240075 VO+UE VM1 / VM4 - Researching ‘Development’: Post- and Decolonial Perspectives (2018W)

An understanding of development research as research on inequalities also implies an analysis of the institutional and geopolitical conditions of knowledge production on ‘development’. In this course, we engage with the power relations, which shape realities of students, researchers and ‘researched’. In this regard, intersectional power relations – in terms of gender, class or racialised relations – are important as well as global power relations between a global North and a global South. Theoretically, the course deals with feminist, post- and decolonial debates on decolonising knowledge production, which, in the last years, have shaped debates in social and cultural studies as well as in activist domains.

The course starts with an introduction to the topic on the basis of short lectures from the side of the course leader as well as on the basis of specialised texts. At the core of the discussion lies a reflection on the positionalities of ‘researchers’ and ‘researched’ in a context of intersectional power relations. In order to do so, we discuss introductory texts to the paradigms of ‘postcolonial theory’ and ‘decolonial theory’. Further, a focus is put on approaches which deal with the relation between power and knowledge, such as Quijano's (2007) 'coloniality of power', as well as with approaches with propose counter-epistemologies such as Smith’s (1999) ‘researching back’.
The second part of the course focuses on concrete case studies of collectives, initiatives, research projects or individual research practices, which engage with questions of decolonising research. Examples are the network of activist and academic actors Decoloniality Europe or examples of the book „Transnational Feminist Research Praxis“ (Swarr Lock /Nagar 2008).

Teaching goals:
By means of discussions of theoretical texts of post- and decolonial approaches as well as of concrete research practices, students shall be inspired to critically engage with academic knowledge production. In this regard, we shall also reflect on our own positionalities in the academic setting. Especially the case studies shall open a space for reflecting on the question how power-sensitive research on ‘development’ can be made possible.

Methods:
We engage with post- and decolonial approaches towards knowledge production on the basis of introductions from the course leader as well as text-based discussions. Apart from text-based discussions, we will also draw on audio-visual material such as films or podcasts in order to engage with a broader range of methods of knowledge production and dissemination. In form of group or individual presentations – depending on the amount of students – students get to know concrete examples of decolonising research practices. The evaluation is based on regular homeworks regarding the specialised literature, a (group) presentation and a final short written assessment.