Theory Will Not Decolonize: Material Decolonization in IR Knowledge Production
e-ir.info
This provocative piece argues that piling on more decolonial theory actually delays real structural change in global knowledge production — a paradox at the heart of academia itself.
Decolonial TheoryPostcolonialismEpistemic InjusticeCritical Theory
Theory Briefing
- The article argues IR scholarship keeps producing decolonial theories while material power structures in the discipline remain untouched.
- It challenges the assumption that theorizing oppression is equivalent to dismantling it, exposing a performative gap in academic activism.
- The piece calls for concrete institutional reform in knowledge production rather than another layer of postcolonial intellectual frameworks.