Decolonizing Knowledge: Faculty Experiences of Power Dynamics in UK-India Social Science Research Partnerships

Abstract

There is an upward trend of international research collaborations in the field of social sciences; however, the processes and nuances of such collaborations remain under-researched. The complexities of research collaborations are exacerbated within asymmetrical patterns of power in Global North-South partnerships, elevating the importance of this study. Furthermore, reinvigorated calls to decolonize knowledge and higher education systems make it important to understand how Global North-South research partnerships might respond to such calls. This study explores how faculty experience and understand their research partnerships in the field of social sciences, using India and the United Kingdom as examples of Global South and Global North counterparts respectively. This research explores how faculty experience and discuss points of im/balance in power to not only reveal the extent of equity versus exploitation, but to also reveal the entrenchment of colonial logics versus the dismantlement of coloniality. This phenomenological study brings together de/post-colonial theories with a focus on Quijano's coloniality of power, Wallerstein’s world systems theory, and Critical Global Southern Studies that position Global North-South as a flexible metaphor. The analysis of data from a total of 23 interviews with British and Indian faculty is guided by the aforementioned theories that reveal the complex nature of how faculty navigate Indian-British partnerships and the hierarchies of power that are embedded in institutional structures, colonial histories and modern-day logics of coloniality, and in their interpersonal relationships. Indian faculty continue to be marginalized by these hierarchies in different ways during the various stages of a research partnership; however, there are points when both Indian and British faculty demonstrate how hierarchies can be challenged to varying degrees. This study also reveals the specific mechanisms of ongoing British domination of knowledge generation from research inception to publication. In contrast, the discussion also reveals hopes and possibilities for how diverse Indian knowledges can be used to counteract knowledge domination. The findings have implications for both faculty, research institutions, and funding bodies involved in global research partnerships in that they offer all parties involved potent points of reflection and ways of redirecting the course of partnerships for more socially just outcomes.