Feminisms and decolonising psychology: Possibilities and challenges
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Bhatia, Sunil , Liu, Wen
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444314 , vital:74218 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353520932810"
- Description: In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisation in the discipline of psychology. The six articles and two book reviews address a range of issues: race, citizenship, emancipatory politics, practising decolonial refusal, normalising slippery subjectivity, Islamic anti-patriarchal liberation psychology, and decolonisation of the hijab. In this editorial we outline the papers’ contributions to discussions on understanding decolonisation, how feminisms and decolonisation speak to each other, and the implications of the papers for feminist decolonising psychology. Together the papers highlight the importance of undermining the gendered coloniality of power, knowledge and being. The interweaving of feminisms and decolonising efforts can be achieved through: each mutually informing and shaping the other, conducting intersectional analyses, and drawing on transnational feminisms. Guiding principles for feminist decolonising psychology include: undermining the patriarchal colonialist legacy of mainstream psychological science; connecting gendered coloniality with other systems of power such as globalisation; investigating topics that surface the intertwining of colonialist and gendered power relations; using research methods that dovetail with feminist decolonising psychology; and focussing praxis on issues that enable decolonisation. Given the complexities of the coloniality and patriarchy of power-knowledge-being, feminist decolonising psychology may fail. The issues raised in this special issue point to why it mustn’t.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Postcolonialism and psychology: Growing interest and promising potential
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Bhatia, Sunil , Kessi, Shose
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434332 , vital:73049 , ISBN 9781473925212 , https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-qualitative-research-in-psychology/book245472#description
- Description: In the first edition of this book published in 2008, we categorized postcolonial psychology as embryonic: at the time very few psychologists were using postcolonial theories and approaches to illuminate broadly psychological issues. Since then, there has been some growing interest, to which we refer below. Nevertheless, despite recent contributions to postcolonial psychology literature under the banner of critical psychology (Bhatia, 2014; Moane and Sonn, 2015; Painter, 2015; Teo, 2005) as well as a number of books tackling the psychological in relation to postcolonial theory in the last decade (Anderson et al., 2011; Bhatia, 2007; David, 2011; Good et al., 2008; Hook, 2012; Macleod, 2011; Moane, 2011), postcolonial psychology is far from being an established or significant sub-discipline of psychology. The growing interest and positive responses to some of the work (eg Parker, 2012) must, however, be seen as encouraging in demonstrating the promising potential of postcolonial approaches in psychology, particularly in the political and social conditions of the twenty-first century. By way of orienting the reader, we start this chapter by outlining some of the key tenets of postcolonialism. This must of necessity be brief and unsatisfactory, not least because postcolonialism itself is a slippery term, representing the gathering together of a variety of theoretical writings and understandings under one rubric. Despite the increasing interest in postcolonialism in psychology, there has been little systematic discussion of the implications of this approach in terms of research. We lay the foundations of this discussion by unpicking the possibilities of postcolonialism in understanding the politics of research, specifically the politics of location, the politics of representation, and the politics of practice. We go on to consider the broad research aims postcolonial psychology should address, as well as productive sites for such research. We provide examples of qualitative research in postcolonialism.
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- Date Issued: 2017