- ISBN13: 9781856496247
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
From the vantage point of the colonized, the term ‘research’ is inextricably linked with European colonialism; the ways in which scientific research has been implicated in the worst excesses of imperialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world’s colonized peoples. Here, an indigenous researcher issues a clarion call for the decolonization of research methods.
The book is divided into two parts. In the first, the author critically examine… More >>
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
This book outlines important and useful methodologies for decolonization, and should be required reading for anyone who makes public policy.
Rating: 5 / 5
I first read this book for a course in Sociocultural Theory in Anthropology. It has stayed on my shelf ever since. Linda Tuhiwai Smith provides insight and deeply meaningful commentary on the field of social research and its place in the indigenous community. This work should be required reading of all students in the social sciences.
Rating: 5 / 5
Smith provides a coherent and detailed alternative perspective for those researching in fields related to indigenous populations. She presents both a theoretical framework and offers very practical suggestions. I have found great value not only in what Smith presents but also in following up readings through those she references. I believe this is a necessary book on any shelf of those involved in such study.
Rating: 4 / 5
Linda Tuhiwai Smith is absolutely right in describing the fact that as many indigenous persons have themselves become the “researcher”, or become “educated” “scholar”, they seem to be even farther from their cultures and their peoples. They learned to be “qulified” scholars in their disciplines, for example. being neutral and objective in doing research, without realizing these kinds of methodologies are themselves value-added.
This book offers an insight that indigenous researches should be done (either by indigenous or non-indigenous people) with a poltical project, aiming at the decolonization and self-determination of indigenous peoples.And to do so, we need to deliberately review and examine the essence and the politics of the so claimed “scientific” methodologies.
This work is inspiring for both researchers and activists.
Rating: 5 / 5
Tuhiwai Smith’s masterpiece is a must-read for any discipline. Her work questions the most basic assumptions upon which academic research lies; her influence is widely felt in fields as diverse as anthropology, social work, women studies, film studies, indigenous studies, psychology, history, sociology, and ethnic studies. Smith is the Fanon of the indigenous world, and the contemporary academic cannot afford to miss her work.
The chapters are absorbing and surprisingly straight-forward for theory, and can be read separately or in sequence. The work is accessible enough for undergraduate students, but rich enough to serve as a valuable addition to the graduate student’s bookshelf.
She reaches both Native and non-Native audiences, and concludes her work with indiginizing projects that detail real alternatives to current practices. An investment you will not regret!
Rating: 5 / 5