Learning and Unlearning: Sowing the Seeds of a Decolonising Mindset

By Peter Taylor / part of our “Share your Decolonising Story” project

Beginnings

I grew up in an industrial town in the North of the United Kingdom, and as a child my experience of agriculture was visiting the countryside, rather than working on farms. Along the way, I became very interested in farming and food production, and my first job was working on a dairy farm. I went on to study agricultural science at University. After that, I continued working for several years in different areas of agriculture and horticulture, enjoying the practical side of things, even when spending much of my time in wet, windy and cold conditions.

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What Challenges for Global Development Research are Posed by a More Decolonial Approach?

By Laura Camfield

The appetite for decolonial approaches within development research is growing, prompting a critical examination of the colonial origins of conventional methodologies such as surveys and ethnography. These methods, historically employed as tools of colonial governance, continue to shape development research and limit space for decolonial alternatives. In this blog post I explore colonial continuities in research methods and examine the potential of decolonial alternatives, acknowledging the challenges posed by existing power dynamics within the field).

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