Cuts destroy, hurt, kill: a critical metaphor analysis of the response of UK academics to the UK overseas aid budget funding cuts
Cuts destroy, hurt, kill: a critical metaphor analysis of the response of UK academics to the UK overseas aid budget funding cuts
New Publication Out, authored by Dr Maria Grazia Imperiale and Prof. Alison Phipps
Read the full open access article here
On 11 March 2021, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) body, which leads research funding across the UK, announced a substantial reduction in the international development research budget as a result of the UK government decision to cut the overseas aid budget. Our CUSP Network+ has been affected by the cuts: they had an impact on our project, as we had to pause or reduce our activities for a while.
Nowadays, we know that some projects have been terminated, while for others, funding has been re-instated.
In this article, we analysed news, blogs, interviews that UK-based academics wrote in response to the announcement of the cuts, from 11 March 2021 to 30 April 2021, through Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA). Metaphors are powerful tools to express concepts and shape reality. They can reveal language users’ intentions beyond what is said and what is not said. Metaphors are also a common way through which distress can be articulated.
We found the following metaphors: CUTS ARE AN ENTITY; CUTS ARE A THREAT, CUTS ARE ILLNESS, CUTS ARE VIOLENCE; plus, on the other hand, RESEARCH IS HEALTH, RESEARCH IS A JOURNEY, RESEARCH IS CONNECTION.
Cuts as an Entity
As an example, we present here what we mean by CUTS ARE AN ENTITY. It is first striking that ‘the cuts’ are often presented as active agents – they abandon, expose, imperil, damage, hinder, destroy, hurt, undermine. The UK government is often mentioned as responsible for the decisions that led to the cuts, however, ‘cuts’ are often used as the subject of sentences. We explain this as CUTS ARE AN ENTITY:
We tend to conceptualise things that are not bounded as entities and substances so that we can refer to them and quantify them in an attempt to better comprehend them. Even though ‘cuts’ are a number, and therefore a quantity, the experience of having a project cut is not something we can easily relate to as the consequences are unknown, and as such we might not know how to pin it down. Referring to cuts as entities allow us to identify a particular aspect of it. In addition, using the CUTS AS AN ENTITY metaphor not only helps our understanding but it also allows academics to distance themselves from it; since cuts are an entity of their own, they have their agency and are out of our control. It is the cuts as an entity that destroy, damage, hinder, expose and imperil, and we as academics have limited, if any, agency to stop them.
Cuts are an Illness
Another example, is the metaphor CUTS ARE ILLNESS.
The opposition health/illness has a strong persuasive role since it is evocative of emotions first of all: we associate anyone who is trying to restore health with someone who has the right intentions. Here lies the evocative and persuasive power of health/illness metaphors:
The decimation of this vital funding stream will have drastic impacts.
Research as Connection
In these examples, we can see that metaphors are graded since there are different degrees of health and illness. Stronger evaluations are found in the opposition decimation/vital, whereas hurt may be a milder form of evaluation compared to the other examples on the health/illness spectrum.
It is also important to point out at the time of the cuts, and at the time of writing, the world is trying to re-emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, the polarisation between life/death and health/illness in communication has been omnipresent in the last year. Using health/ illness metaphors in this specific moment in time has a strong persuasive and evaluative function – even more so as some research projects that have been cut have a focus on health and medicine, including vital coronavirus research.
As opposed to cuts which are ILLNESS and THREAT, research is what allows us to break walls and barriers, and ultimately to return to health. We identified the following metaphors related to research: RESEARCH AS CONNECTION, RESEARCH AS HEALTH and RESEARCH AS A JOURNEY.
As an example, I discuss here the metaphor of RESEARCH AS CONNECTION.
Research can bring proximity as it builds networks and as its foundations are relationships of trust built over the years. Research links, while cuts separate. Research is based on relations, on trust, and nowhere more so than research in international development, where paradigms of participatory work and co-design are the normative basis for working with and safeguarding partners worldwide. The implementation of the cuts has broken the trust that academics had in the UK Research and Innovation funding body. This is a very concerning time for the UK academy.
Analysis
It must also be said that during our analysis we realised that we also need to reflect on how we represent and communicate our work. The experiences of early career researchers, who often are in precarious positions, and the experiences of the international partners, who are the ones most affected by the cuts, have not been spotlighted in the debate. The GCRF (Global Challenge Research Fund) was created to fund and develop ‘equitable partnerships’. We did believe it, and we sought to change research and develop a more ethical approach that allowed partnerships to be considered equitable.
Perhaps this was an illusion. When someone comes with money, and others are at the recipient end, no partnerships can be equitable. When money is taken away, and only some jobs are affected while others are not, partnerships are not equitable either. When the voices we hear are mostly the ones in powerful positions, again we wonder whether we can call these partnerships equitable.
Perhaps then, we might need to change the discourse around partnerships; surely, we can call them ethical, but perhaps international development research is not and will not ever be equitable. But it definitely can be healthy, it can mean connection, it can be a journey undertaken together for the better.
You can download a copy of the full report and watch a short video about the project here via the TeachingEnglish website.
The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Governments Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
February 2, 2022
Publication: Gender Based Violence in Morocco
Publication: Gender Based Violence in Morocco
If you wish to cite this report please use: “Gender based violence in Morocco”, Rajaa Essaghyry & Mouad Meziaty, under the direction of Dounia Benslimane, Aadel Essaadani, and Dr. Mariangela Palladino, published as part of the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) Network, December 2020″.
Abstract
In Morocco – where Racines aisbl is project partner for CUSP, the work focuses mainly on women as leaders for social change, education and transmission of knowledge. The focus for the Morocco work package will be placed on artistic practices of women in Morocco and the role arts, culture and intangible heritage play in conflict transformation.
The main objectives of this study are:
• To illustrate the various forms of GBV that exist in Morocco as well as ways in which they are dealt with by the key actors in the fight against GBV.
• To enrich the current documentation on GBV in Morocco.
• To orient future advocacy actions towards the less evoked forms of violence and intervention axes that have for long been ignored.
• To create a network that allows exchange and cooperation between the different actors that operate on GBV in Morocco.
Gender based violence (GBV) is one of the categories of violation of human rights that is most widespread in the world. It is not specific neither to a society, nor to a culture nor a specific political or economic system. It is essentially dominant in patriarchal societies and power structures that are dominated by men who perpetrate violence against women, children and LGBTQIA+ people. This problem manifests at multiple levels: societal, economic, education, development, public health, etc.

Influenced by social and cultural environments of a given region as well as the national and international political context, GBV results from the interaction between a variety of factors such as patriarchy, capitalism, racism or colonialism. For the purpose of this study, we align with specific definitions and categorizations in order to better understand who does what and how do the various actors address this phenomenon.
You can find out more about Racines and their work via their website.
The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Governments Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
December 8, 2021
Exploring teacher agency and identity through the Tree of Life approach
*This project was funded by The British Council as part of their Widening Participation programme.
Exploring teacher agency and identity through the Tree of Life approach
Led by Maria Grazia Imperiale, Lecturer in Adult Education at the University of Glasgow, and previously CUSP Academic Coordinator, Stephen Mander, and Damian Ross conducted a participatory research project as part of The British Councils Widening Participation programme.
The Project
Working with ten early career researchers across five countries, (Armenia, Brazil, Morocco, Nigeria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories) and using participatory research and decolonising methodologies, the project used a tree to explore the participants roots, strengths and capabilities as well as their hopes and dreams for the future.

The Findings
The project focussed on four main findings namely:
- Participants perceive identity as a transformative process, strictly intertwined with agency, (by agency we mean what they are capable of being and doing to change their reality according to their values and aspirations);
- Participants believe in education for hope and social change, where students can flourish and have a positive impact on their communities and society;
- In order to achieve change, participants feel they need to work both within and outside the system, since the education system itself may limit teachers’ freedom in constructing the education they aspire to be part of
- While teachers may experience isolation and even despair, participants raised the need to keep their motivation alive and that one way of doing this is through peer-to-peer collaboration.
Watch the Animation
You can watch a short animation explaining the project’s aims and findings here on The British Council’s YouTube channel.
The Full Report
You can download a copy of the full report and watch a short video about the project here via the TeachingEnglish website.
The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Governments Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
December 8, 2021
Conflict Transformation Workshop - Loch Tay Retreat
Loch Tay Winter Retreat
Back in a snowy February 2020 a group of young people from Ignite Theatre Group spent three days at Loch Tay, Scotland.
The focus of the retreat was to examine issues around conflict transformation and how the arts can help survivors cope with past traumas. The retreat centred around four different workshops, each looking at a different element of the arts: Words, Music, Adinkra and Improvisation.
The retreat was documented by photographer Robin Mitchell. Robin’s photographs have been turned into a video (below) and the music that features was composed by the young people of Ignite at Loch Tay.
Please click on the video to view.
Arts Workshops




Words
The Words workshop encouraged small groups to identify a theme that resonated with them. The team then weaved these themes together to create a story.
Hosted by Giovanna Fassetta (CUSP DA Principal Investigator) and Tawona Sithole (UNESCO RILA Artist in Residence) this session encouraged participants to actively listen and communicate with each other.
Music
Hosted by Gameli Todzro (UNESCO RILA Artist in Residence) the group explored African drumming and the Kora and were encouraged to find confidence through elements of music such as rhythm.
The group were set musical tasks that will help them to deal with conflict in the future.
Adinkra
Lead by Naa Densua Todzro (UNESCO RILA Researcher & Artist) the group used Adinkra symbols to celebrate their journey so far.
Adinkra symbols are from the west coast of Africa, particularly Ghana where they have great significance and are widely used throughout Ghanaian society.
Improvisation
Using what they had learned during the retreat’s workshops their own lived experiences the group began to process past traumatic events.
This exercise led to “Papercuts”, which was Ignite’s last show before the COVID-19 lockdown.
Photo Gallery
All photo credits: Robin Mitchell
The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Governments Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
June 10, 2021