The Knowledge Management for Development Journal (KM4D Journal) is a peer-reviewed community-based journal on knowledge management for development – for and by development practitioners, researchers and policymakers. The journal is closely related to the KM4Dev community of practice (www.km4dev.org). This Call for Papers concerns the issue to be published in December 2022. 

Rationale
Building on the intellectual legacy of critics of colonialism (see, for example, Busia, 1960; Freire, 1996; Mafeje, 1978; Nkrumah, 1961; Okot p’Bitek, 1997; Said, 1979) and on a growing call from within the development sector for a shift in power toward local communities (see, for example, Hodgson, 2019), decolonization of knowledge focuses on dismantling the fundamental inequities of the knowledge system in which coloniality and actual colonization interact with neo-liberal economics to exclude knowledge and knowledge holders from the multiple peripheries of the Global South, First Nations and indigenous communities, Eastern Europe, women and youth. In this discussion, coloniality refers to ‘long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labour, intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrations’ (Torres 2007: 243). Indeed, there is evidence these exclusionary patterns are becoming further entrenched.

The term ‘decolonization of knowledge’ refers to a group of processes and actions that intentionally dismantle these entrenched, unequal patterns of knowledge creation and use (Cummings, et al., 2021) and is full of ‘complexities, tensions, and paradoxes’ (Oliveira Andreotti et al. 2015: 22). Many academics are engaging with the emerging decolonial agenda (see, for example, Bumpus, 2020; Demeter, 2020; Doharty et al., 2020; Dussell, 2020; Hermida and Meschini, 2017, Istratii and Lewis, 2019; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2019; Pailey, 2020; Patel, 2020; Rodriguez 2018; Torcigliani et al., 2022, Vince, 2019), and there is a growing number of initiatives which are aiming to match actions to words, including Convivial Thinking, EU COST Action Decolonising Development: Research, Teaching and Practice, Decolonising Research Development in Higher Education, Decolonial Subversions, RealKM Magazine on decolonising knowledge and KM, Working Group Epistemologías del Sur of the Social Sciences Latin American Council (CLACSO), The Decolonial Critique, Decolonising Library and Information Services (LIS), an initiative of one of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the UK-based CILIP, as well as the KM4Dev community.

In this Special Issue, we are aiming to consider both the theory and the praxis of decolonizing knowledge. We will build on the activities already undertaken by KM4Dev, such as the ‘Uncomfortable truths in development’ knowledge café and blogs (Young 2021; Pradhan, 2021; Hendrix-Jenkins, 2021; Cummings, 2021) as well as on the work carried out by other individuals, organizations and networks. We are particularly interested in analyses of how power is shifting or how it should shift, equitable knowledge, and how the unequal patterns of knowledge creation and use can be dismantled. With the aim of mapping a holistic view, potential themes include:

● Theory and praxis related to epistemic injustice.
● Changing power dynamics related to knowledge and knowledge management in international development, for example the status of different types of knowledge and the status of evidence.
● Organizational change discussions related to whose evidence is heard and whose knowledge is prioritized, and decolonization processes, such as ‘internationalization’ processes.
● Perspectives on local knowledge and engaging with knowledge holders, such as women, youth, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups, inclusively.
● Systems approaches to decolonization of knowledge (see, for example, Cummings et al, 2021).
● New methods of group facilitation and identification of approaches from the Global South for knowledge transfer and retention.
● Technology and decolonization
● Language diversity and decolonization (see, for example, Ramírez-Castañeda, 2020; Amano et al, 2021).
● Coloniality and decolonization of political and social narratives.

If you would like to submit a paper or another type of contribution, please send a short proposal, including the title of your proposed contribution, the type of contribution (paper, case study etc.) and an abstract (minimum one paragraph – maximum one page) by email to: km4djournal@gmail.com

Submission deadline for title and abstract:1 May 2022
Acceptance/rejection of abstract: 15 May 2022
Submission of full paper: 15 September 2022
Completion of peer-review: 15 October 2022
Submission of final version of paper: 15 November 2022
Publication date: 15 December 2022

For further information about the journal, kindly consult the journal website at:
km4djournal.org.

We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts.

Bruce Boyes, Jorge Chavez-Tafur, Sarah Cummings, Peterson Dewah, Charles Dhewa, Srividya Harish, Ann Henrix-Jenkins, Gladys Kemboi, David Ludwig,
Rocio Sanz, Thomas Senaji, Denise Senmartin and Stacey Young
(Guest Editors)