What You Don't See

What You Don't See

This research project focuses on the relationship between 'the state' and individuals or groups who, for various reasons, have a strong distrust of institutions they consider to be part of the state, or who otherwise do not recognize themselves in the dominant systems within society.

The research explores whether there is a distance between the state and its citizens and, if so, whether this distance is problematic. It touches on important issues related to trust and mistrust. This could include questions such as what is truth, what do we consider to be knowledge or science, and who decides? Which voices are heard and which are not? And when we no longer see, feel or understand things in the same way, how do we respectfully bridge the resulting gap? When we talk about resilience, we are generally talking about this concept in relation to individual citizens and communities, but this research also looks at the resilience of government, particularly in relation to its most critical citizens.