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How We Worked

Team planning at inception workshop, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, December 2023

In this nurturing environment, researchers thrive, propelled not merely by personal ambition but by a profound connection to their surroundings and to each other! (Team member, May 2024)

We collaborated as an international, transdisciplinary team to address the global challenge of climate change and social vulnerability through research with specific communities in Eastern Indonesia.

We are policy makers, academics, practitioners, advocates and industry stakeholders. We come from a range of professional backgrounds and disciplines including Anthropology, Communication, Disability Studies, Geography, Gerontology, Law, Political Science, Public Health, Public Policy and Management, Sociology, and Urban Design. Many of us have lived experience of the particular vulnerabilities explored in this project (people with disability, older people, women and those who experience gender harm and the elderly).

We meet, share and discuss in a co-designing process. The workshop brings a new level of connection and collaboration after all our Zoom and email communication between our team members and partners from Australia and Indonesia (Team member, February 2024)

We took the time to get to know each other and learn from each other. By valuing and deploying diverse perspectives, experiences and knowledge among team members, we placed ourselves in a position to address two of the largest challenges of our time: climate change and social vulnerability.

We all have different skill sets and experiences and the whole purpose of a collaboration is that we bring those together and you know we sort of learn from each other and everyone brings their best selves and helps. (Team member, March 2024).

As feminist researchers from the Global South and Global North, we were keen to recognise and challenge many of the structures and inequalities of colonisation in our team around control of funding, project administration and leadership, access to systems and equipment, salaries, and track record. Together, we built the capacity for early career researchers, those with disability and all team members to develop skills to drive innovative research agendas on climate resilience in Indonesia.

There is inequality and there is difference among us. The thing is how we are going to harmonise our collaboration, and our differences? (Team member, May 2024)

Read the project quarterly updates here.

We used inclusive, feminist research methods to do our work.
We primarily used inclusive research methods that meaningfully involve people with disabilities. We describe our inclusive research as a 'collaborative group' approach, being a partnership between people with and without disability and with Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) to work with shared purposes and where all contributions are equally valued. People with disability were part of our research team and both The Indonesian Disability Movement for Equality Pergerakan Difabel Indonesia untuk Kesetaraan (PerDIK) and Gerakan Advokasi Transformasi Disabilitas untuk Inklusi (GARAMIN) were research partners, involved as disability inclusion advisors and assisted with the project conception, data collection, data analysis and the writing of the project outputs. The expertise of these DPOs has been instrumental in ensuring our research practices prioritised the safety, dignity, and meaningful participation of people with disability.
In working with diverse women and other marginalised community members, we used feminist research methods. Feminist methods prioritise the voices of those who experience gender harm to tackle problems caused by unequal and harmful social gender systems. Feminist research acknowledges the varied experiences of gender harm by different groups of women, known as intersectionality. Feminist researchers cultivate an ecosystem of care as a way to invite stories from participants and to avoid dominating practices. Feminist interviewing strives for equal power sharing between interviewer and participant. Feminist interviewers do not remain remote, they share their own lives with research participants to create connections.
A collaboration case study
Empowering Disability Advocates through Research Capacity Building in Kupang
Members of the What, Why, and How to Conduct Research workshop run by GARAMIN and Dr Welmince (Cece) Djulete from Monash University in Kupang, March 2024
Our collaboration with the Disabled People's Organisation (DPO), Gerakan Advokasi Transformasi Disabilitas Untuk Inklusi - GARAMIN East Nusa Tenggara, in Eastern Indonesia has been a transformative experience. In Kupang, GARAMIN was our key partner, and we were committed to learning about and deploying inclusive research practices that meaningfully involved people with disabilities.
Through a series of four ongoing workshops, our team provided GARAMIN with mentorship and training to enhance their research skills and knowledge. Dr. Welmince Djulete, the Monash University researcher and the research coordinator in Kupang, led these capacity-building sessions, which covered essential topics such as:
1. The what, how, and why of conducting research
2. Ethical considerations in research
3. Qualitative data analysis using thematic analysis
4. Translating research findings into effective policy briefs
The aim of this research partnership was to equip and empower GARAMIN, the local DPO, to continue their advocacy work through evidence-based approaches. We believe this sustainable model has strengthened the ongoing efforts of GARAMIN to amplify the voices and rights of people with disabilities in the East Nusa Tenggara province.
Crucially, GARAMIN provided valuable technical advice on how to engage ethically with people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in Kupang. Their expertise was instrumental in ensuring our research practices prioritised the safety, dignity, and meaningful participation of these communities.
Together, we fostered a collaborative ecosystem where research, advocacy, and community engagement converged to drive inclusive and transformative change. By building the research capacity of local DPOs like GARAMIN, we have empowered disability advocates to lead the way in shaping more inclusive and equitable policies and programs in the region.
To find out more about what GARAMIN does: Read this document prepared by GARAMIN about how they encourage governments to collaborate with Disabled Person’s Organisations in East Nusa Tenggara
Our research methods: The flow of our research process
The process of conducting our research can be divided into three major steps: inception workshops (1), data collection (2) and analysis and writing (3).
1. Inception Workshops
To set up our research, we held workshops at Monash University Indonesia’s campus in Tangerang, Banten and at Universitas Hasanuddin’s campus in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Researchers and research partners from Indonesia and Australia attended in-person and online. Crucially, our research partners provided community-embedded technical advice on how to engage ethically with people with disabilities, women, older people and other vulnerable groups in Eastern Indonesia. The workshops were conducted in multiple languages. The first day covered issues on group cohesion such as ethical and equitable work practices, labour division, setting expectations, reaching agreements and budgeting practices. The second day enabled members of the three streams–Gender, Older People and People with Disability to meet and present each groups’ perspectives on the state of the literature, the approach for how data would be collected in the field, and the possible frameworks for analysing the data.
2. Data Collection
Data collection took place in Lombok, Kupang and Makassar from March to June 2024. At all locations, we worked closely with our partner organisations including, LBH APIK, UNHAS and PerDIK in Makassar, Islamic Relief in Lombok, and GARAMIN in Kupang.
At each location, we conducted a series of focus group discussions (FGDs) with stakeholders in Kupang (n=22), Makassar (n=10), and Lombok (n=17). We then conducted in-depth interviews with 11 stakeholders in Kupang and Makassar, respectively, and 15 stakeholders in Lombok.
Furthermore, we held rounds of FGDs as well with the vulnerable communities–women, older people and people with disabilities–in Kupang (n=21), Makassar (n=22), and Lombok (n=221). Following the FGDs, we organised individual in-depth interviews with the community members (n=30) and stakeholder members (n=10) in Kupang, 22 people in Makassar, and 21 people in Lombok.
In addition to FGDs and interviews, we also conducted participant observations. For example, in Kupang, we observed a few people with disabilities's daily farming activity. In Makassar, we observed women shell catchers at coastal areas and an environmental activist’s day activity at a mangrove plantation. In Lombok, we observed a middle aged woman’s morning activity at the land where she works for small landholders of corn farming.
During several sessions of the FGDs, interviews and participant observations, we also document the processes and turn it into a series of short documentaries. The purpose of these documentaries is to not only educate viewers but also convey the vulnerable communities’ message directly out to the world. Climate change students, researchers, campaigners and policy advocates may even use the documentaries for influencing future policies on the environment and climate change.
Analysis and Writing
Analysis and writing were co-led by post-doctoral researchers, Dr Welmince Djulete, Dr Miya Irawati and Dr Yulisna Mutia Sari, supported by all team members involved in the project. The analysis was conducted inductively, where the collected data were coded and categorized to identify themes,meanings, and values related to climate change as perceived by vulnerable populations. For data analysis, we used an intercoder reliability approach, where multiple team members checked each other’s data analysis to enhance trustworthiness.
An emic analysis approach was employed to amplify the voices of these populations, capturing their resilience and the practices they adopt in utilizing available resources. The process of writing was collaborative, with regular online meetings discussing the development of the analysis and manuscripts. Weekly discussions were held with postdoctoral researchers to ensure that the fieldwork data were collected in alignment with qualitative research methods, particularly focusing on writing subjective experience related to the lives of vulnerable populations in coping with climate change. Furthermore, collaborative quiet writing sessions were held via Zoom over the course of one month to boost collegial support while finishing the manuscripts. Toward the end of year, the group met for a final workshop in Seminyak, Bali to discuss the approach in the articles and to finalise manuscripts.
Dr. Miya Irawati speaks to team members as we reflect on our Working Principles, Seminyak, December 2024
We developed a series of Working Principles (Our Agreement: How we will work Together’/ ‘Bagaimana Kita akan Bekerja Sama’) at our first meeting in December 2023 and reflected on how they worked at our final workshop in Seminyak in December 2024.
These principles are an explicit commitment to disrupting power dynamics and elevating less privileged voices. We did this by ensuring that early career researchers were supported to be first authors on publications. We supported people with disability to be an active part of the project team, including in publication authorship and acknowledgements. This approach reflected our determination to build the research capacity of all team members. We created safe and inclusive working spaces to enable realisation of our principles.

Monash University, Indonesia

Monash University, Indonesia

How We Worked

How We Worked

A collaboration case study

Empowering Disability Advocates through Research Capacity Building in Kupang

1. Inception Workshops

2. Data Collection

Analysis and Writing

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