Social inclusion work: power, agency and knowledge-making praxis

Abstract

This co-research explores power and agency in social inclusion work (SIW) in a service targeting marginalised people using legal and illegal substances that aims to combat inequality. It focuses on shared knowledge-making praxis, in which knowledge channels all participants’ power, actions and agency. The research material consists of a community-based SIW funding application and community-related field notes. The findings note that community-based SIW is a complex arena in which people in different positions bring their acquired knowledge, create new knowledge for those participating in the SIW and carry it forward. Impelled by knowledge, they begin or join new SIW projects together, thus breaking down epistemic injustice. In these reflexive projects, people transform everyday practices to return power to those with marginal status. Shared knowledge making as a form of praxis is a socially sustainable way to promote social inclusion.