What is next for de-westernizing communication studies?

Abstract

De-westernization of communication studies is a diffused, multi-pronged intellectual movement, that has produced vibrant literature in recent years from around the world. De-westernization is both a layered argument as well as a political indictment of western-centric academic knowledge. It calls western scholarship to be aware of its blindspots and to open to non-western studies. It denounces inequalities in globalized communication studies, the persistent hegemony and universalist aspirations of western perspectives, the one-way global flow of academic ideas, and the limited inroads of non-western scholarship in the global North (Demeter 2020). De-westernization interrogates the provenance and the positionality of academic knowledge. Addressing these issues should be second nature for any scholar. Where do ideas come from? From what position do we produce knowledge? What are the biases of my work? What are the strengths and limitations of research and intellectual traditions? These questions, however, are rarely discussed in public, as if it were bad etiquette, akin to talking about religion or politics at the dinner table during the holidays. This is a major omission for a simple reason: Academic knowledge is produced in specific settings, shaped by multiple factors – from resources to political environments. Therefore, revealing biases is necessary to assess what’s missed and misinterpreted – what gets lost when communication studies are anchored in a particular set of intellectual traditions and experiences. In this regard, de-westernization overlaps with a related movement that also foregrounds issues of positionality: the critique of racialized and gendered structures of academic scholarship. Both movements tear off the pretense of abstract, aseptic, neutral science. They scrutinize how specific hierarchies and histories of power are woven into the production of academic knowledge, which in turn, reinforce inequalities and suppress or make alternative perspectives invisible. They reflect a move from the margins that questions dominant structures and demands a leveled field. De-westernization is also a political movement. It urges an intellectual shift – moving the gravitational center of scholarship. It is not simply a geographical turn; it is a call to curiosity about and engagement with ideas produced in various corners of the world. This demands the recognition of neglected intellectual traditions underpinning communication theories outside the west. De-westernization is another name for cosmopolitan scholarship (Waisbord 2016; Badr and Ganter 2020) in our globalized times – a necessary corrective and alternative to arguments with universalities aspirations generally