Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts

Working in a ‘third space’: a closer look at the hybridity, identity and agency of nurse practitioners

“…These 'in-between' spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood-singular or communal-that initiate new sights of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of defining the idea of society itself (2) According to Bhabha (1994), these spaces provide the terrain for 'cultural hybridity'-a term he coined to describe situations where elements of different cultural systems come together to form something 'new'. Hybridity, a key concept in postcolonial theory, recognizes a cross-cultural exchange that makes any form of cultural purity untenable Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 2007). Furthermore, it recognizes the potential for hybrid formulations to emerge when two cultural systems (such as medicine and nursing) intersect.…”

“…Another example of this assignment of identity was when family practitioners' self-defined what they thought was an appropriate NP scope of practice and attempted to determine what the NP 'knew' and whether they functioned appropriately (Bailey et al 2006). Such examples illustrate how colonial discourses, such as biomedicine, attempt to generate acquiescent subjects who reproduce their own assumptions, habits and value (Ashcroft et al 2007). Faced with such inscriptions to their identity, the challenge for nurse practitioner is then to interrupt this process, but as previously illustrated, this process always occurs within a network of power relations.…”

“…Agency represents the ability to act or perform an action; individuals who have agency autonomously initiate action (Ashcroft et al 2007). Within postcolonial theory, individual agency is interpreted within the working of power relations and the strategies postcolonial subjects use to engage or resist colonial power (Ashcroft et al 2007).…”

The Iron Cage Re‐revisited: Institutional Isomorphism in Non‐profit Organisations in South Africa

“…For Bhabha, mimicry is 'a complex strategy of reform, regulation, and discipline, which 'appropriates' the other as it visualises power ' (1984, p. 126). The colonial subject is encouraged to 'mimic' the coloniser by adopting the coloniser's cultural habits, assumptions, institutions and values (Ashcroft et al, 2007), paralleling institutional isomorphism as a process of homogenisation. As such, it constructs an organisational field in which development NPOs become more and more homogenised through the dominance of managerialist modes of thinking (Lewis, 2007;Roberts et al, 2005;Srinivas, 2009).…”

Sink or Swim: Social Enterprise as a Panacea for Non‐profit Organisations?

“…As Bhabha suggested, 'mimicry emerges as one of the most elusive and effective strategies of colonial power and knowledge' (Bhabha, 1984, p. 126). The colonial subject is encouraged to mimic the coloniser by adopting the coloniser's cultural habits, assumptions, institutions and values (Ashcroft et al, 2007;Huddart, 2006). Taking the cue from the organisational field of NPOs, mimicry can be seen to be reflective in the spread of managerialist ideas and practices to many NPOs in recent years (Claeyé & Jackson, 2012;Dey & Teasdale, 2015).…”