Epistemic Justice as a “New Normal?” Interrogating the Contributions of Communities of Practice to Decolonization of Knowledge

Abstract

Recently, scholarly communities of practice have emerged with the objective of decolonizing knowledge practices within sustainable development. Their contributions to sustainability and systems change remain underexplored, possibly due to the absence of appropriate conceptual tools to analyze them. This study applies a new conceptual framework of epistemic justice, derived from the philosophical notion of epistemic injustice, to examine how these communities foster more equitable knowledge systems with regards to the social dimensions of sustainable development. Using critical discourse analysis, data from the websites of two scholarly communities of practice were analyzed, revealing their innovative approaches to advancing epistemic justice through knowledge practices. The findings emphasize the utility of the epistemic justice framework in understanding the role of these scholarly communities of practice in fostering social sustainability, specifically by contributing to more equitable knowledge practices and a “new normal.”