Methodology and academic extractivism: the neo-colonialism of the British university

Abstract

ABSTRACT Methodological pedagogy within contemporary British social science higher education (through methods courses, textbooks, etc.) constitutes the process through which the researcher is formed, and research designed. It is our contention that methodology – whether positivist or post-positivist – is a form of knowing predicated upon the severance of theory from practice. Methodology presents these as distinct areas, which can only be unified through the synthetic operations of methodological approaches. We argue that the consequence of the separation of theory and practice is that the realm of practice is construed as raw material – as data – to be harvested in the research process, whilst theory is seen as detached from geohistorical–political relations. This serves a neo-colonial process of academic extractivism. We will demonstrate how this is so through an examination of popular methodological textbooks and approaches, highlighting the absence of considerations of contemporary coloniality. We then set out a tentative pedagogical alternative in the form of practical reflexivity and dialogical research. We will show how such approaches are emergent within the social sciences and how they offer a decolonial alternative to contemporary methodological approaches.