The power in re-telling research: a Cambodian community-based approach generating knowledge by subjects of study

Whose knowledge counts? Communities in developing countries have long been the subjects of research. Knowledge production, however, takes place at multitudinous levels, and inquiry by those on the inside of study can offer a paramount perspective in understanding phenomena directly related to, or about, them. This article presents research and insights of four Cambodian community members who became researchers and led studies using the Cambodian home-grown methodology Facilitative Listening Design. They conducted research on what they describe as their own “communities”: blind women, Indigenous women, ethnic minority women, and LGBTIQ+ individuals. In a dialogic process with both “insider” community and “outsider” academic researchers, they contribute their knowledge to this article as co-authors, not subjects, and weave their insights into a larger collective inquiry on contemporary hierarchies and politics of a global “knowledge game”. Through their contributions, which shift power by re-telling research in their own words, knowledge is shown to be contingent, subjective, and shaped by relationships of power – to which their work illustrates that not only does their knowledge count – but it is epistemologically critical.