One year on – sharing learning from our anti-racism work
Collectively written by Dartington Service Design Lab’s anti-racism working group
In the summer of 2021, Dartington Service Design Lab published a position paper: ‘Embedding an anti-racist approach in research and design’. This included our initial assessment of some of the ways in which racism manifests in research and design and a summary of some actions and commitments that we, organisationally, undertook.
One of these commitments was to share reflections and learning on this journey, and progress against actions. This blog is one such way of doing this.
Some things we (partially) did
We’ve done some of the more procedural things we said we’d do. We’ve implemented de-biased approaches to recruitment and are refining these approaches to make them more actively anti-racist. We published an anti-racism policy on our website and established an anti-racism working group (who collectively wrote this blog).
We also developed an ‘equality impact assessment framework’ to guide our work. On the surface, this was relatively straight-forward to produce, yet we’ve found it much harder to meaningfully put into practice. We’ll say more about our experiences of developing and using such a framework in practice in the coming months. Suffice to say that we’ve learnt about the critical importance of first creating the necessary conditions required for transformative organisational change, before putting such frameworks into practice externally.
Progress beyond process
Establishing processes is relatively straightforward, yet they often only scrape the surface. To draw on the ‘iceberg’ analogy we use in much of our own systems-change work, it is much harder and more likely impactful to get beyond process and into deeper reflection about the patterns, structures, and mindsets that uphold systems of oppression.
So rather than celebrate surface-level progress in a self-congratulatory way, we will instead focus on what we’ve found harder, and what we’ve learnt as a result. We want to be open and honest about this. We do this to hold ourselves accountable, to push forward our own learning and development, and to support others in their organisational journeys.
Inclusivity vs anti-racism
We said we’d nurture an inclusive working environment that encourages a more diverse workforce. Whilst we’ve made good progress in some ways – see for example this blog from a colleague on how we’ve fostered inclusivity in relation to neurodivergence – we’ve failed when it comes to inclusion for those from racially minoritised groups. In the last year, our low turnover was disproportionately higher for those from racially minoritised groups, and some have faced discrimination and harm from within. This is really challenging, particularly for those affected. It’s also disappointingly the norm (see 2021 report from the Young Foundation). Why so?
For us, this illustrates how important the distinction between inclusivity and anti-racism is (and how process-oriented approaches like de-biased recruitment are important but not in themselves sufficient).
A base level of knowledge and awareness
One thing we’ve reflected on is that not everyone is in the same place when it comes to knowledge or self-insight about white privilege, bias, discrimination and racism. Nor is there always an awareness of this. A question we’ve been grappling with is how do we get everyone in a team or partnership to where they need to be, as a precursor to action and anti-racism?
All of this has reinforced our commitment to implementing a robust programme of organisational-wide training on broader issues of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as a sharp focus on anti-racist research and design. We said we’d have done this by now, but we’ve not. But now we are getting clearer on what we need.
We recognise that such training is only a starting point – important for getting everyone to a baseline level of knowledge and awareness. But we need to accompany this with more active coaching, implementation support and creation of structures and a normalised culture of engaging in deeper and more challenging dialogue and change.
Going fast and slow at the same time
A related tension we’ve been grappling with is how to maintain an appropriate balance between going slow enough to reflect, process and learn, and move fast enough into action and change? We need to move fast and slow, at the same time.
Through our team’s experiences we’ve recognised the need for ongoing deeper and slower reflection; the value in going around in circles, in questioning and requestioning. This requires time to build trust, as well as patience. It also relates to the point about the need to get everyone to where they need to be, so we can move forward together in action.
But we’ve also learnt that the valuable questioning and reflection must not preclude action and momentum. At times, some of us have felt frustrated and impatient – particularly staff and community partners who are on the receiving end of racism and not afforded the privilege of time when it comes these matters.
To balance these non-exclusive demands for going slow and fast at the same time, we are shifting towards creating time for both period moments of longer, deeper reflection and exploration, alongside more pacey action-oriented moments. We are acting upon the need to create the conditions within in the team required for anti-racism. This includes focussed learning, discussion and reflection - particularly for those who benefit from the system of white supremacy. Alongside this learning comes accountability within the team to anti-racism that is held individually but supported collectively.
Sharing learning going forwards
One final action we said we’d do was explore appetite for some sort of ‘anti-racist learning alliance’ – a space for organisations to come together, support and challenge each other in addressing racism in social research and design. We’ve reflected that it is not our place to position ourselves as any sort of authority or convener on the matter (far from it!). But over the last year we’ve also heard and spoken to a range of funders, collaborators and organisations across the social research and design sector who are keen to listen, challenge, share experiences and learn.
As such – and given that there is much more for us to reflect on and share than we’ve covered in this blog - we are going to host an initial reflective online learning event on May 3rd 2023. We’ll share more of our learning, and invite reflections, challenge and ideas about how to strengthen anti-racist practice across the research and design fields. To join us:
sign up to our newsletter where we’ll have more information.
We’d love you to join us and we hope to open and continue the dialogue with you!
