Decolonizing Third Sector Research

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

The roots of decolonial approaches are decades old. Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) challenged the ethnocentric lenses Westerners used in creating their understandings of colonized peoples. Activists like Audre Lorde critiqued the scholars from the cultural and racial majority tendency to exclude minority voices and paradigms from academic discussions, arguing “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (Lorde [1984] 2007). The watershed moment is perhaps best traced to Smith (1999), cited almost thirty thousand times, which articulated concerns long-held by indigenous communities about academic research, including that research on indigenous communities reflected colonial power dynamics, exploiting local peoples for the benefit for outsiders, distorting and misunderstanding indigenous experiences, and using the resulting data to justify oppressive and discriminatory policies (Smith 2016). In the decades since, her critiques have been expanded and amplified, and discussions of decolonialism and its applications to academic research have flourished (Dei 2008; Braun, et al 2013; Zavala 2013; Tuck and Yang 2014; Held 2019).

Both scholars and institutions have sought to adopt decolonizing approaches to research (Tuck 2013). As Thambinathan & Kinsella (2021) note, “there is no standard model or practice for what decolonizing research methodology looks like.” Zavala (2013: 57) argues, “where the research grows from and who funds it matters as much as if not more than the kinds of research methods/strategies used or the theoretical frameworks that inform such work.” Held (2019:8) adds decolonized approaches require new paradigms “developed conjointly between Western and Indigenous researchers.” Thambinathan & Kinsella (2021:3) observe that decolonial approaches are marked by four core principles: “(1) exercising critical reflexivity, (2) reciprocity and respect for self-determination, (3) embracing ‘Other(ed)’ ways of knowing, and (4) embodying a transformative praxis.” A recent proposal of what a methodological otra might look like is currently in press (Harari and Pozzebon, forthcoming). The authors argue that, more than being critical, reflexive, or dialogical, a concrete engagement with decoloniality means mobilizing radical principles like learning to unlearn, escrevivência, interculturality and corazonar/sentipensar. They mobilize Freire’s contribution to move decolonial concepts and values from the margins to the center of debates within mainstream academic communities.

There are risks that decolonizing research may become a fad in which scholars adopt only the thinnest or easiest practices, using the term to win grants, publish papers, or join the trend (Moosavi 2020). The participants in this roundtable answer three questions to address how insights into decolonizing research practices might be applied more substantively and fully to third sector research.

What project or publication would you recommend as a good model of how to decolonize research? What do you think this researcher or team does especially well?
What decolonizing research practices are the most important for third sector researchers to adopt and why? What are some of the mechanics of third sector research ‘projects’ and what do these mean for decolonizing?
What do you think is the greatest challenge to widening and/or deepening decolonization in third sector research? Do you have suggestions for how to begin to address this challenge?

References

Braun, K. L., Browne, C. V., Ka ‘opua, L. S., Kim, B. J., & Mokuau, N. (2014). Research on indigenous elders: From positivistic to decolonizing methodologies. The Gerontologist, 54(1), 117-126.

Dei G. J. (2008). Indigenous knowledge studies and the next generation: Pedagogical possibilities for anti-colonial education. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37(Supplementary), 5–13.

Foxworth, R., & Ellenwood, C. (2023). Indigenous peoples and third sector research: Indigenous data sovereignty as a framework to improve research practices. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 34(1), 100-107.

Harari, T. & Pozzebon, M. (Forthcoming). Metodologia otra: challenging modern/colonial matrix with Paulo Freire and decolonial thinking. Accepted for publication at Management Learning, Special issue One hundred years of Paulo Freire: Rethinking critical pedagogy, management learning and education (in press).


Held, M. B. (2019). Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1609406918821574.

Lorde, A. (2007 [1984]) The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Ed. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press. 110-
114.

Moosavi, L. (2020). The decolonial bandwagon and the dangers of intellectual decolonisaton. International Review of Sociology 30(2): 332-354.

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism: Western concepts of the Orient. New York: Pantheon.

Smith, L. T. (2007). Getting the story right–telling the story well: indigenous activism–indigenous research. In A.T.P. Mead and S. Ratuva, eds., Pacific genes and life patents: Pacific indigenous experiences & analysis of the commodification and Ownership of life, Wellington, New Zealand: Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra and The United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. 74-81.

Smith, L. T. (2016 [1999]). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books.

Thambinathan, V., & Kinsella, E. A. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies in qualitative research: Creating spaces for transformative praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20, 16094069211014766.

Tuck, E. (2013). Commentary: Decolonizing methodologies 15 years later. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 9(4), 365-372.

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2014). Unbecoming Claims: Pedagogies of Refusal in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 811–818. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414530265

Zavala, M. (2013). What Do We Mean by Decolonizing Research Strategies? Lessons from Decolonizing, Indigenous Research Projects in New Zealand and Latin America

Sub Unit

• Other Third Sector related topics

Presenters

• Angela Crack, University of Portsmouth

• Anna Domaradzka, University of Warsaw

• Dipendra K C, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

• Emmanuel Kumi, University of Ghana

• Pablo Baraldi Marsal, Universidad de Buenos Aires

• Patricia Maria E. Mendonça, Universidade de São Paulo

• Christopher Louis Pallas, University of Vermont

• Matt Baillie Smith, Centre for Global Development, Northumbria University

• Fengshi Wu, University of New South Wales