Sensing policy: engaging affected communities at the intersections of environmental justice and decolonial futures

Pushing back against an extractive approach to research to center relationships, this paper draws from ethnographic sensibilities and community vignettes to discuss what academic-activists and political scientists can learn from communities' situated bodies of knowledge. Tensions emerge when those most directly affected by public policy decisions are excluded from the decision-making process. Consultation leaves many encountering a paradox: their lived experiences are discredited even when they are invited to participate. This paper offers an imaginative approach to the design of participatory policy processes and asks: how can decision-makers meaningfully engage affected parties in pursuit of environmentally just policy creation? In response, this paper argues that bodies generally, and guts specifically, are political. To do so, I flesh out how a sensing policy approach to public engagement and socially engaged research can assist those crafting policies - including, laws, programs and service-delivery - to address contentious multilayered environmental justice issues. These include concerns for more-than-human life. Reflecting on experiences of community-engagement with Indigenous communities in Canada and HawaiModified Letter Turned Commai, sensing policy builds from interpretive methods and intersectionality-based policy analysis to inform and potentially improve decision-making processes by taking seriously the experiences, knowledges and voices of those most affected by the government (in)decisions.