Giving up the ghost, disrupting the (re)production of white privilege in anti-racist pedagogy and organizational change

Abstract

This thesis explores the operations of white privilege within progressive white culture service organizations engaged in anti-racist change efforts. My analysis flows from a critique of two practices pervasive in, but by no means exclusive to, pedagogy: the use of storytelling, and 'moves to innocence'. Among anti-racist, feminist and critical pedagogy theorists there is a significant gap between the level of interest in poststructural ideas and efforts to apply them at an operational level. The particular relevance of this thesis lies in its intended contribution to the bridging of that gap. At the heart of this thesis lies the theoretical tension between the anti-foundational and deconstructive impulses of poststructuralism and the liberationist desire to honour the historical material realities of the oppressed. By reading the concept of 'epistemic privilege' through 'strategic essentialism' I argue the feasibility of a carefully constructed and politically engaged poststructuralism in order to negotiate the material basis for valuing truths from the margins, while recognizing the partiality and power implicatedness of knowledge.