We believe that what you observe is in constant change, so to manifest new realities we can start by understanding our current ones.
We design and carry out participatory action research and collective and creative processes to understand and shape our current reality, co-develop new understandings and seek collective solutions.
Learn more about our work below.
We work with a range of partners including research institutes, think tanks, funders and Civil Society Organisations. We design and deliver participatory research processes and collective learning journeys.
We partnered with CIVICUS to carry out a landscape and trend analysis on resourcing youth-led groups and movement. The research ended with the creation of a Playbook that features 7 stories of young activists around the world accompanied by reflective exercises for donors and youth organizers.
We collaborated with FRIDA, The Young Feminist Fund, to run participatory research on how their support has impacted young feminist groups around the world. We visited 5 grantee partners across different regions where FRIDA provides support. Based on this research, we co-published ‘The Young Feminist Pluriverse’ – a narrative report (forthcoming).
Restless Development
We brought together 12 global youth co-researchers to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth civil society around the world, and identify the kind of resourcing and support needed to strengthen the youth response and recovery. By observing how youth civil society organisations respond to the crisis, we learnt how our generation can cope through rapid disruption and what new strategies for adaptation, resilience and change are emerging. Based on this research, we co-published: Resilient Realities, How youth civil society is experiencing and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Global State Of Youth Civil Society Report.
INTRAC and The Development Alternative
The Development Alternative is a consortium co-designing alternative ways to do development that are truly led by young people. Recrear has partnered with INTRAC and The Development Alternative for two years, conducting research on youth civil society, the impact of youth organisations, groups and movements, their innovation and the enabling and limiting factors affecting their work. The research informed programme designs and the publication of a report: Towards A Thriving, Credible, And Sustainable Youth Civil Society, Evidence and research into the status of southern-based youth civil society – forging a vision for the future.
Platzi
Oxfam
Recrear collaborated with Oxfam to run Participatory Action Research on how young women of colour in Southern Africa exercise their agency, organize effectively and express dissent. We trained 5 country teams made up of young activists and Oxfam staff from across Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The research created the foundation for Oxfam’s first youth strategy in the Southern Africa region.
We love designing our own research projects: independent research designed based on the questions that move us, following our impulse to explore and learn with a group or community. Our independent projects experiment with new methodologies, research processes, and ways of sharing research. We love sharing our learnings in small bites, through short stories, photos, and reflections. We also experiment with multimedia platforms. These are usually long term projects (6 months – 3 years).
Colombia
This project, part of Gioel Gioacchino’s PhD research, explores how youth-led CSOs engage with the shrinking availability of funding for civil society.
Over the course of 10 months, we engaged ten leaders of grassroots, youth-led CSOs in Medellin, Colombia. We guided them in a process of self-reflection (first-person inquiry), and collective analysis, and exploration of their organisational cultures and practices (second person inquiry). The findings from this action research process contribute to a deeper understanding of the world-views of the leaders of youth-led CSOs in Medellin.
We spent 7 months in Cuba working with 10 young researchers, and 75 young people from 3 cities. With a research project on youth’s relationship to climate change we sought to open a space for young leaders to connect with each other and create synergies.
Ecuador
100 Voices is a research project that took place in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, between January and August 2012. The initiative was intended to document stories of young people in a province with a delineated marginalized population of Afro Ecuadorians. The study focused on 6 areas of the province, questioning youth between the ages of 15 and 27 on their relationship to their community. The ultimate goal was to observe the forms in which youth participated in the community development process. In our work we saw an opportunity not only to attempt to answer the question ‘What does youth participation look like?’, but to simultaneously make note of obstacles and opportunities facing youth at a larger level. 100 Voices was also our platform for storytelling, through which we created a space for youth to reflect and share their perceptions and their lives in their communities.
Read our publications here.