ar­chers" aims to share in­sights from the on­line trai­ning or­ga­nis­ed by early-​ to mid-​career re­se­ar­chers in Ger­ma­ny, fo­cu­sed on in­te­gra­ting de­co­lo­ni­al and in­ter­sec­tio­nal ap­proa­ches in glo­bal health scholar­ship. It high­lights the need for re­flec­tion, col­la­bo­ra­ti­on, and ca­pa­ci­ty buil­ding among young re­se­ar­chers to ad­dress co­lo­ni­al le­ga­ci­es and pro­mo­te in­clu­si­ve prac­ti­ces wit­hin aca­de­mic and re­se­arch con­texts.

The ar­ti­cle is sche­du­led to be pu­blished in May 2025 in a spe­cial issue on “Di­ver­si­ty and ra­cism in the uni­ver­si­ty con­text – shiny fa­ca­des and bro­ken pro­mi­ses” in the jour­nal ZDfm (Zeit­schrift für Di­ver­si­täts­for­schung und ‐ma­nage­ment).

We also de­ve­lo­ped il­lus­tra­ti­ons that cap­tu­re some of the main is­su­es and chal­len­ges re­la­ted to de­co­lo­nia­li­ty in glo­bal health, which were dis­cus­sed th­roug­hout the trai­ning. For this, we col­la­bo­ra­ted with the il­lus­tra­tor Zeynep Alpay.

We hope the il­lus­tra­ti­ons can help glo­bal health pro­fes­sio­nals and stu­dents en­ga­ge more deeply with com­plex to­pics around co­lo­nia­li­ty while also chal­len­ging he­ge­mo­nic/main­stream no­ti­ons of what know­ledge is and looks like.

The il­lus­tra­ti­ons may be used free­ly for non-​commercial pur­po­ses under li­cen­se CC-​BY-ND, en­su­ring that the pro­per ci­ta­ti­on in­di­ca­ted for each il­lus­tra­ti­on is cited/in­clu­ded.

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  • Con­ti­nui­ties th­rough norms (Vi­tru­vi­an man)
    The il­lus­tra­ti­on pres­ents the Vi­tru­vi­an Man to sym­bo­li­se the pre­vai­ling "nor­ma­ti­ve" stan­dard in glo­bal health. The co­lo­ni­al and pa­tri­ar­chal pat­terns wit­hin glo­bal health con­ti­nue to con­vey the un­der­stan­ding of a do­mi­nant shape that is con­side­red the norm against which ever­yo­ne else is ca­te­go­ri­sed and com­pa­red. This nar­row per­spec­ti­ve, ne­glec­ting di­ver­si­ty and in­ter­sec­tio­na­li­ty, leads to pro­blems of bias and mar­gi­na­li­sa­ti­on. When a do­mi­nant norm, ty­pi­cal­ly em­bo­di­ed by the White male, is upheld, it re­sults in rein­for­cing sys­temic ine­qua­li­ties and hin­de­ring equi­ta­ble health­ca­re ac­cess and out­co­mes. The fi­gu­res sur­roun­ding the Vi­tru­vi­an man sym­bo­li­se pro­gress to­wards di­ver­si­ty and grea­ter re­p­re­sen­ta­ti­on and in­clu­si­on of dif­fe­rent peop­le. This il­lus­tra­ti­on can be used to trans­fer the im­por­tance of chal­len­ging pre­vai­ling norms and to em­brace de­co­lo­ni­al per­spec­ti­ves for ge­nui­ne in­clu­si­on and di­ver­si­ty in glo­bal health.
  • Co­lo­ni­al con­ti­nui­ties th­rough bu­reau­cra­cy (snakes & lad­ders)
    This il­lus­tra­ti­on de­ri­ves from the game “Snakes and Lad­ders” to de­pict co­lo­ni­al con­ti­nui­ties upheld by bu­reau­cra­cy in re­se­arch and fun­ding in­sti­tu­ti­ons. It show­ca­ses dif­fe­ring ex­pe­ri­en­ces bet­ween re­se­ar­chers from Ma­jo­ri­ty and Mi­no­ri­ty Worlds, with the for­mer fa­cing bu­reau­cra­tic hurd­les that re­sem­ble a com­plex game with un­pre­dic­ta­ble rules. Re­se­ar­chers ow­ning a pass­port from a Mi­no­ri­ty World coun­try or being af­fi­lia­ted with well-​funded in­sti­tu­ti­ons may not un­der­stand their pri­vi­le­ges as well as how heavy this bur­den of ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on and bu­reau­cra­cy is. This il­lus­tra­ti­on may be used to high­light the struc­tu­ral hurd­les and ine­qui­ties en­coun­te­red by Ma­jo­ri­ty World re­se­ar­chers in glo­bal health. Even if al­lies stri­ve for more equi­ta­ble part­ner­ships, they may be un­able to re­mo­ve the bar­ri­ers. The al­le­go­ry of the board game re­ve­als the ar­bi­tra­ri­ness, un­pre­dic­ta­bi­li­ty, and un­fair­ness of the cur­rent struc­tu­res.
  • Seeds-​Doing what you can (plan­ting seeds & pol­li­na­ti­on)
    This il­lus­tra­ti­on trans­fers the mes­sa­ge that ever­y­bo­dy has the abi­li­ty to enact po­si­ti­ve chan­ge by plan­ting a seed whe­re­ver they are and the­re­by hel­ping to make the world a more di­ver­se and co­lour­ful place. Chan­ge can start at in­di­vi­du­al level, from where know­ledge gai­ned on de­co­lo­ni­sa­ti­on blos­soms to the in­ter­per­so­nal level. Exchan­ge and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on coale­sce into collec­ti­ve ef­forts ca­pa­ble of al­te­ring the in­sti­tu­tio­nal level. The il­lus­tra­ti­on vi­sua­li­ses that small steps can lead to so­me­thing me­a­ning­ful. It can be em­ploy­ed to em­pha­si­se the trans­for­ma­ti­ve power of in­cre­men­tal ac­tion and to en­cou­ra­ge re­se­ar­chers to em­brace their agen­cy and ac­tive­ly par­ti­ci­pa­te wit­hin their sphe­res of in­flu­ence.
  • Sug­gested entry points to ad­van­ce de­co­lo­ni­sa­ti­on (R&R)
    This il­lus­tra­ti­on is an out­put of the trai­ning in­itia­ti­ve. De­ve­lo­ped as a bottom-​up and in­no­va­ti­ve ap­proach du­ring group dis­cus­sions, the “Sug­ges­ti­on box” pres­ents sug­ges­ti­ons for entry points to ad­dress struc­tu­ral and sys­te­ma­tic chal­len­ges of de­co­lo­ni­sing glo­bal health re­se­arch, es­pe­cial­ly in terms of trans­na­tio­nal co­ope­ra­ti­on aspects. It can be used to de­ve­lop a si­mi­lar ex­er­ci­se, to fa­ci­li­ta­te dis­cus­sion among par­ti­ci­pants or to pro­vi­de examp­les of entry points for ac­tion.
  • De­co­lo­ni­al lens (plu­ri­ver­sa­li­ty)
    This il­lus­tra­ti­on vi­sual­ly de­picts the idea of “Mo­ving to­wards plu­ri­ver­sa­li­ty and de­co­lo­nia­li­ty”, i.e. a de­par­tu­re from Eu­ro­cent­ric re­se­arch me­thods and ideas to­wards in­cor­po­ra­ting nu­an­ce, pat­tern, shade, and co­lour to our un­der­stan­dings of cul­tu­re, health, and re­se­arch. The il­lus­tra­ti­on shows di­ver­se peop­le doing dif­fe­rent research-​related ac­ti­vi­ties that con­tri­bu­te to human know­ledge and un­der­stan­ding. It fo­cu­ses on In­di­ge­nous re­se­arch tra­di­ti­ons as they are often over­loo­ked or un­derva­lu­ed in other (Wes­tern, po­si­ti­vist) framings. With the focus on plu­ri­ver­sa­li­ty, a con­cept that em­pha­si­zes the co­exis­tence of mul­ti­ple worlds, per­spec­ti­ves, and rea­li­ties, the il­lus­tra­ti­on can con­tri­bu­te to chal­len­ge the idea of a sin­gle, uni­ver­sal nar­ra­ti­ve or truth, ad­vo­ca­ting in­s­tead for the re­co­gni­ti­on and va­li­da­ti­on of di­ver­se know­ledge sys­tems, cul­tu­res, and ways of being.

Pro­ject back­ground: About the trai­ning

Back­ground

Glo­bal health, while aimed at en­han­cing health equi­ty, con­ti­nues to pri­ma­ri­ly re­flect "Glo­bal North" per­spec­ti­ves, fo­cu­sing on bio­me­di­cal and po­si­ti­vist ap­proa­ches and ne­glec­ting its co­lo­ni­al past and di­ver­se health prac­ti­ces. The field has been shaped by co­lo­ni­al le­ga­ci­es roo­ted in ra­cist, white su­pre­macist, and he­te­ro­se­xist as­sump­ti­ons from its ori­gins in tro­pi­cal me­di­ci­ne. This con­tri­bu­tes to the per­pe­tua­ti­on of power im­ba­lan­ces and health ine­qui­ties. Re­cent years have seen a rise in de­co­lo­ni­sing ef­forts, dri­ven by grassroots mo­vements in the "Glo­bal South" and in­itia­ti­ves in the "Glo­bal North". How­e­ver, these in­itia­ti­ves often face cri­ti­cism for lacking cri­ti­cal self-​reflection on pri­vi­le­ge and ex­ploi­ta­ti­on.

Ge­nui­ne chan­ge re­qui­res an in­ter­sec­tio­nal ap­proach and a com­mit­ment to un­lear­ning ent­ren­ched norms. Ger­ma­ny is be­gin­ning to con­front its co­lo­ni­al le­ga­cy in glo­bal health re­se­arch, but uni­ver­si­ties still main­tain co­lo­ni­al struc­tu­res and ine­qua­li­ties due to their bu­reau­cra­tic and com­pe­ti­ti­ve na­tu­re. De­spi­te these chal­len­ges, the or­ga­nis­ed trai­ning shows that early ca­re­er re­se­ar­chers hold the po­ten­ti­al to drive me­a­ning­ful chan­ge wit­hin this com­plex land­s­cape.

A group of early-​career re­se­ar­chers at Bie­le­feld Uni­ver­si­ty and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edu­ca­ti­on Frei­burg ran an on­line trai­ning en­tit­led “De­ve­lo­ping a de­co­lo­ni­al lens in the Ger­man glo­bal health re­se­arch con­text”, with fi­nan­cial sup­port from the Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Re­se­arch (BMBF) as part of the Ger­man Al­li­an­ce for Glo­bal Health Re­se­arch (GLOH­RA).

The ob­jec­ti­ves of the trai­ning were:

  1. To build a founda­tio­nal un­der­stan­ding of co­lo­nia­li­ty and de­co­lo­ni­al ap­proa­ches in glo­bal health re­se­arch,
  2. To crea­te a space for re­flec­tion and dis­cus­sion on co­lo­nia­li­ty/de­co­lo­ni­sa­ti­on of glo­bal health, and
  3. To build skills and ca­pa­ci­ties to de­ve­lop a de­co­lo­ni­al lens and al­ly­ship prac­ti­ce in glo­bal health re­se­arch and in­sti­tu­tio­nal set­tings, ge­ne­ral­ly and in Ger­ma­ny.

Trai­ning par­ti­ci­pants in­clu­ded 50 re­se­ar­chers from di­ver­se disci­pli­nes and in­sti­tu­ti­ons in the field of glo­bal health in Ger­ma­ny and bey­ond. More than 70 peop­le ap­p­lied to par­ti­ci­pa­te, de­mons­tra­ting the si­gni­fi­cant im­por­tance of and in­te­rest in this so­cial justi­ce agen­da.

We are gra­te­ful for the fi­nan­cial sup­port pro­vi­ded by the Ger­man Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Re­se­arch (BMBF) as part of the Ger­man Al­li­an­ce for Glo­bal Health Re­se­arch (GLOH­RA). We would also like to ex­press our deep gra­ti­tu­de to the in­di­vi­du­als and or­ga­ni­sa­ti­ons who par­ti­ci­pa­ted in and made a va­lu­a­ble con­tri­bu­ti­on to the trai­ning and our fol­low up work.

 

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