Borrowed Mirrors
How the frameworks we trust shape what becomes visible, valuable and possible.
Borrowed Mirrors examines what happens when inherited frameworks, measures and assumptions become so familiar that we stop noticing how they shape judgement. It asks what those frameworks were designed to see, what they make easier to value and what they may leave out in different contexts.
How it connects
An inquiry that sharpens how we see institutions.
Borrowed Mirrors examines how the frameworks institutions trust influence what becomes visible, what is valued and whose knowledge carries weight.
It shares an intellectual lineage with Equinexus, particularly our interest in how assumptions and established ways of seeing shape institutional judgement. It also extends beyond individual Equinexus engagements as a wider inquiry led by Equinexus founder Dr Vongai Nyahunzvi.
The questions
Three questions the inquiry keeps returning to.
- 01
Who counts?
- 02
What counts?
- 03
Who decides?
Coming next
Follow the wider Borrowed Mirrors project
The book, gatherings and wider inquiry create a space to explore these questions beyond any single institution.
Book
The Borrowed Mirrors book
A book length treatment of the inquiry, examining how inherited frameworks shape institutional judgement.
Gathering
Nairobi Founding Gathering
The founding gathering of the Borrowed Mirrors inquiry, bringing contributors together around the questions at its centre.
Conversations
Related conversations and events
Further conversations, sessions and collaborations that extend the inquiry beyond any single institution.