Decolonised Knowledge

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1070

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 23

50th anniversary edition of pedagogy of the oppressed
(2020) Hall, Budd L
Why has Pedagogy of the Oppressed remained one of the most influential works in educational thought for more than five decades? In this review, Dr. Budd L. Hall critically examines the 50th Anniversary Edition of Paulo Freire’s foundational work and explores the reasons for its enduring global impact. Drawing on personal recollections from his time in 1970s Tanzania, Hall reflects on how Freire's philosophy shaped early radical adult literacy initiatives. The review emphasizes that the strength of Freire’s work emerged from its close connection to the experiences of marginalized communities and literacy movements in Brazil, where dialogue and collective reflection became tools for understanding and challenging oppression. This is further enriched by contributions from Donaldo Macedo and Ira Shor, whose writings in the anniversary edition highlight the continuing relevance of Freire’s ideas in a world marked by inequality and political polarization. Ultimately, the review concludes that Freire's work remains significant because it demonstrates how education can enable marginalized communities to understand, challenge, and transform oppressive social conditions.
A policy brief on knowledge mobilization: The power of creativity and action
(UNESCO Chair, 2022-05-11) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
This brief fits within the Data and Knowledge Production theme, but also relates to the Futures of Higher Education and the Higher Education and the SDGs themes. If we are to meet the challenges of our times, the research produced within higher education institutions and their partners needs a dramatic shift from the academic mode of knowledge production to a societal mode of knowledge production and sharing. it will require that attention be given to the creation of locally contextualised knowledge with priorities for action that affect the everyday lives of people where they live and work. The Active participation of local stake-holders---community, local governments, local business, women & youth-in co-producing and sharing the knowledge of such local solutions can be facilitated through their involvement in the research process. Knowledge mobilization (KmB) is therefore called for. Our brief provides a context for understanding the need for KmB as well as providing examples of how creative or arts-based approaches to KmB have been proven to be effective.
Against epistemicide: Decolonising higher education
(2020) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
How have knowledge systems been shaped by histories of enclosure and dispossession? In this reflective essay, Dr. Budd Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon examine how colonisation and the enclosing of knowledge are embedded within the same paradigm through which capital was accumulated by dispossession, as theorised by David Harvey. Drawing parallels with the enclosure movement in England, they argue that common lands were gradually privatised, displacing those who depended on them. In a similar way, wealth extracted through colonisation helped build universities that enclosed knowledge within their walls, regulating who could access it and who could legitimately produce it. These enclosures determined which knowledge systems were recognised and legitimised and which were dismissed as irrational, reinforcing distinctions between knowers and non-knowers. The essay traces how these processes continue to shape contemporary academic institutions and their authority over what counts as legitimate knowledge. In response, the authors describe the establishment of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education as a deliberate effort to reverse the colonisation of knowledge systems by creating structures and processes for the co-creation of knowledge with social movements and civil society partners, grounded in a commitment to epistemic justice.
An emerging global civil society? Implications for learning and work
(2000) Hall, Budd L
What role can adult education play in strengthening global civil society and democratic social change? In this paper, Dr. Budd Hall explores the meanings, uses, and utility of global civil society as both a concept and a lived political practice, tracing its emergence alongside the deepening contradictions of economic globalization. The author argues that global civil society is not an actor itself but a space where social movement organizations, international advocacy networks, non-governmental organizations, and citizen groups interact, resist, and reimagine world politics. Based on theorists including Lipschutz, Hyden, Boulding, and Gramsci, the paper examines why this concept has gained urgency now, pointing to the erosion of state sovereignty; the proliferation of NGOs across the majority world, the growing disillusionment with market-driven globalization, and the shipwreck, as Latouche puts it, of the grand society that has left hundreds of millions as castaways. Networking emerges as the defining practice of global civil society: informal, flexible, decentralized, and capable of rapid mobilization across borders. The paper then turns to adult education, arguing it has a distinctive and underutilized role in strengthening the learning dimensions of global civil society. Transformative adult education, the author contends, supports shifts away from consumerist growth models toward life-affirming, democratically produced visions of collective life, making it not peripheral to global civil society but central to its survival.
An introduction to the Ekoln letter on universities in the era of climate change
(2021) Masschelein, Jan; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Hall, Budd L; O’Brien, Karen; Dinerstein, Ana; Andreo, Vanessa; Thiel, Pella; Eiríksdó r, Lovísa; Chabay, Ilan; Hine, Dougald; Wright, Sue; Barrineau, Sanna; Barne, Ronald; Stein, Sharon; Stoddard, Isak; Webster, Noah Sobe; Facer, Keri; Kulundu-Bolus, Injairu
When we think about the climate crisis and the big changes happening to our planet, we must ask ourselves, What should universities do to help?" The authors of The Ekoln Letters: Universities in the Era of Climate Change, including Keri Facer and other contributors, try to answer this question. They wrote this paper as an introduction to a collection of letters that scholars, activists, artists, and educators exchanged with each other in 2020 after a big meeting they planned got cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper looks at how universities can do more than just address individual aspects of the climate crisis. It considers the broader social, cultural, and ecological changes that are needed in response to these challenges. The authors explore themes of sustainability, institutional transformation, and the role of universities in responding to ecological and social change. They critically examine how universities are currently structured and reimagine what they might become in the future. Through these reflections and exchanges, the paper highlights the need for universities to become spaces of dialogue, collective care, and shared responsibility, capable of engaging meaningfully with the uncertainty and complexity that define the era of climate change.
Beyond epistemicide: Knowledge democracy and higher education
(UNESCO Chair, 2015) Hall, Budd L
As universities grapple with their role in a world marked by inequality and ecological crisis, the question of whose knowledge counts has become impossible to ignore. This paper situates higher education within a longer history of epistemicide, the systematic erasure of indigenous and marginalized ways of knowing, and examines how knowledge democracy offers a path toward repair. By drawing on examples of community-based research and indigenous scholarship, it argues for reimagining universities as sites of dialogue rather than dominance, where multiple epistemologies can coexist. The study underscores both the transformative promise and the unresolved tensions of this shift, positioning knowledge democracy less as a finished framework than as an unfolding experiment in rebalancing power and voice.
Creating knowledge: Breaking the monopoly
(1982) Hall, Budd L
This article by Dr Budd Hall talks about the role of education and research in shaping the development sector from urban centered growth to improving the rural areas. It talks about how the forms of research in social sciences have developed with the need to be convenient to administrators and policy makers. It mentions survey approach being a common research method and explains its weaknesses. Participatory research is then presented as an alternative methodology that directly includes the beneficiaries of the research in collection and interpretation of the data. The article presents a case study from Tanzania where participatory method was used in response to the issue of food spoilage after a good harvest. It concludes by urging educators and researchers to constantly evaluate political implications of their work.
Decolonisation of higher education: Knowledge, democracy and values
(0000) Hall, Budd L
This paper, written by Dr Budd L. Hall examines how colonial ideas shaped whose knowledge counts in higher education. Hall links the enclosure of common land in Europe to the enclosure of knowledge in early universities. Drawing on the idea of epistemicide, the killing of knowledge systems, he explains how Western thought came to dominate the world. The paper then presents examples from PRIA, the Honey Bee Network, Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity, Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Lil’wat First Nation, which show that knowledge also grows outside the academy. It concludes with seven principles of knowledge democracy, including the recognition of multiple ways of knowing, the co-construction of knowledge, community rights over knowledge and open access to research. These principles call on universities to reconsider whose knowledge they recognise and to support more inclusive approaches to research and education.
Decolonization of knowledge, epistemicide, participatory research, and higher education
(UCL Press, 2017) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
This article raises questions about what the word ‘knowledge’ refers to. Drawn from some 40 years of collaborative work on knowledge democracy, the authors suggest that higher education institutions today are working with a very small part of the extensive and diverse knowledge systems in the world. Following from de Sousa Santos, they illustrate how Western knowledge has been engaged in epistemicide, or the killing of other knowledge systems. Community-based participatory research is about knowledge as an action strategy for change and about the rendering visible of the excluded knowledges of our remarkable planet. Knowledge stories, theoretical dimensions of knowledge democracy and the evolution of community-based participatory research partnerships are highlighted.
Education for all as determined by the few?
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia, 1989-12) Tandon, Rajesh
The text talks about the World Conference on ‘Education For All’ world charter, and the subsequent issues raised by educationalists while examining their documents. The text examines eleven such issues. First, the narrow economistic and utilitarian view of education focused on human capital formation rather than a humanistic vision. Second, education is portrayed as adaptative and socializing rather than transformative and liberating. Third, ignorance being equated with illiteracy, ignoring the knowledge and wisdom of non-literate people and the destruction caused by the literates. Fourth, the documents treat Education For All as a techno managerial problem rather than recognizing it as a fundamentally political decision requiring political will. Fifth, disparities in education are presented as the reason for underdevelopment, ignoring that educational disparities are rooted in socio-economic and political inequalities. Sixth, gender justice receives only superficial attention despite women constituting 70% of those denied education. Seventh, other marginalized groups like the tribals, scheduled castes, the poor, minorities are also largely ignored. Eighth, literacy is underplayed despite being central to Education For All. Ninth, the process is highly centralized, excluding the common people whose learning needs are to be met. Tenth, resource mobilization discussions fail to address debt burdens and defense expenditures that divert resources from education. Finally, the whole process and language of the documents risks new forms of colonization, with educational agendas determined mainly by donors and experts from the North. The paper concludes by calling for this initiative to be critiqued, discussed, and debated to ensure that Education For All becomes a genuine concern of all people.
Higher education, the politics of knowledge and the challenges of popular education and social movements
(1993) Hall, Budd L
Dr. Budd L. Hall reflects on the politics of knowledge in higher education, drawing on his own experiences across adult education, participatory research, and academic life. The paper departs from conventional academic arguments. It moves through personal narrative and engagement with other scholars to examine how universities continue to decide what counts as legitimate knowledge. Hall grounds these reflections in specific encounters from his career, particularly the 1991 Paulo Freire Birthday Conference in New York, where a question from a Latina community educator pushed him to rethink how universities relate to the communities they claim to serve. He traces participatory research back to challenges against positivist paradigms in adult education and international development research, noting that even as the field gains recognition inside universities, systems of tenure, promotion, and academic reward continue to favor individual scholarship over collaborative and community-rooted work. Eco-feminist, cultural-historical, and adult education voices, including Vandana Shiva, Mechtild Hart, and Edmund Sullivan, widen the critique further. Hall also points to community-based research centres, PRIA among them, and popular education networks across Latin America as spaces sustaining knowledge outside university walls, closing with a call to reinvent the academy in more democratic and non-extractive terms
Indigenous perspectives on open science and the decolonization of knowledge
(UNESCO Chair, 2022-05-11) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
This policy brief on Indigenous Perspectives on Open Science and the Decolonization of Knowledge is a contribution to WHEC 22 theme three on Inclusion on Higher Education. It is the product of The World Virtual Indigenous Circle on Open Science and the Decolonization of Knowledge which took place on November 12, 2020. It was organized by the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, co-hosted by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, and the format was designed by Lorna Wanósts'a7 Williams. The Circle featured nearly 20 Indigenous speakers and attracted some 300 registrants from around the world. Its purpose was to inform UNESCO's drafting of a recommendation on open science and, in turn, to ensure Indigenous knowledge is incorporated respectfully and with integrity to help reshape how higher education institutions recognize and use it. The aim of this brief is to share our recommendations on the next of many steps toward ensuring that Indigenous knowledge is better recognized worldwide, so it can guide individuals and institutions in higher education, in research, and in protecting the Earth.
Knowledge democracy and excellence in engagement
(IDS Bulletin, 2016-12) Tandon, Rajesh; Singh, Wafa; Clover, Darlene E; Hall, Budd L
We often come across theories and aspects related to ‘knowledge’, but seldom do we try to understand its hidden implications. Knowledge as understood generally is about the information of facts and understanding of a subject. This article essentially argues against this understanding. It explores the multiple dimensions of ‘knowledge’ through a literature review and illustrations of practical examples. It makes a case for how important the process of knowledge creation is, especially given current societal challenges. It also outlines the importance of co-creation of knowledge, through acknowledgement and valuation of alternate paradigms of knowledge. Further, it discusses the concept of ‘knowledge democracy’, and how institutions of higher education, by abiding by its principles, can help achieve ‘excellence in engagement’. The article concludes with the findings of two studies undertaken by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair, which were based on the principles of ‘knowledge democracy’ and ‘excellence in engagement’
Knowledge Democracy, Transformation and Higher Education
(2013-05-15) Hall, Budd L
In this paper, Budd Hall examines what the waning confidence in a one size fits all global economy and the Western canon means for higher education and its social responsibility. Drawing on examples from Durban’s shack dwellers’ university, South Africa’s traditional healers, and PRIA in India, he introduces knowledge democracy as an alternative to the “knowledge economy” and “knowledge society”. The concept rests on three ideas: plural ways of knowing, plural forms of expression, and the use of knowledge to deepen democracy. He then turns to the community-university engagement movement as a promising site for institutional change. The paper closes with the 2013 Barcelona meeting of global engagement networks, convened by Guni to advance a shared agenda for action.
Non-formal adult education as an entry point for community organisation
(0000) Ginny; Shrivastava, Om
How can adult education be leveraged to organise communities? Non formal adult education, by virtue of its flexibility and close alignment with local needs, offers a strong entry point for community organisation. In this article, Ginny and Om Srivastava outline how adult education can be operationalised not merely as a literacy intervention but as a participatory process rooted in people’s lived realities aimed towards individual and social development. They emphasise that the core aim is not limited to reading and writing, but to enable individuals to understand their social conditions, develop critical awareness, and begin to act collectively. Literacy, functional knowledge, and consciousness raising are seen as interconnected pathways through which people can recognise their own potential and organise for change. The article further details how such programmes must be grounded in the community through immersion, participatory methods, and locally relevant materials. Adult education centres, when designed as shared spaces of dialogue and reflection, can evolve into forums for collective decision making and action. In this sense, adult education becomes not an end in itself, but a starting point for building confidence, leadership, and sustained community organisation.
Participatory research-Popular knowledge and power
(1984-09) Hall, Budd L
This article includes two chapters about the concepts of knowledge and creation of a monopoly over social science research along with offering an alternative in the form of participatory research. The first chapter discusses knowledge within the context of economic failure and the role of universities in the new international order. It talks about the commodification of knowledge which has facilitated capitalist dependency and an uneven development in third world countries. It further discusses the monopoly created over knowledge by a small group of elites to serve their own interests. Indigenous education around the world appears to be absent from the universal body of knowledge. The paper then discusses in detail about how research and social scientists are being used by institutions to impose bureaucratic and ideological control. It criticises the traditional research methods and opens discussion on an alternative methodology, in the form of participatory research. The next chapter further explores the concept of participatory research, its origin, and its characteristics. It talks about the importance of popular forms of knowledge and how it is linked with social transformation. It emphasizes the need for participatory research processes to be working within the frameworks of social movements. The chapter concludes with presenting some points to shape the future of participatory research.
Participatory research: An approach for change
(International Council for Adult Education, 1975) Hall, Budd L
How can research be imagined as an educational and transformative process rather than an extractive one? In this reflective essay, Dr. Budd Hall examines the shortcomings embedded within dominant principles of social science research. Drawing from his experiences as a researcher and his interactions with local education officers in the 1970s, he reflects on how research practices often alienate communities from the very processes meant to understand them. The essay explores key concerns around the ideological foundations of research, the ways in which social problems are oversimplified, and the distance from adult education principles. In doing so, it invites researchers to reimagine research as a dialectic, dialogic and ongoing educational experience which is oriented towards the liberation of human creative potential rather than the production of “neutral” knowledge.
Partnering with higher education institutions for SDG 17: The role of higher education institutions in multi-stakeholder partnerships
(2018-04) Tandon, Rajesh; Chakrabarti, Kaustuv
Dr Rajesh Tandon and Dr Kaustuv Chakrabarti focus this paper on exploring the role of HEIs in achieving the SDGs and their roles in multi stakeholder partnerships. Given the emphasis of intergovernmental agencies on partnerships including various stakeholders and its growing relevance in solving local development challenges, the second section of the paper provides a historical account of partnerships. The third section concentrates on the lessons of partnerships in the past two decades. Following which the paper presents the findings of a survey conducted by PRIA to understand the nuances of partnerships in present times. The final section analyses the implications for Higher Education Institutions in achieving the SDGs, pointing to the need for HEIs to rebalance power differentials and move beyond a teaching-only mode of engagement with other stakeholders.
Seeing like a citizen’ re-claiming citizenship in a neoliberal world. November 28-29,2005
(Institute of Development Studies, 2005-11-29) Gaventa, John
What does it mean to be a citizen, and how is that meaning shifting under neoliberalism? In this paper, Prof. John Gaventa discusses how citizenship has increasingly moved away from a rights centered approach towards a more consumption-based approach. Depoliticised notions of citizenship have taken precedence under neoliberalism, where individuals are framed as consumers, users, voters, or beneficiaries rather than as rights bearing actors in their own right. He situates this shift within broader transformations of the state as well, which is not simply withdrawing but is being reconfigured to actively advance market logics, often weakening its role as a guarantor of rights. Through this paper, Gaventa proposes “reversing the telescope” by centering the perspectives of citizens as actors in development processes. This approach foregrounds what he terms thick forms of citizenship, where participation, contestation, and collective action are central. Moving beyond market, state and democracy first forms of citizenship, he argues that placing citizens first enables a re-politicisation of citizenship, strengthening claims to rights, accountability, and more meaningful democratic engagement.
The democratization of research in adult and non-formal education
(John Wiley & Sons, 1981) Hall, Budd L