Seeking utopia: Psychologies' waves toward decoloniality

• Published in: American journal of community psychology 2023-09, Vol.72 (1-2), p.230-246
• Main Authors: Rodriguez Ramirez, Daniel, Langhout, Regina D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Colonization; community psychology; Community research; decoloniality; Decolonization; empirical research; Grass roots movement; Intersectionality; relationality; Social psychology; Utopias
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12695

This paper provides a review of empirical studies published with a decolonial epistemic approach in psychology. Our goal was to better understand how decolonial approaches are being practiced empirically in psychology, with an emphasis on community‐social psychology. We first discuss the context of colonization and coloniality in the research process as orienting information. We identified 17 peer‐reviewed empirical articles with a decolonial approach to psychology scholarship and discerned four waves that characterize the articles: relationally‐based research to transgress fixed hierarchies and unsettle power, research from the heart, sociohistorical intersectional consciousness, and desire‐based future‐oriented research to rehumanize and seek utopia. Community‐social psychology research with a decolonial approach has the potential to remember grassroots efforts, decolonizing our world. Highlights This paper reviews 17 empirical studies published with a decolonial epistemology in psychology. Authors discuss colonization and coloniality in the research process as orienting information. We discerned four waves within the empirical work with the potential to uplift decolonial efforts.