Discussing Ethics and Equity in Research and Co-Production
Reflections on #BeyondMeasure Twitter chat by Mafwa Theatre.
On 17th July 2020 we ran the first of a series of “Twitter chats” as part of the Beyond Measure Arts and Health online programme of events. Our brief for the discussion was focused on ‘Ethics and Equity’ in this area, which we were more than happy to take on. We want to ensure that Mafwa Theatre’s work is always driven by ethical considerations. We are constantly assessing our roles and positioning as group facilitators, which we explored in a 2019 journal article published in ‘Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance’.
In pandemic-free times we run a weekly theatre session in Lincoln Green for women who are local to the area and those based in Leeds with varying migration statuses. We were delighted that long-time Mafwa Member Anne was able to join us for her perspective as a participant of many groups across the city. We also brought Rommi Smith on board for her insights as a writer, performer and research scholar with many years of experience in the participatory arts, including in healthcare settings. The chat was ‘attended’ predominantly by arts practitioners and/or researchers alongside a handful of people related to the health sector. We were delighted that the Local Care Partnerships development team could join in the conversation, as we are currently looking at how we can work together for better health outcomes for Mafwa Members.
Online Safe Spaces
The first provocation was around working equitably online and ensuring the safety of digital spaces such as Twitter. This is an important and pertinent area for us to navigate, following months of assessing digital access and skills of Mafwa Members (little to none for the majority), raising funds, distributing phones and internet data to enable continued engagement. This confirmed for us that digital spaces are inherently exclusionary environments due to lack of resource, and as Rommi pointed out they lack safety as “conversations like this are open access and that’s the point of them. I don’t think you can make Twittersphere conversations safe, but you can work within a value system of respectful etiquette — even if you disagree”. We believe that part of working ethically with Members is using our resource as a company to initiate safe working spaces for us to collaborate in. Digital and very public spaces can be more hostile environments than ‘real’ life settings and feel harder to manage and safeguard participants. We therefore welcomed the resources that Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network shared in the chat, including guidance from The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
Co-production and power relations
Remaining on the subject of (un)safe spaces, Anne described an uncomfortable experience and questioned how practitioners can avoid potentially exploitative situations, leading to discussion around co-production and power relations in arts and research processes. We agree with Sheila Freeman who stated that it is “about feeling welcome in the space; in that it is not just academic voices or people with an “expert” or “high” profile which are the most important or prominent voices in the conversation.” We agree with Rommi that these types of situation can be avoided simply by not placing participants in these situations of demanding information from them and to remember that “the work is a collaboration. Always. The work is never didactic.” However, the fact remains that arts and research have huge potential to become exploitative processes; even the seemingly simple, routine act of signing a consent form to ‘use’ data ‘for’ research or impact evaluations suggests a power hierarchy of give and take, an antithesis of true artistic collaboration which practitioners like Mafwa want to achieve. And that is before adding the nuance of informed consent, a particular concern when working with people using English as a second language. At the same time, it would be wholly disadvantageous to talk ourselves out of doing vital research around the impacts of the arts on health, in an effort to remain within an ethical framework!
Ethical implications of research on community art spaces
With the limitations of the time and format, we only scraped the surface of the topics discussed. I want to take this thread further. I would like to provoke you to consider how you avoid exploitation of participant’s expertise in your practice as an artist, researcher or both? Are the current systems within academia, of evaluation or impact driven fundraising fit for purpose? Do ethics boards have safeguards to ensure that participants are not exploited for their stories, opinions or expertise? How do we ensure equity within academic institutions where people of colour are often under-represented? I would like to see the conversations throughout the Beyond Measure programme really dig into the ethical implications of research within community arts settings and discussion on practical steps for ethically evaluating and demonstrating impact of arts. I want to see examples of outstanding practice and innovation in the field and opportunities to share new ideas across sectors.
We finished the conversation by looking ahead to the full Beyond Measure programme series in the Autumn period. Many participants of the Twitter chat were singing from the same hymn sheet when it came to ethical participation as a place where experts by experience are at the forefront of conversations around their involvement. We look forward to seeing the full programme and hope that these ideas around ethical co-production will be embedded throughout.
Author: Tamsin Cook (Co-Artistic Director, Mafwa Theatre). To find out more about Mafwa Theatre and to gain exclusive access to their upcoming short film and book release, join their mailing list here. Mafwa Theatre’s new website will launch on September 7th.
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