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Many who believe Development Studies was born from a colonial mindset also perceive this mindset continuing to this day. Calls to decolonise not only Development Studies, but social sciences more broadly and beyond (including the natural and applied sciences), have grown louder in recent years. But it is also possible to see Development Studies as driven by an anti-colonial mindset from its emergence in the ferment of 1950s/1960s independence movements and orientation towards global solidarity. So, is Development Studies a neo-colonial endeavour, an anti-colonial endeavour, or a shifting, transforming and, sometimes, perplexing combination of both? How does this inform how, and under which contexts, development is pursued? And what are the implications for EADI’s engagement in efforts to decolonise knowledge for development?

In a period of intense global turbulence, this seems an important time for EADI to reflect on such issues, given it is an Association which brings together a diverse array of organisations, people, histories and perspectives. Its members bring a wealth of different influences and experiences of coloniality, located within the context of Europe which, itself, continues to evolve and change. Indeed, it is important to learn from ways in which citizens in a range of different national contexts experience emergent forms of colonisation, as well as those with longer historical antecedents. There is a need to be conscious of the dangers of EADI’s attention to these issues now as being perceived as yet another form of intellectual colonisation. EADI therefore represents an incredibly valuable resource of knowledge and experience to help inform and shape collective thinking around processes and approaches that can support decolonisation without reproducing it in yet new ways.

As EADI approaches that significant moment, what do others feel about the ideas and potential actions shared above? What suggestions, evidence, insights, and concrete proposals would others like to bring to this conversation? This is the invitation to discuss and contribute.

Reflection pieces

Activities

Decolonising Knowledge for Development

Reflections on Decolonising Knowledge for Development:

An invitation to an EADI conversation

Reflection paper by Peter Taylor, Laura Camfield, Alexandre Abreu, Marcin Grabowski, Nita Mishra, and Crystal Tremblay

Call for Applications: Share Your Decolonising Story

Call for Applications: Share Your Decolonising Story

Apply by 1st May 2024

More information and submission form

 

Task Group

Peter Taylor, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton (Chair)

Alexandre Abreu, University of Lisbon

Laura Camfield, University of East Anglia

Adam Moe Fejerskov , DIIS - Danish Institute for International Studies

Eyob Balcha Gebremariam, University of Bristol

Marcin Grabowski, Jagiellonian University of Krakow

Susanne von Itter, EADI

Anna Khakee, University of Malta

Touseef Mir, University Bath

Nita Mishra, University of Limerick

Hugo Pilkington, Université Paris 8 (Vincennes Saint-Denis)

Andy Sumner, King's College London

 

Recommended Reading

Challenging Global Development. Towards Decoloniality and Justice

This open access book, part of the EADI Global Development series,  presents contributions to decolonize development studies. It seeks to promote and sustain new forms of solidarity and conviviality that work towards achieving social justice.

What is Development Studies?

Development Studies is an established area of scholarly enquiry, which implies some consensus over what the study of development entails. Does such a consensus exist? This EADI paper argues that although there is some common understanding on Development Studies being about ‘development’ and having an inter-disciplinary as well as normative orientation, there is a set of quite different approaches to Development Studies.

Four approaches to shifting mindsets for decolonising knowledge

In the context of knowledge for development, what does it require to deconstruct the dominant narratives and personal privileges embodied in our race, class, gender, etc.? And, in a knowledge landscape littered with potential minefields, how do we go about shifting the mindsets that shape the ways in which ‘we’ understand the world and our subsequent values, behaviours, and attitudes? Learn more

Selected articles on decolonising knowledge from our blog

Rethinking Indigeneity

María Fernanda Córdova Suxo - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
The Indigenous subject has been positioned as a key player in alternatives to development. These alternatives refer to Indigenous People’s struggles and knowledge as distinct ways of facing current crises – including environmental, food, and capitalist crises. This positioning can be interpreted as a result of different indigenous movements working together across borders, in search of self-determination and the fulfillment of their human rights.
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The Crisis of Development and Development Studies and Possibilities for Transformation

ebeka Richard Plaatjie - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Development requires human persons to exist. On this basis it is reasonable to suggest that human life or the preservation thereof, is the foremost condition for development to declare and to recognize itself. Basic physiological needs for the survival of human beings such as food, water, clothing, and health care as suggested by Maslow must therefore be met.
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Reflections on Decolonising Knowledge for Development: An invitation to a conversation

Peter Taylor - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
In fact, EADI occupies a special position as it brings together a diverse array of organisations, people, histories and perspectives. Its members bring a wealth of different influences and experiences of coloniality, located within the context of Europe which, itself, continues to evolve and change.
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Challenging Global Development while Defending Modernity and Enlightenment Thought

Tanja Müller - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
The latest book in the EADI Global Development Series has recently come out with the apt title Challenging Global Development: Towards Decoloniality and Justice. It is a timely and important book, not least because it provides good summary of the history of ‘development’ and Development Studies, up to contemporary debates. It interrogates most of the relevant themes and contestations in relation to the concept of development and Development Studies as an (academic) subject. The book provides pertinent critiques of a diverse range of themes, such as inclusions and exclusions; transformative processes of knowledge production; questioning the growth-agenda; structural roots of global inequalities; and narratives based on dichotomies. A focus on decoloniality and justice is welcome, as is the recognition that colonialism is ultimately a power structure.
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Rethinking Development Studies

Kees Biekart, Laura Camfield, Uma Kothari, Henning Melber - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Our world is in shambles. And what is widely understood as Development has been a contributing factor. While ‘fixers’ are quick to offer new recipes for Development, re-building or re-constructing societies destroyed, they often offer more of the same. This provokes the question, as to whether life on earth might have been much better off without Development.
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What Is a “Development” Research Project? Transforming Ideas of Development through Development Research

Mette Fog Olwig, Jacob Rasmussen, Lone Riisgaard, Christine Noe, Geetika Khanduja, Peter Taylor, Herbert Hambati, Lisa Ann Richey, Chris Büscher, Paola Minoia - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Development Studies has long operated with binaries such as “developed/developing” and “traditional/modern” that foster implicit assumptions of Northern superiority. As a result, research projects taking place in so-called “developing countries” tend to ask different research questions and use different methods leading to types of theories that differ from those concerning so-called “developed countries.”
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Four approaches to shifting mindsets for decolonising knowledge

Peter Taylor, Crystal Trembley - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
In the context of knowledge for development, what does it require to deconstruct the dominant narratives and personal privileges embodied in our race, class, gender, etc.? And, in a knowledge landscape littered with potential minefields, how do we go about shifting the mindsets that shape the ways in which ‘we’ understand the world and our subsequent values, behaviours, and attitudes?
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Understanding epistemic erasures of local & indigenous communities: Decolonizing research and re-imagining alternative partnerships in Development Studies

Yafa El Masri, Melis Cin, Kitty Furtado, Paola Minoia, Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Posted on 21/02/2023 by Christiane Kliemann Understanding epistemic erasures of local & indigenous communities: Decolonizing research and re-imagining alternative partnerships in Development Studies By Yafa El Masri, Melis Cin, Kitty Furtado, Paola Minoia and Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm / New Rhythms of Development blog series Epistemic erasures continue to exist in a wide range of institutional designs at the local, national, regional, European and international level. Bringing up a debate on this topic not only opens the possibility to raise awareness on the concept, but also motivates research to shed light on alternative partnerships of resistance to these erasures. As Sharon Stein and others have pointed out, partnerships that arise collaboratively between actors from academia, civil society and politics can contribute to recognizing, repairing and re-imagining new decolonial futures.
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How ethical can research relationships be in Development Studies?

Isis Barei-Guyot - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted research practice, and where research was possible to continue nevertheless, researchers had to ask themselves how it could do so ethically. The context of the pandemic meant that many of such ethical considerations were new to researchers, and we witnessed a moment of overcoming and adapting that produced changes on a scale and at a pace that would have been previously inconceivable. However, these extraordinary efforts to keep research moving during the pandemic highlighted the inequalities that had become normalised within research practice, and particularly within research relationships.
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Radical Alternatives or Ambivalent Engagements? Development Understandings from the Global South

Alba Castellsagué, Sally Matthews - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)
Critiques of development have historically problematised the dominant models of economic growth and the controversial ideas of modernity and progress. Since the sixties, many have attempted to advance more sustainable understandings of development, with proposals emerging from a wide range of approaches: human capabilities, ecological sustainability, gender justice, and decoloniality, among many others.
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