Poverty & Knowledge: Anti-poverty activism as a challenge to epistemic injustice in journalism

Context: This unique research will create new forms of representation by repositioning people in poverty as among the expert voices in media discourse. The participatory project, with two anti-poverty campaigns in Europe, will gather expert knowledge on the impact of socioeconomic discrimination and the media representation of it. Recordings of anti-poverty activists will be gathered to educate media workers, with a focus on journalists, about the experience of poverty and the community response to it. Capturing opinions, memories, and criticism, it will challenge epistemic injustice by recognising people in poverty as knowers, educators, and expert journalistic sources. Challenge: It will develop he ongoing debate around epistemic injustice, in academia and journalism, by shifting focus to the topic of reporting poverty and arguing for the recognition of people in poverty as knowledgeable sources. Led by Dr Rachel Broady, in partnership with Museum of Liverpool, it will unearth understanding of both the experience of poverty and the resulting agitation. It will consider testimonial injustice, when someone is disbelieved or ignored, and hermeneutical injustice, referring to the perceived personal or social inability due to historic and systemic exclusion from public dialogues. This new knowledge can shift political influence of opinion-formers and policymakers, in the journalism industry and beyond, by presenting people in poverty as expert sources not passive subjects. Training will be provided to anti-poverty activists (the participants) to gather first-hand accounts of community members (the contributors). The project will focus on two organisations: 1) Fans Supporting Foodbanks, set up in 2015 as a joint initiative between Liverpool FC and Everton FC supporters to challenge food poverty in their communities, resulting in six food pantries across Liverpool and 2) Right to Food, established in 2020 to argue for the right to food to be written in law. What is the overarching aim? 1) gather audio and video recordings with and of anti-poverty activists and 2) use the research data to inform journalistic representation of poverty and thus challenge epistemic injustice as it manifests in media responses to the subject. Potential application and benefits: First-hand accounts will be recorded by, and of, those involved in the campaigns: founders, grassroots activists, campaigners. These testimonies will be gathered by volunteers, trained during the project, to offer insight into the campaigns and the people who created them. Participants will be involved in recruitment, recording, and archiving, to gather audio and video testimonies from contributors most closely connected with the two campaigns. This will support local skills and talent and ensure a sense of shared ownership. Resulting data will be available on an open access basis for future development as a digital archive created and stored at Liverpool John Moores University, serving as a lasting resource for future academic researchers, the Liverpool community, the wider public, policymakers, journalists, and for broader anti-poverty activism. Research data could also serve as inspiration for exhibitions at Museum of Liverpool, further engaging the local community. It is also important to recognise that these important testimonies could be lost if it not gathered.