Decolonizing journals in management and organizations? Epistemological colonial encounters and the double translation

Abstract

Increasingly, academics worldwide need publishing in international journals. Various events and articles aim at teaching others how to write, and they spread ideas and skills to help newcomers. However, we tend to neglect the specificities of periphery-based academics, engaging with “international” journals. Drawing from our experience as academics from Brazil, we argue that publishing in top-academic journals in management and organization studies demands more than knowing a language and goes beyond style. Periphery-based academics willing to publish in “international” journals engage in a colonial encounter. They need to develop their ability to perform a double-translation, writing ideas in another language and for another audience. Besides, they need to deal with financial costs that are often invisible to others. We claim that decolonizing international journals is challenging and must be an ongoing process, of which some steps we highlight here.

Decolonizing inclusion in performing academia: Trans‐inclusion as phronetic border thinking/doing praxis

“…Through writing this paper as an embodied betweener ethnography, we contribute our praxis to the contemporary struggle in management scholarship to write differently and decolonize management knowledge in conditions of (im)possibility (Barros & Alcadipani, 2022; Jammulamadaka et al., 2021). We show a way of allowing the voice of the colonized/inbetweener subject to come through in discourse.…”

Em Defesa da Teoria e da Contribuição Teórica Original em Administração

“…O meu objetivo neste texto é oferecer uma proposta de como construir contribuições teóricas originais frente a um contexto de desvalorização da teoria frente à prática (McGahan, 2007;Nobel, 2016), da miopia do que é teoria (Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021) e do predomínio teórico anglo-saxão no campo científico da administração (Barros & Alcadipani, 2022;Muzio, 2022). Considerando que a Revista de Administração Contemporânea (RAC) tem como exigência a contribuição teórica nos artigos das modalidades teórico-empíricos e ensaios teóricos, o que guarda semelhança com os periódicos considerados de maior relevância no campo da administração, avançar no debate sobre contribuição teórica e desenvolvimento de teorias continua sendo algo prioritário no fazer científico (Cornelissen & Durand, 2014;Faria, 2022;Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021;Suddaby, 2014).…”

“…A minha defesa é que a produção de conhecimento (especialmente teórico) deve ser um processo democrático em que não apenas o consumo, mas a produção deva ser estimulada em contexto global e diverso. Tal posição é baseada na ideia de que a internacionalização da ciência deva ser um processo de troca e não de subordinação ou mesmo de colonização (Banerjee, 2022;Barros & Alcadipani, 2022;Muzio, 2022;Williams & Chrisman, 2015). Se é a teoria que nos move adiante na pesquisa e melhora a prática ou o entendimento dela (Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021;Shepherd & Suddaby, 2017;Swedberg, 2014), logo se trata de um recurso valioso que deve receber atenção dos pesquisadores do Sul Global no sentido de produzi-las também.…”

In Defense of Theory and Original Theoretical Contributions in Administration

“…I am offering here a proposal on how to build original theoretical contributions in a context that privileges practice over theory (McGahan, 2007;Nobel, 2016), where it is not clear what 'theory' means (Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021) and where Anglo-Saxon theories dominate the scientific field of administration (Barros & Alcadipani, 2022;Muzio, 2022). Similarly to other relevant journals in the field of administration, the Journal of Contemporary Administration (RAC) requires the theoretical contribution in theoretical-empirical articles and theoretical essays to advance the debate on theory development, which remains a priority in science (Cornelissen & Durand, 2014;Faria, 2022;Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021;Suddaby, 2014).…”

“…My defense is that knowledge production (especially theoretical) must be a democratic process in which consumption and production must be stimulated in a global and diverse context. This position is based on the idea that the internationalization of science should be a process of exchange and not of subordination or colonization (Banerjee, 2022;Barros & Alcadipani, 2022;Muzio, 2022;Williams & Chrisman, 2015). If theory moves us forward in research and improves practice (or our understanding of a practice) (Sandberg & Alvesson, 2021;Shepherd & Suddaby, 2017;Swedberg, 2014), then it is a valuable resource that should receive attention and be produced by researchers in the Global South too.…”