Temporalities and Spatialities of Partnerships

Whereas the previous chapters have all focussed more specifically on interventions taking place in the global South, in this chapter I seek to more explicitly reflect on the temporal and spatial dynamics of partnerships. More specifically, I consider how binaries between a ‘developed’ global North and ‘under-developed’ global South are maintained in partnerships and, tentatively, consider some examples of my own practice where these were fleetingly overcome. I further develop arguments that, in development, places in the global South are imagined as in the past and thus in need of the interventions offered by those in the global North. I argue that more globally engaged approaches are required which emphasise the shared nature of the challenges we face and draw on a project I was part of to map out possibilities and limitations in this regard. I then to draw upon reflection on an ongoing partnership to dwell up on what it might mean to ‘slow down’ in partnerships, showing how establishing longer-term partnerships is effective yet also compromised by the challenges of working within development. What emerges through this chapter is a concern to more carefully establish partnerships across distance and over time.