A new study of the In-Forest team led by Susanne Koch sheds light on persistent inequalities in international collaborations. Published in Minerva, it examines how researcher relations and differential ‘habitus’ shape knowledge production in African-European research projects on forests.

Despite shifts in science policy and funding modalities, international research collaborations continue to be shaped by inequalities that structure global science. These include a skewed division of tasks and unequal scientific authority in North-South partnerships. Existing scholarship highlights scholars’ experiences of such inequalities, but offers little explanation of how they are reproduced and affect joint knowledge production.

The In-Forest project addresses this gap with an empirical study of six African-European research projects on forests. Drawing on document analysis, meeting observations and interviews, the study finds that African-European research collaborations often reproduce inequalities contrary to individual intentions. Even when projects are formally set-up as equal partnerships, European scholars tend to exert more authority over theoretical and methodological choices, while African researchers are assigned roles related to fieldwork and data collection. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory, we explain the continuity of this pattern with Bourdieu’s notion of the habitus: a practical sense of roles scholars have internalised, resulting from their positions in global science and the capitals (economic, scientific, social, symbolic) they are endowed with.

The study illuminates how and why inequalities in research collaborations persist. It highlights the potential of Bourdieusian theory for empirical science studies, with habitus as a concept explaining discrepancies between desired forms of collaboration and actual collaboration practice. The findings call for a deeper reflection on scientific practice in addition to structural changes in policy and funding. This study provides a crucial perspective for researchers, funders, and policymakers seeking to make international collaborations more just and equitable. 

Full reference of the article (available open access):
Koch, S., Tetley, C., Strelnyk, O., Sunagawa, S., Boshoff, N., Uisso, A. J., Ngwenya, S. (2025). Reproducing inequality: collaboration habitus and its epistemic implications in African-European research projects on forests. Minerva. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-025-09570-6