Postcolonialism and psychology: Growing interest and promising potential

Macleod, Catriona I; Bhatia, Sunil; Kessi, Shose

Title: Postcolonialism and psychology: Growing interest and promising potential
Creator: Macleod, Catriona I
Creator: Bhatia, Sunil
Creator: Kessi, Shose
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2017
Date: 2017
Type: text
Type: book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434332
Identifier: vital:73049
Identifier: ISBN 9781473925212
Identifier: 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.
Format: 11 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Sage
Language: English
Relation: Macleod, C., Bhatia, S. and Kessi, S., 2017. Postcolonialism and psychology: Growing interest and promising potential. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology, pp.306-317
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Sage Terms and Conditions Statement (https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/terms-of-use)

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